There’s a lot of smoke being blown in the ongoing contract dispute between city officials and the Police Officers Association, and even Simi’s windy conditions can’t seem to clear the air.

Nowadays, the issue is disturbingly black or white: Either you’re with the cops or you’re against them, and it’s created a level of tension perhaps never before felt in the history of our city. Although the police station and city hall are separated only by a few hundred steps, lately it feels as if the two factions are miles apart.

Contentious closed-door negotiations have been replaced with public relations warfare, the police union being the primary aggressor. But regardless of which side you’re on, it’s hard to dispute that what we’re witnessing is bad for the citizens of Simi Valley.

Earlier this month—and after it was reported that the police union had hired an out-of-town PR firm—officers and their families showed up to picket Simi Valley’s 40th anniversary birthday celebration. Last weekend the union members showed up to protest again, this time outside the home of a City Council member.

While we wholeheartedly support the officers’ right to demonstrate and their desire to set the record straight regarding the current negotiations, their strategy, quite frankly, seems poorly conceived and certainly ill-timed. With a county unemployment rate at 11 percent and the city coffers getting bludgeoned by the economy, how can any work force entity, public or private, expect to avoid pay and benefit cuts? The POA’s bully tactics are only reinforcing the notion that they think they deserve more consideration than the rest of us.

Because the negotiations are happening behind closed doors, we’re left to wonder what’s keeping these two sides apart now, after they have for years worked hand-in-hand to keep Simi one of the country’s safest cities.

What we know is that the current squabble is likely to leave wounds that aren’t easily healed, even after an agreement is reached.

So while one side will eventually “win” this battle, it’s the citizens, those of us who expect our city and police to work together to keep our streets safe, who are really losing.