As I went to three of the funerals for the beautiful nine martyrs in Charleston, South Carolina, I addressed the audience and joined our local chapter of National Action Network (NAN) and the NAACP to call for the Confederate flag to come down.

America is a deeply divided nation. While the outcry against events in places like Ferguson, Cleveland, Staten Island, Baltimore, and now McKinney, is loud and clear and a patchwork quilt of protest is growing (Black Lives Matter), a great many white people refuse to attribute any of it to racism.

Unfortunately, police have a tendency to adopt a siege mentality, circling the wagons on every occasion of potential wrongdoing. Then they wonder why the public has a growing distrust of police departments, even as they defend the indefensible. Police must stop defending criminals in their midst if they hope to regain the public support they should so clearly have.

Nothing's changed at the local level. Look at this past week's story from Pasco, Washington. A troubled man was gunned down for throwing rocks at police. Rocks. When will it end?