Police officer charged with murder in South Carolina after shooting unarmed man in the back. What do you think of cases like this?

But if we're going to extend a critical eye, lets extend it to all people hiding behind their professions and creeds.

1. Policing murdering people and hiding behind their badge
2. Race rioters that murder innocent shopkeepers and bystanders
3. Clergy that steal church funds for gambling
4. Politicians that lie.
5. Lawyers that throw innocent men behind bars and guilty men free.
...

And name other tricksters I haven't thought of. Blame the police, but blame other people just as vitriolically.

Looks like the officer took a bad shot. I will never let a few stories blown up by the media decide my opinion. I have nothing but respect for Officers of the law. They have a hard job that has recently been made a lot harder because of these incidents.

I think the whole situation is a basket of shit.

What upsets me, are your own personal words. "the end of the video shows him handcuffing the victim… who may have still been alive, and walking away."

1) That's how I was trained in the Police Academy. You handcuff the person you shot. The theory is all about securing the scene. Making it safe for EMT's to get in and get them out. If they can move freely and grab for potential weapons, the scene is not safe for EMT's or Fire.

2a) Walking away. Another thing trained. You walk away from the incident, even if it's a few feet, to decompress. To calm down. If available, to call your FOP/Union and get Legal Representation.

2b) Walking away. Until just this week, I've had to pay out of pocket and on my own time, for any sort of Medical Training, since my ETS. Depending on Agency Size and the response time of Fire or EMS, Agencies may actually discourage Officers from getting any medical training. It's really not that uncommon for a Law Enforcement Officer to not be medically trained.

I am glad that the officer is under investigation and has been fired. The video evidence is brief (more has been released since), but it is certainly damning. I am very sorry for the victim and his family and quite frankly, I feel for the family of the officer as well. From what I can see, the police department is handling this properly, has refused to allow this to be politicized and this guy will receive justice (Lord willing). I suppose some more evidence could come to light which might change my perspective on this incident, but I have a hard time conceiving of what that could be.

I'm not willing to make broad generalizations about LEOs in general based on one man's incredibly stupid decision. Police officers are human beings with a very tough job and sometimes they make mistakes. And yes, there are bad LEOs who abuse their position, but I don't think that characterizes all or even most of them. Nor do I think this is a training issue. I'm not in law enforcement, but I'm pretty sure most police officers are trained not to shoot an unarmed 50 year old who is running away from you.

There is some ambiguity in the poll options so I will add my own thoughts here.

This is straight up murder. Unlike previous "celebrity" police interactions like the Wilson shoot in Ferguson, there is no visible threat to the officer or community in this case.

I would like to believe "bad guy with a badge" incidents like this are relatively rare. And for the moment I still do believe that. The typical outlook lately is that every police officer is a bad guy with a badge/gun and there is no such thing as a good police officer. In my experience I have many friends who are police officers or other members of the law enforcement community. And I hope to be one as well after my military service.

I went to 2 police academies, worked as a cop for 7 years, worked as a prosecutor and defense counsel. I've developed and taught "use of force" for decades, been a firearms instructor and generalist investigator. This is a straight up murder which might be compounded by him flaking the deceased. I do not know of any person I ever worked with who would watch this tape and see it as a "good shoot." I also knew people who became cops because they were bullied in school and went on to become a bully. I knew cops who were too stupid to understand what the elements of a crime were (and their importance in making an arrest). I knew cops who were afraid of black people just because they were black some cops hate them for that reason as well. I knew cops who dreamed of "thumping" people and kicking somebody's ass on a daily basis. These were in the clear minority -- but they were there and they were offensive. These fully unqualified people make life so hard for everybody: citizens, other cops, the legal system. We need a national police standards and qualification process -- one that can transfer unilaterally across the US (much like the UK) and we need to develop professional police administrators, not simply promote cops up through the ranks. We need to ramp up training and accountability. Every time a police officer discharges a weapon it needs to be reported and tracked. This is way too frequent a story in this country.

I think that split second decisions are made everyday by police officers and sometimes those decisions are right and sometimes they are wrong. Everyone is going to react different to the same situation that is human nature, but from I gather from the new reports I have seen and read this officer made the wrong decision. It is always said that you can start with a higher level of force and decrease it as the situation dictates, and this officer for whatever reason choose to use deadly force to stop the individual. We can sit here all day long and debate on how the situation should of been handled, but unless you were there then you will never know what was going through that officers mind. In this society where technology is everywhere and with the spotlight on the police like it has been for awhile all your choices are going to be scrutinized.

Dumb ass cop. Handcuffing him was useless, because forensics would've shown him CLEARLY shooting the man in the back. Not only that, but putting cuffs on him means you shot a 'CUFFED' man in the back, who was EVEN LESS of a 'threat'.

Dummy.

This only seems like a trend because they don't report on the tens of thousands of good officers who make hundreds of thousands of good decisions every day. But yes, this guy was totally in the wrong and should be hit with 3rd degree murder.