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The Death Of Michael Brown

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Since these events, however, law enforcement body cameras have been the talk of the nation. With regards to the case concerning the death of Michael Brown, many individuals across the country sternly believe that if there had been actual footage of the shooting that day, Officer Wilson would have been indicted for his actions. With that said, since this specific incident, 30 out of 54 Ferguson police officers have actually began wearing body cameras (Ponsi). Some proponents argue that body cameras will not help to indict officers or even hold them accountable for their actions. These individuals, of course, refer to the death of Eric Garner as an example of this.

On July 17, 2014, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) Officer, Daniel Pantaleo, placed Mr. Garner in a chokehold (Rahel Gebreyes, 2015). As a result, Mr. Garner later died and an autopsy showed that his passing was a direct result of the choke hold. With that said, the entire incident was captured on video by an onlooker on his cell phone; which some would argue had a better viewpoint than a video from a body‐mounted camera would have (Rahel Gebreyes, 2015). Even with the video footage, a grand jury still chose not to indict Officer Pantaleo.

In reality, the basic truth is that we as a society would whole-heartedly like to believe that seeing video footage of a high risk incident, such as an officer involved‐shooting, would somehow tell the whole story in regards to what happened and how, and that

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