Police body cameras, the proposed reform favored by President Obama, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the parents of the late Michael Brown, would almost definitely not have resolved the dispute over police use of force in the death of Eric Garner.

Garner died following a scuffle with New York police officers in July over alleged sale of unstamped cigarettes. Although clear phone camera footage seems to show one of the officers using a prohibited choke hold against Garner, a grand jury today declined to bring charges.

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Since the August shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, body cameras have become a rare point of agreement across the political spectrum. In a TV appearance Sunday, Giuliani announced that he had been won over to the use of cameras, arguing that in “ninety percent, ninety-five percent of these situations, the police officers turn out to be justified.” Obama and other Brown supporters have also argued for the use of cameras.

An antique cliché holds that a picture is worth a thousand words, giving rise to the presumption that photographic evidence provides unique clarity and truth. However, in the case of Garner’s death, the photographic evidence indicating a violation of procedure by a cop appears to be at odds with the grand jury’s finding that no criminal case could be brought. It should be noted that the disallowed use of a choke hold could be acknowledged but considered not to rise to the level of a criminal violation in an accidental death, but this legal nuance is unlikely to stir many souls. Whether or not justice has been served in the grand jury’s decision, the hope that body cameras might settle the civic dispute over extreme police use of force appears to be dead.