ArcaMax

As the tragic chokehold case of Eric Garner illustrates, police body cameras are not the solution to all police brutality complaints. But they can bring a much-needed clarity to what we're arguing about.

Unlike the recent death by police shooting of unarmed18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the police assault on unarmed Eric Garner, an asthmatic and diabetic, had a single narrative provided by the video.

"The grand jury kept interviewing witnesses but you didn't need witnesses," Garner's widow said of the video to the New York Daily News. "You can be a witness for yourself.

But when a Staten Island grand jury on Wednesday declined to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in Garner's death, the strength of that video sparked national outrage that crossed racial and political lines.

You don't have to be a liberal to be outraged by the sight of a half-dozen of New York's Finest holding a large, handcuffed man down on pavement while he gasps, "I can't breathe" over and over again before he passes out.

Cause of death, according to the autopsy: He couldn't breathe.

Syndicated conservative columnist and Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer called the grand jury's decision "incomprehensible" for failing to see at least involuntary manslaughter or reckless endangerment in the video.

"The guy actually said, 'I can't breathe,' which ought to be a signal if the guy was unarmed," Krauthammer said on Fox, "and the crime was as petty as they come."

Indeed, police were arresting Garner for selling "loosies," single cigarettes, without paying New York's $5.85-a-pack tax on cigarettes, which invites black-market evasions.

That inspired libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to put part of the blame for the death on New York lawmakers.

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