re: Ferguson, what's your opinion?

I don't believe for one second the officer gunned the kid down in cold blood as he begged for mercy with his hands up the whole time like some claim. He was a criminal, the main witness is a criminal and the officer in question sustained multiple facial injuries.

That being said, regardless of what happened beforehand, if the kid was running away and clearly not threatening anymore the officer shouldn't have shot him if for no other reason than it would have saved everyone a ton of hassle.

I don't know how threatened the officer felt, and I certainly don't feel sorry for the idiot who got killed, but if it happened even remotely like they say (meaning he was fleeing before the officer started firing) I can't see how pursuing him with backup wouldn't have been better.