Deputy Public Defender Jami Tillotson was in the middle of protecting her client when San Francisco police put her in handcuffs and arrested her. The police did this while trying to photograph her client and force him into questioning, reported Addicting Info.
As Addicting Info noted, this stunt by the police was a “violation of her client’s constitutional rights,” prompting her to protect her client. Oddly, Tillotson was the one who got arrested on the bogus charge of resisting arrest.
Watch the video below:
Naturally, the SFPD received backlash from the city Public Defender’s office. Fellow Public Defender Jeff Adachi criticized the police action saying “This is not Guantanamo Bay. People have an absolute right to have their attorneys present during questioning.” The police officers, as seen in the video, violate that absolute right.
According to the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense [emphasis added].
Police in America always seem to find new ways to violate the human and Constitutional Rights of the citizens they’re tasked with serving and protecting. This was a blatant abuse of police power.
