A battle is brewing in San Francisco after the San Francisco Chronicle claimed that some drug dealers in the city make as much as $350,000 per year.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors Member Matt Dorsey is asking City Hall to investigate the justice system in the city after a report that some drug dealers make upwards of $350,000 per year, but still are eligible for legal counsel from the Public Defender’s Office.
“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 asked on Twitter Tuesday.
Dorsey also suggested that wealthy defendants might not deserve publicly founded legal aid. “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?”
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, in turn, has criticized Dorsey for shining a light on the issue in a press release from Tuesday.
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“Dorsey’s inquiry alone is a waste of taxpayer resources, and an insult to the due process legal protections laid out in the U.S. Constitution. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office proudly provides high-level representation to over 20,000 indigent and low-income individuals every year.”
The Public Defender’s Office also claimed that most of its clients are living in poor conditions.
“Many of the people we represent, including those accused of drug possession and sales, are homeless or living in SROs or grouped in squalid living conditions. Our 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.”
Dorsey has also requested the budget analyst to investigate fentanyl cases in particular that the Public Defender’s Office has taken on, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
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.
San Francisco’s Department of Public Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Fox News Digital also reached out to Member Dorsey for additional comment.
Fox News’ Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.