On Tuesday morning the Department of Justice announced that it will not bring charges against Daniel Pantaleo for violating Eric Garner’s civil rights. Pantaleo is the NYPD officer who administered the chokehold that led to Garner’s death in 2014. He joins a long line of police officers and civilians, mostly white, who have killed black men and not faced prosecution.

On that fateful July day on Staten Island five years ago, Garner was selling untaxed cigarettes on the street, a misdemeanor. In...