It's usually LAPD and NYPD that get famous for this stuff - with the occasional bum**** Alabama sheriff - but apparently San Francisco's boys in blue weren't content to let the fame pass them by:
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/28/san-francisco-deputy-public-defender-detained-for-intervening-between-police-and-her-client/
I understand that not every law enforcement officer can be a shining beacon of light and hope, but one would think that to become a detective, an officer would need to show that he has the modicum of intelligence required to realize that arresting a public defender inside the court house while she's doing her job for a trumped charge is a really ****ing stupid idea.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/29/san-francisco-public-defender-jailed-intervening-police-questioning
Unsurprisingly, it's not Inspector Stansbury's first clash with the law:
http://sfbayview.com/2015/01/deputy-public-defender-unjustly-arrested/
Turns out Stanbury stopped an off-duty black SFPD officer without due cause, thinking he was a ganbanger or whatever. You'd think that getting slapped with a lawsuit in 2013 would have made him a tad more careful.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/28/san-francisco-deputy-public-defender-detained-for-intervening-between-police-and-her-client/
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — San Francisco’s public defender has released a video showing police arresting a deputy public defender outside a courtroom for intervening in an interaction between police and her client.
The video shows Deputy Public Defender Jami Tillotson refusing to step aside as a man identified as San Francisco Police Inspector Brian Stansbury tries to take a cellphone picture of Tillotson’s client in a hallway at the Hall of Justice on Tuesday.
“I just want to take some pictures, ok? Then he will be free to go,” says Stansbury on the video. Tillotson refuses and Stansbury then tells her she can either step aside or be arrested for resisting arrest, according to the subtitles on the YouTube video.
Tillotson, an 18-year veteran of the public defender’s office, is calm throughout the video and does not resist officers. She continues to assert she is representing her client as she is led away.
I understand that not every law enforcement officer can be a shining beacon of light and hope, but one would think that to become a detective, an officer would need to show that he has the modicum of intelligence required to realize that arresting a public defender inside the court house while she's doing her job for a trumped charge is a really ****ing stupid idea.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/29/san-francisco-public-defender-jailed-intervening-police-questioning
I love how apparently US police can arrest anyone, anywhere, at anytime with the excuse of "resisting arrest". Without actually providing a reason for the arrest in the first place, you know, the one that the victim is supposedly resisting, not to mention that Stansbury wasn't actually arresting anyone. The SFPD spokesman claims that police have the right to arrest anyone obstructing him from doing his work - so I guess SF doesn't have to honour Miranda warnings anymore? Since she was the "attorney present ... during questioning" as the text goes.The officer, identified by local CBS news as Brian Stansbury, a San Francisco police inspector, then continues: “No, you’re not pretty sure. If you continue with this … I’ll arrest you for resisting arrest.”
“Please do,” Tillotson responds. She is then placed in handcuffs and led down the hallway.
Tillotson, an 18-year veteran of the profession, was subsequently detained for about an hour at the Southern Station in San Francisco before being released. At a press conference on Wednesday a spokesman for the police said the officer had the right to arrest anyone obstructing him from doing his work and that a criminal investigation into the event was ongoing.
“This is not Guantánamo Bay. People have an absolute right to have their attorneys present during questioning,” said a furious Adachi in an earlier press release. “A uniform does not give you a license to bully innocent people into submission. If this happens to a public defender in front of her client, I can only imagine what is happening on our streets.”
Unsurprisingly, it's not Inspector Stansbury's first clash with the law:
http://sfbayview.com/2015/01/deputy-public-defender-unjustly-arrested/
Stansbury, the subject of a 2013 federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a Black SFPD officer alleging racial profiling, cites Tillotson for resisting arrest as a uniformed officer places her in handcuffs.
Turns out Stanbury stopped an off-duty black SFPD officer without due cause, thinking he was a ganbanger or whatever. You'd think that getting slapped with a lawsuit in 2013 would have made him a tad more careful.