The Eric Garner case actually makes a pretty strong argument for police body cams

A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict an NYPD officer despite video evidence. So what?

Body Cam
(Image credit: (Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images))

After a grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri, decided against indicting Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August, President Obama asked for $75 million to help outfit cops nationwide with 50,000 body cameras. Brown's parents requested, along with peaceful protests, that "every police officer working the streets in this country wears a body camera."

The reason for cops to wear cameras on their uniforms, Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump explained at a press conferences, is so "we won't have to play this game of witnesses, mirrors, and secret grand jury proceedings." It wouldn't be a battle between the testimony of cops and eyewitnesses — there would be video evidence.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.