The city of North Charleston, S.C., on Thursday night reached a $6.5 million settlement with the family of Walter Scott, the unarmed Black man shot in the back by a police officer in April.
The City Council voted 100 to approve the settlement, which City Attorney Brady Hair said was “the largest settlement of this type in the history of South Carolina.”
The financial impact that communities face as a result of racism is not insignificant and goes beyond simply the dollar amount of these settlements. For example, the enormous civic costs of rebuilding communities such as Ferguson or Baltimore in the wake of racially motivated police actions result in long-term effects that hinder communities’ economic development.
