George Zimmerman's controversial not-guilty verdict in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin has sparked a lot of questions about the role race played throughout the investigation and trial. Would there have been a shooting if Martin was white? What would the outcome have been if Zimmerman was an African-American?

Defense attorney Mark O'Mara has argued that if Zimmerman were African-American, he never would have been charged with a crime. It's an assertion that New York Congressman Charles Rangel finds laughable.

"I think it's possible if the police had got a Black Zimmerman, the question would be whether they would have beat him to death and then threw handcuffs on him and dragged him into the precinct," the veteran lawmaker said Monday in an interview with MSNBC host Martin Bashir.

Instead, Rangel added, the teenager was treated like the perpetrator and Zimmerman a victim. He also expressed surprise that the defense team seemingly did not care that a young life had been lost.

"I am really amazed, one, that defense counsel didn't say how sad he was that his client had taken away a young man's life, and two, in not understanding that the difference between a Black being charged with murder and a Zimmerman almost getting accolades for his suspicions," Rangel said.

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(Photo: Courtesy MSNBC)