One of my father's favorite quotes was "...power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely..."--a line from a letter written by Lord Acton to Bishop Creighton.
These kinds of events are real world examples of the result of unchecked power. This particular officer, who apparently has had other use of force issues in the past, knows he has the power to kill and not have to bear any real consequences.
The problem is that often, we the people, explicitly grant them this kind of power. In this case, the community is up in arms. But in other cases, when incidents of police brutality go before grand juries charges are not filed because the perpetrator is a member of the police.
For example, a K9 officer who lifted his dog up so that the dog could bite a man who was being apprehended after a lengthy high speed chase. One of the articles on this can be found here: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/national/police-officer-tosses-k9-onto-suspects-lap-video.
We need civilian review boards in every state that have complete state jurisdiction over all police operations. But, we the people need to start forwarding criminal charges when a crime has probably been committed.
The legal reasoning being used today gives police the right to kill, beat, and stomp almost without limit. In some areas, encounters with the police are more like running into the local chapter of the Hell's Angels than the police. Especially if you've already pissed them off somehow...
In San Antonio, this last weekend, a member of the campus police was apprehending a student for a traffic violation. Somehow things escalated and the cop emptied his gun into the student killing him instantly. The student did mouth off to the officer. He was struggling with the officer. What do you want to be that he'll: 1) evade any criminal penalties and 2) keep his job?
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