Geraldo “Blame The Hoodie” Rivera reviewed a newly-released police video of George Zimmerman re-enacting his deadly confrontation with unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin – and declared that “race played no part” in the shooting. Rivera's sole criteria for his judgment was that Zimmerman had not mentioned that Martin was black during the re-enactment. Yet moments earlier, Rivera had acknowledged that Zimmerman was shrewdly putting his best legal foot forward in the video.

During last night’s At Large, Rivera played the video with added commentary by Martin-family lawyer Benjamin Crump. Afterward, Rivera gushed over Zimmerman’s acumen: “You know, Craig, it strikes me watching the tape and I think Ben Crump does a great job but so does George Zimmerman, you have to say that. It’s almost as if he had just enough knowledge of the law of self-defense and “stand your ground” that when he talked to those cops, the initial interviews, he knew exactly that he was setting up his own defense.”

Rivera’s brother, Craig Rivera, agreed. “Exactly right.”

Geraldo continued, “And yet, Craig, what you don’t see in any of that tape, you don’t hear in anything, is George Zimmerman ever saying, this was a black guy. Race played no part. He says ‘suspicious,’ he didn’t use black, he didn’t use a perjorative, he didn’t say African American. Nothing. There was no reference to the race of the victim.”

Well, not quite. Brother Craig said Zimmerman had been asked by the cops if Trayvon was black. So it had already been established.

But, Geraldo quickly noted, Zimmerman had been asked if Martin was black, white or Hispanic. “He has to pick one or the other.”

But even if Zimmerman hadn’t already told the police Trayvon Martin’s race, what kind of halfway-savvy shooter would have let on if race had played any part in a decision to shoot? Apparently, Rivera thinks a big “strapping” black kid in a hoodie is reason enough to feel threatened. But Zimmerman probably knew that wouldn’t fly for the police.