Perhaps the most depressing thing about the violent scenes in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday night is that they were so predictable. The white prosecutor announced that the grand jury, which was reportedly largely white, had decided to bring no charges of any type against the white cop who shot and killed an unarmed black man.

The black President, America's first, appealed for calm. "First and foremost, we are a nation built on the rule of law. And so, we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury's to make." he said. "There are Americans who agree with it, and there are Americans who are deeply disappointed, even angry. It's an understandable reaction."

He then alluded to wishes expressed by the family of the victim, Michael Brown. "I join Michael's parents in asking anyone who protests this decision to do so peacefully."

As the President spoke, some people on the streets of Ferguson were tossing bottles at the massed police ranks. People began smashing windows and trying to turn over police cars. The police responded with tear gas and smoke bombs. Small-scale looting began, and several stores were apparently set on fire. Through the magnifying glass provided by the cable-news channels, it looked like mass anarchy had broken out, even though the disorder was actually confined to an area of a few blocks.

A preliminary question to ask is why the St. Louis authorities scheduled such an incendiary announcement for after dark, even though the news that the grand jury had reached a decision had become public hours earlier. Surely, it would have been wiser for Robert P. McCulloch, the St. Louis County prosecutor, to have met with reporters earlier in the day.

A more important question, also unanswered in anything but the most general terms, is this: Why did the grand jury decide not to indict the police officer, Darren Wilson? McCulloch's press conference, when it eventually took place, was notably lacking in detail about the shots that killed Brown.

We learned a few more details about the altercation that took place in Officer Wilson's police cruiser on the afternoon of August 9th, after he ordered Brown and a friend, who were walking on the street, to move to the sidewalk. The police officer fired at least one shot from the car, and then got out of the vehicle and shot Brown several more times, with the fatal shot hitting him in the head. In all, twelve shots were fired, McCulloch said.

But we didn't learn precisely how far away Brown was when Wilson shot him fatally, or what persuaded the police officer that his life was in danger, which is one legal justification in Missouri for shooting someone who is unarmed. According to some accounts, Brown had his arms raised when he was shot for the final time. Other accounts say that he was charging at Wilson. McCulloch, beyond saying that some eyewitnesses provided contradictory statements, didn't say what evidence the grand jury had relied on in reaching its decision. He did say, though, that the grand jury had met for twenty-five days and heard from more than sixty witnesses.

Perhaps the grand-jury transcripts, some of which were released late on Monday, will help clear up what actually happened. More likely, the exact sequence of events will remain in dispute, and so will the grand jury's decision. Americans who believe that the legal system generally works well, and fairly, will be inclined to believe that the members of the grand jury reached the right decision. Those who believe the criminal-justice system is stacked against minorities, particularly against young African-American men, will be inclined to believe that this was another whitewash.

Seventy years after Gunnar Myrdal's monumental study of race relations in the United States was published, they remain the "American Dilemma." President Obama, in calling on people to accept the grand jury's decision peacefully, pointed out that the United States has "made enormous progress in race relations over the course of the past several decades." In some ways, that's undeniable. But as Obama went on to say, “What is also true is that there are still problems, and communities of color aren’t just making these problems up.”

One of these problems is that blacks overwhelmingly feel that the criminal-justice system is biased against them. Incidents such as the killing of Michael Brown reinforce this feeling. As long as these types of things keep happening, we'll keep seeing more scenes like the one last night in Ferguson.