Editorial: Racism and handguns lethal mix

Walter Scott was shot and killed by South Carolina police officer Michael Thomas Slager. Photo / NBC

The sight of a white policeman in South Carolina shooting and killing an unarmed black man running away from him leads one to believe that not much has changed in the United States in the past 50 years.

The police officer, patrolman Michael Thomas Slager, has been fired and charged with killing 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott after a routine traffic stop.

This is just another incident involving white United States cops being responsible for the death of black "suspects", but what is different here is that there is video proof of wrong doing.

The video is shocking because it shows Slager, a sworn officer there to protect and serve, demonstrating a callous disregard for the life of another human being. Not only does he shoot an unarmed man in the back, but he also tries to create the impression that Scott was attempting to resist arrest.

This video puts the focus firmly on the two issues that the United States has not dealt with after all these years - racism and an obsession with guns.

It is astounding that this is still happening 50-odd years after activists like Martin Luther King jnr and Medgar Evers were assassinated for fighting for equality. Injustice like this makes a mockery of what they died for.

Dress the shooting up any way you like, but naked racism and prejudice were behind it. In a trigger-happy culture where guns are often the first resort, you simply end up with a rerun of the same scene - an unarmed black man shot dead.

Most people thought that America made great strides when it elected Barack Obama as the first African-American president and then again for a second term. Clearly not.

Nothing will change unless the core issues are dealt with once and for all.