Brien Farrell is a Vallejo resident and former attorney who worked with the City of Santa Rosa.

"I'm a hot-tempered Irish guy. I have to walk out of the council chambers sometimes when I hear no one listening to the family members [of people shot by police]. I just can't take it. And I'm a guy whose job was to make sure that business could be conducted at City Council meetings. These disruptions do unsettle everybody — they make everyone feel sick. And that's not always the single purpose of the disturbances, but it's one of the purposes, because nobody is listening. What can they do to get someone to listen?

"These events are not risk management or city budget events, they are catastrophic, tragic losses for families. And I know, from my work, how much harm results — [harm] to police officers who are involved in officer-involved shootings, for example, or use-of-force incidents. They are traumatized, too. Not in the same way, but there is serious trauma for officers also. We don't want these events to occur, we want officers and community members to be safe. And there are those who will say 'I'm with my officers come hell or high water.' And the simple response is that: with great responsibility comes the necessity of full evaluation to understand whether we can find ways to reduce the risk of injury in the future."

Sharon McGriff-Payne is a historian who's lived in Vallejo since the early 1950s.

"What has concerned me is that it seems like a lot of really hurt feelings here in the community. I was at one of the City Council meetings a few weeks ago for another reason, but I was there and a lot of the families who have been involved in talking about this whole police issue were there, [too]. And there was a lot of just ... anger. It's the kind of anger that you can understand. My impression of this whole thing is that people are voicing their anger at these City Council meetings because I think they feel like they're not being heard. And one of the things I always notice is that people, when they're most angry, and when they show their anger, is when they don't feel like they're being heard.

"Of course, not to take away from Vallejo police — we of course need police. But we need our city, city leaders especially, to act like they're concerned. And right now, even if they are concerned, I'm not sure they're showing it in the way they really should, and I don't know what causes that.

"I just find that this is a problem that can be solved. But it has to be solved with people being honest and looking at it as a city issue — that we're all concerned. That's what I want people to understand: that it's not them against us, or that kind of mentality. This is a city I think we all love. We grew up here, we're all concerned. It's a solvable issue and part of how it's solved is to start listening."