The San Francisco Police Department is so upset about the release of an incident report detailing the last hours of Public Defender Jeff Adachi's life on Feb. 22 _ involving drugs, alcohol and a woman companion who was not his wife _ that officers equipped with a search warrant and a sledgehammer raided the home of a journalist who had refused to disclose who leaked him the document. The report was obtained separately by the San Francisco Chronicle and the freelance journalist at issue, Bryan Carmody, who says he sold the information to three TV stations. Carmody let police into his home Friday after they tried to break down his front gate.
Officers entered Carmody's home with their guns drawn _ and handcuffed him for five and a half hours. The search warrant said officers were looking for "stolen or embezzled property." While there are ethical issues with buying and selling access to news, First Amendment advocates should be outraged _ in part because California has a shield law that saves journalists from outing sources. Given that there is no known evidence Carmody stole or embezzled anything, how was this search justified?
This all adds up to a despicable attempt at intimidation. If San Francisco police were embarrassed before about the Adachi leak, the department should be even more embarrassed now. An attack on one journalist's rights is an attack on the public.
