Former Zimmerman attorney: Walter Scott shooting has racism tone
O'Mara is now a legal analyst for CNN.
(MediaIte) NEW YORK – Former George Zimmerman attorney and now-CNN legal analyst Mark O’Mara told CNN Wednesday morning that Officer Michael Slager shot Walter Scott at least in part out of an implicit racism.
“We don’t have the racist statutes we had 50 years ago,” O’Mara said. “Now the racism that exists, the biases that exist are more subtle and are happening in that limited part of the brain,” O’Mara said. “For some reason, at least in part because of the color of this man’s skin, that officer felt it was okay [to shoot], it was more threatening, it was more aggressive, even though he was running away.”
That’s a succinct description the brand of unconscious racism many argued led to Zimmerman seeing Trayvon Martin as a threat, resulting in the fatal shooting of the teenager. Zimmerman was acquitted of the crime in 2013.
“Those are the type of systemic problems we have to address,” O’Mara said. “It’s going to take generations.”
Watch the clip below, via CNN:
