It is really easy to try and simplify the events leading to riots like we've seen in Ferguson and now Baltimore. Police brutality absolutely is the immediate cause of the riots, that's obvious. But if you want to understand what's going on right now in the United States you'll need to look deeper at the series of events and conditions that can let things get so bad.

Think about how the segregated past created communities of endemic poverty. Think about how there aren't jobs in these communities, let alone jobs that pay a middle class or even living wage to unskilled workers. Think about how the overwhelming opportunities to escape that life destroy hope and how that lack of hope leads people to drug and alcohol abuse as a means of escape. Think about how the criminal justice system takes small time dealers, addicts, and petty criminals sends them off to prison which will return them much worse off and more dangerous than they were before. Think about how the War on Drugs and mandatory minimums have resulted in the largest prison population in the world and how a felony conviction prevents (in most states) anyone from ever truly reintegrating into society. Think about how drug, alcohol abuse, and domestic abuse destroy families. Think about how so many kids born into this environment don't have anything approaching the support system they'll need to succeed in life. The families are strained and broken through the poverty, drugs, and abuse. The hopelessness and violence degrades the fabric of the community and causes people to give up hope of ever getting a better future. The schools fail the students because of under-funding and families that gave up a long time ago.

TL;DR

Police brutality set off these riots, but even if we get rid of police brutality we still won't have fixed the endemic problems that lead people so far past the breaking point.