There are two types of people. Those who can be surprised about a jury decision. And those who have served on the jury. But in the case of the Ferguson non-indictment, the grand jury decision was actually more predictable than most. Yes, it’s true that “U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases in 2010, the most recent year for which we have data. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in 11 of them.” But it’s also true that there’s an exception: Cases involving police shootings.

+ And while this story has, for various reasons, grabbed our attention, it is anything but rare. “Since 2004, St. Louis County police officers have killed people in at least 14 cases. Few faced grand juries, and none was charged.”

+ Slate: Why Darren Wilson was never going to be indicted for killing Michael Brown.

+ Jelani Cobb in The New Yorker: “What transpired in Ferguson last night was entirely predictable, widely anticipated, and, yet, seemingly inevitable.” Chronicle of a Riot Foretold.

+ This is not a local problem. From The Salt Lake Tribune: Killings by Utah police outpacing gang, drug, child-abuse homicides.

+ And, for a counter opinion, here’s Doug Wylie, the editor of a site called PoliceOne, explaining why Darren Wilson wasn’t indicted. My take is that we shouldn’t just get bogged down in the details of this particular case. The big theme is that too many black kids get killed and no one gets punished.