Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson spent more than one hundred days in hiding while a grand jury decided whether or not to indict him on any charge related to the killing of black teenager Mike Brown. After a long and blustering speech in defense of the indefensible, Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch announced Monday there would be no indictment.

The decision not to indict wasn’t surprising, but its predictability did very little to disperse the anger and frustration that has become part of the ritual of grieving the loss of another young African American at the hands of American law enforcement. There can be no question that black life is both cheap and expendable in the eyes of law enforcement and the criminal justice system of which it is a part.

And yet there is a stubborn refusal to have this conversation as the starting point for any meaningful change in the practice of law enforcement in this country. Instead, the mainstream media and even the president remain almost singularly focused on the potential of violence among anti-police brutality activists, particularly in Ferguson, Missouri.