‘Horrified’ over police union’s front-yard rally

I was so surprised and so very disappointed in the story that headlined in the Simi Valley Acorn (“Police union pickets outside council member’s home,” Oct. 23) that I am compelled to write my first letter to the editor.

I have been a proud citizen of Simi Valley for more than 40 years. I know a lot of the city employees, specifically those on the City Council and on the police department, and my husband and I have actively supported both groups. I’ve always thought that we were all on the same page, with the wellbeing of our great city as the common goal.

There can’t be any dispute that our current economic situation is calling for some drastic cuts and changes on every level, but this isn’t what this letter is all about. This is about how an organization such as our revered police department thought that it was a good idea to bring a union protest to a City Council member’s home.

I am horrified by this act, and I can’t even imagine how Glen Becerra and his family felt when they saw this spectacle outside their home.

Glen Becerra has done nothing but live his life for his family and for this city. He has been the most upstanding citizen and one of the most conscientious city employees that we have ever met.

He and his family did not deserve the personal invasion of their privacy. And seriously, he and his family were chosen because of a simple, in-general-type comment that he made in passing? That is ridiculous, far-reaching and pathetic.

If this is the advice that the POA is paying their public relations firm for, I want them to know that these kinds of actions will surely backfire on them and they may not continue to enjoy the unfailing admiration and unquestionable respect that we so freely give them and which they so deserved.

I’d like them to think long and hard about what they’re doing. They should keep the contract negotiations where they belong and stop the personal attacks. They should be ashamed. Debbie Thomas Simi Valley