San Francisco Board of Supervisors Member Matt Dorsey requested City Hall investigate the justice system after a report stated drug dealers in the area make upwards of $350,000 a year.
Those making hundreds of thousands are still considered eligible for taxpayer-funded legal council.
“Do street-level drug dealers who ‘can make as much as $350,000 a year — or even more if they help run a local operation’ receive taxpayer-funded legal services to defend their criminal cases in San Francisco?” Dorsey questioned on Twitter.
Dorsey noted that wealthy defendants may not be eligible for taxpayer-funded legal aid.
He tweeted, “The 6th Amendment and S.F. Charter ensure free lawyers to those who can’t afford them. Yes, EVERY indigent defendant deserves publicly funded legal counsel. But shouldn’t ONLY indigent defendants deserve publicly funded counsel?”
San Francisco’s Public Defender’s Office then condemned Dorsey’s comments, saying his inquiry is a “waste of taxpayer resources” and an “insult to the due process legal protections” under the U.S. Constitution.
The Public Defender’s Office noted that their clients “who are trapped in the exploitative street-level drug trade are indigent, and false claims to the contrary fan the flames of racism and xenophobia.”
Reporting from Fox News:
[The Chronicle] previously reported that open-air drug dealing in San Francisco has led to a "real estate boom" in Honduras as some migrants return home with thousands of dollars and build "[h]andsome new homes, some mansions by local standards, some mansions by any standard." Some of those homes "rise behind customized iron gates emblazoned with San Francisco 49ers or Golden State Warriors logos," the Chronicle wrote.
