It's a striking image, and to be fair, the underlying complaint isn't frivolous. Public defenders are constitutionally essential. When caseloads balloon beyond what any attorney can reasonably handle, the people who suffer most are the defendants — often the poorest and most vulnerable people cycling through the justice system. That's a legitimate problem worth taking seriously.

But here's where we'd like to pump the brakes and ask a few questions that the all-black wardrobe doesn't answer.

First: why are caseloads crushing? Is it a funding problem, a hiring problem, or a structural inefficiency problem? San Francisco's city budget is north of $14 billion — one of the largest per-capita municipal budgets in the entire country. If public defenders are drowning, it's worth asking whether the money is being misallocated rather than simply demanding more of it. That's a conversation City Hall tends to avoid like a parking ticket.

Second: how does this compare to other offices? District attorneys, victim advocates, and court staff across the city have all flagged resource constraints in recent years. At some point, the pattern stops being about any one department and starts being about a city government that chronically overpromises, overspends on pet projects, and underfunds core functions.

Third — and this is the uncomfortable one — San Francisco's revolving-door justice policies over the past several years have arguably increased the volume of repeat cases flowing through the system. When people cycle in and out of court without meaningful intervention, everyone's caseload grows. Public defenders included.

We're not here to mock anyone for wearing black. The protest is a symptom. But the disease is a city that spends like a drunken sailor and still can't staff its basic constitutional obligations. Maybe instead of a dress code protest, we need a budget audit.