This perception, that police officers have special protection by the justice system that allows them to use unjustified lethal force without consequence, has fueled the protests.

Why do grand juries seem to be biased in favor of police officers? Police officers, who are entrusted with protecting the peace and are seen as having a difficult and dangerous job, are often given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to use of lethal force. Prosecutors are also accused of not pursuing charges as vigorously as they would against average citizens.

"We have no confidence in the state grand juries, whether in Ferguson or in New York, because there is an intrinsic relationship between state prosecutors and the police. They depend on the police for their evidence. They run for office and depend on the unions for endorsements," civil rights leader Al Sharpton told The New York Times.

The prosecutor heading the Brown investigation, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McColloch has deep family ties to the local law enforcement. His father, a police officer, was killed in the line of duty, and his mother, brother, uncle and cousin also work for the department.

The lack of indictments adds insult to injury. Not only are black men more likely to be killed by law enforcement, they are also victimized by a legal system that refuses to hold the police accountable to the law.

Stopping the pattern

It's not that racial relations are getting worse in America; young black men here have always faced a legal system stacked against them. We've been talking about stop-and-frisk for years and rioting has followed many high-profile cases of police injustice against minorities—Rodney King in the 1990s comes quickly to mind. Has anything changed in these latest cases? Will this pattern keep repeating?

Political leaders have pledged to find ways to end the cycle of prejudice against minorities in the legal system. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said that he took the news of Garner's death personally, heightening fears for his biracial son Dante.

"A good young man, a law-abiding young man, who would never think to do anything wrong, and yet, because of a history that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face—we've had to literally train him, as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him," De Blasio said.

While urging protesters to demonstrate peacefully, the mayor acknowledged the fundamental injustices that are the basis for the riots.

"This is now a national moment of grief, a national moment of pain. You've heard in so many places people of all backgrounds utter the same basic phrase: 'Black lives matter.' And they've said it because it had to be said. It's a phrase that should never have to be said; it should be self-evident. But our history, sadly, requires us to say that black lives matter," De Blasio said.

President Barack Obama acknowledged "deep unfairness" in the way laws are enforced in America and pledged to improve relations between law enforcement agencies and the people they police.

The president has recently requested $263 million in federal funds to "help restore trust" between communities and their local police departments. The funds will go toward the purchase of 50,000 body cameras to provide evidence about incidents involving police interactions and the creation of a task force to address community policing. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he would soon unveil new federal guidelines aimed at ending racial profiling.

Are these measures enough? Not even remotely; but one lesson from the civil rights movement has been that far-reaching federal protections are needed to fight institutionalized racism like we see in local law enforcement. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and the failure to bring the officers involved in the Brown and Garner cases to trial is a threat to the American ideal that no one is above the law, especially those sworn to protect it.

The author is a contributing writer to Beijing Review, living in New York City

Email us at: yanwei@bjreview.com