An Ohio high school has indefinitely suspended two football players for defying orders from the administration and taking “Thin Blue Line” and “Thin Red Line” flags onto the field, as part of a 9/11 tribute.

Ahead of their Sept. 11 game, cornerback Brady Williams and linebacker Jared Bentley, who played on the Little Miami High School’s football team, ran out onto the field carrying the pro-police flags they were told not to display.

As protests over policing continue to convulse cities throughout the U.S., one symbol keeps showing up: a black-and-white American flag with one blue stripe.Recently, the flag was flown from the back of a car alongside protests in South Dakota, and burned outside the Utah State Capitol. When deputies hoisted the flag outside government buildings in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Orange, California, the sheriffs in both communities were sharply criticized.

On Thursday, President Trump signed three new executive orders addressing crime and immigration. One seeks to increase penalties on those found guilty of assaulting police officers. A second order directs law enforcement agencies to increase intelligence sharing while going after drug cartels. A third order directs Attorney General Sessions to prioritize fighting "illegal immigration" alongside drug trafficking and violent crime.

The issue of police brutality doesn’t have to be a subject that divides us.

As discussed in parts I, II and III of this four-part series,

As discussed in Part I and Part II of this series, police brutality and racism have people drawing sides. Often the sources from which we choose to gather information, whether it’s the media or our community, comes with a bias that prevents us from seeing the big picture. Many of us tend to focus on one aspect of the problem without considering, or sometimes even being aware of, opposing points.

Police racism and brutality are topics that have people drawing sides. Part I of this series describes how many of us tend to focus on one aspect of the problem without considering, or sometimes even hearing, opposing points.

Often the information we gather, whether from the media or from our community, comes with a bias that doesn’t give us the opportunity to see the big picture.

For instance, a typical argument about police bias might go as follows:

“The treatment of blacks

Lately the media has seemed inundated with reports of alleged police brutality. Now, the recent murders of policemen in Dallas and Baton Rouge add another wrinkle to this grave issue. Demonstrations against police racism vie against rallies to support slain officers.

As with many contentious topics, the issues of police brutality and racial profiling have people drawing sides. We need to be cognizant that the information we get – whether from experts, online searches, our friends, or the media – often comes with a left or right bias.