SF Police Chief Apologizes for Raid on Journalist; Police Union Wants Him to Resign

San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Chief Bill Scott apologized Friday for a raid earlier this month on the home of a journalist who would not reveal his sources — and the local police union is calling for his resignation as a result.

As Breitbart News noted, SFPD officers raided the home of journalist Bryan Carmody, who broke the story that the late public defender Jeff Adachi had not merely died suddenly, but had suffered a cocaine overdose and had spent the evening with a woman who was not his wife. The information was leaked from the SFPD’s own investigation.

The raid on Carmody shocked the city and the nation. San Francisco, arguably the nation’s most liberal city, has made a point — like the state government — of standing up to President Donald Trump, whom the left often casts as a threat to press freedom. Yet Trump has never done anything like what San Francisco did to crack down in the Adachi case.

On Friday, after weeks of media scrutiny and political pressure, Chief Bill Scott issued a statement indicating that he had asked for an external investigation of the department, and added that “we must do a better job.” in defending the values of democracy: “Journalists and everyone in our City deserve a police department that will maintain the constitutional rights of all. …  We understand that faith in SFPD has been shaken and we will work hard to restore it.”

But his officers — through their union — pushed back. “SFPD Chief William Scott showed everyone in the SFPD, and all San Franciscans, what his character consists of,” the union said in a statement quoted by Bay Area public radio station KQED. “It was a pathetic, deceitful and shameful display of self-preservation, finger pointing, and political kowtowing.”

Scott became SFPD chief after the previous leadership was ousted due to a scandal over racist texts.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.