For far longer than America has been a “nation of laws” it has been a nation of injustice. And in the absence of basic justice such laws can amount to little more than codified tyranny. It is through this chasm, between the official claim to an impartial legal system, and the reality of endemic racial injustice, that Darren Wilson made his escape, with the flames of Ferguson in hot pursuit. This was not a morality play in which a decent, black child was slain by a malicious, white cop. The inherent nature of the injustice was not systematic but systemic. Wilson operates in an organization where few police are sanctioned for killing black youths; and in a culture where armed white men can cite their fear of unarmed black men as a defense.