US has to address racial prejudice issue

As a young boy growing up in the city of Detroit, Michigan, in the 1950s, we were taught that police were our friends. Their shiny badges seemed to confirm this with the Latin motto Tuebor - I will defend.

Fast forward to today's United States and it seems the police are not defending us, but rather defending themselves against members of the community killing more than 1,000 people last year. US police have killed people at a rate of more than two a day this year, The Washington Post reported on May 31.

Recent incidents such as in Baltimore, Maryland, are the tip of the iceberg. How did we reach this nadir, and what can be done?