Tony Phillips, 44, the homeless man who fought with a police officer assigned to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s security detail earlier this month after the officer pushed him twice, was arrested this morning for violating a court order as city officials did homeless outreach.
Last week, a judge ordered Phillips to stay away from Cedar and Larkin streets, where a fracas broke out between Phillips, 44, and SFPD Officer Joel Aguayo on March 6 after the officer pushed Phillips twice.
On Friday, March 14, Phillips was released from jail with orders from a judge who felt he, not the officer, had been assaulted. He was given orders not to return to the intersection.
Phillips has long frequented the alley at the edge of the Tenderloin and has been known to set up camp there. His attorney, Ivan Rodriguez, said Phillips lives there.
Officers accompanying the Healthy Streets Operation Center, which deploys city agencies in response to homeless encampments “unhealthy street behavior” were offering city resources around Cedar and Larkin when they noticed Phillips this morning around 9:40 a.m., according to a police statement.
The officers “placed him into handcuffs without further incident,” the statement said.
Phillips’ other pending criminal cases include squatting, loitering, and possessing drug paraphernalia.
Rodriguez, Phillips’ court-appointed counsel, told reporters in court on Friday that Phillips was given a shelter bed after he was released from jail early that morning. Rodriguez was not immediately available for comment when contacted today.
The district attorney charged Phillips last week with assault and other crimes for the altercation with Aguayo, which went viral and raised questions about the comportment of the mayor’s security team and Lurie’s approach to engaging with the public on the streets.
On Thursday, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Sylvia Husing released Phillips from jail, stating that Phillips was the one who was “violently assaulted.”
Per the request of Assistant District Attorney Erin Loback, however, Husing also issued a stay-away order that Phillips should not return to the vicinity.
Rodriguez argued against the stay-away order last week, arguing that Phillips, who is homeless, “has a right to be in a public area.”
“He’s being accused of living on the sidewalk because he has no other place to go,” Rodriguez said.
I’m shocked. Shocked! Well, not that shocked.
Maybe the 73rd time will be the charm for Mr. Phillips and he’ll get his life in order. Presumably he’ll be released again shortly so we’ll find out.
To the surprise of nobody . . .
One note: it’s somewhat incorrect to refer to “San Francisco Superior Court Judge Sylvia Husing” as she is not a judge of the San Francisco court. She’s a retired San Bernardino judge who is sitting as a “visiting judge.” I’m not a huge fan of having judges who did not go through the normal process for judicial appointments and elections, are unaccountable to the electorate, and whose rulings are not subject to review by a properly appointed or elected San Francisco trial court judge. I have no idea why the court is allowing her to hear cases as the court is not particularly busy (take a look around at 2:00 on any Friday and see for yourself if anyone appears overworked). Keep in mind that she can make any ridiculous rulings she wants and there is no real way to hold her to account.
I’m more concerned that the situation remains out of control in the Lower Polk and Larkin areas
The drug ghetto of SF .
Clean it up now .
The smell of rotting wasted life is putrid .
Unsafe at any speed .
Why do residents , taxpayers and businesses have to deal with this crap everyday here ?
Need to vote thus judge out!
My plan for SF: turn the old SF Center Mall into an anything goes containment zone where the only rule is no lighting fires (deputize the dealers to enforce this), and push everyone from 6th st, tenderloin, 16th st into it.
Career criminals rarely change. We don’t do much to help them … and not accepting that guys like this are career criminals isn’t helping him.
The audacity of the Mayor to go to a neighborhood he doesn’t live in, and ask somebody, who, meanwhile, his family could end homelessness altogether, to move is disgusting. He does not understand politics because he simply thinks he is a prince. The Mayor is not a mental health practitioner; approaching someone who needs a higher level of care as if he has the expertise of a mental health expert and expecting nothing to happen is a disgrace.
They’ve got their eye on him because he had a fight with Hizzoner’s security team (and apparently mobbed his car carjacker style). As Spock would say, “Unwise.” So now he’s on the radar. Chances are, though, there are 100+ guys just like him, shambling around, smoking fent, busting windows. Arresting this one guy is performative, at best.
But what about the guy who actually started the fight – wasn’t that Joel Aguayo?
“He’s being accused of living on the sidewalk because he has no other place to go”. Now he does.
This is just petty and vindictive, the mirror image of equal protection under the law.
No wonder our homeless have such a hard time, we give than harder options.