Vallejo City Council’s proposed citizen public safety committee received unwarranted hostility from police officers. Perhaps something in the water or air here in Vallejo, California breeds hostility between factions. The hostility between Vallejo's public safety departments, council members and residents is extraordinary for public servants of free people. Past and current attitudes by some public safety officers asserting themselves as the people’s guardians and immune from observation or criticism by residents surprised me. They overlook that the city hired them as employees working in service for Vallejo residents no matter the nature of their work.

I find it difficult to reconcile the hostility I’ve witnessed by members of public safety department as a group against the council with my contacts with Vallejo police officers. Many years ago, my neighborhood was infested with open drug dealing. Vallejo's police department cleared away the infestation. They did so solicitous of residents’ concerns, without condescension and without the expectation hero worship.