Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey pleads not guilty after being arraigned on charges of making false statements under oath and obstructing a congressional proceeding. The exact same two crimes that he was accused of in the Steele v. Nixon case.
00:18:14.600Yesterday, we had Mark Vargas, the editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review, reporting on the shocking developments in Chicago.
00:18:23.220Yesterday, we reported that on Saturday, the Chicago police were ordered to stand down after a group of ICE agents were surrounded and in distress under attack from radical Antifa operatives in the city's Brighton Park neighborhood.
00:18:44.120Turns out that stand-down order came from the mayor and the governor themselves.
00:18:48.060There's some question as to whether they have some serious legal liability.
00:18:52.980But to get an assessment of the entire situation on the ground in Chicago, joining me now is the former commissioner of the Chicago Police Department, Richard Brzezak.
00:19:03.880He is a hard-nosed, non-political, by-the-book, highly respected law enforcement officer and attorney, someone who rose from being a simple patrolman in the Chicago Police Department to the top job under one of Chicago's greatest mayors, Jane Byrne, who was a good friend of mine.
00:19:26.200And trust me, although she may have been a Mondale delegate, she definitely voted for Ronald Reagan.
00:19:33.740But, Richard, thank you for joining us today on the show.
00:19:37.360I want to get your assessment of these shocking events.
00:19:40.720The idea that fellow law enforcement officers would be physically endangered and the Chicago police would stand idly by, I guess this is consistent with what you told us about the politicization of the once-great Chicago Police Department.
00:20:00.580You have two people, Brandon Johnson, the DEI mayor of Chicago, that's dumb, evil, and incompetent, not the other DEI.
00:20:13.240But you've got him and you've got Pritzker, the wannabe next Democrat candidate for president in 2028, trying to make a name for themselves with their continuing anti-police decisions and activity.
00:20:31.880And when I say anti-police, they're telling the police to step down, is not trying to protect the Chicago police from harm.
00:20:44.040They're trying to really embarrass the police.
00:20:46.920The police, because of what happened, the Chicago Police Department is really kind of like the laughingstock of the United States, especially among the major cities.
00:20:56.800Because that kind of order to stand down is disgraceful.
00:21:08.900Well, Richard, it appears, based on everything I have read, that this order was handed down to the Chicago Police Department from Mayor Johnson and Governor Pritzker.
00:21:19.080And many, many legal analysts believe that that puts both of them in legal jeopardy, that they could be held responsible in a spiraling legal crisis, because that is patently illegal.
00:21:36.960And they may have personal liability for anyone who is injured.
00:21:40.080And the president himself today blasted both Pritzker and Johnson, saying they should both be in jail for issuing these executive orders that prohibit the Chicago Police Department from obstructing federal law.
00:21:54.020This is shocking that in the once great city of Chicago, where Richard J. Daley, I don't mean Richie Daley, I mean Mayor Daley, who was the mayor during the 1968 Democrat Convention, a man who was seen on national television but not heard saying two uncouth words at Abe Ribicoff, who was making an anti-war speech from the platform.
00:22:20.700Daley was a daly, and Daley was a stout supporter of the Vietnam War, Lyndon Baines Johnson's conduct of it.
00:22:26.860And he opposed those in his party, like Eugene McCarthy and later Robert Kennedy, who broke with Johnson over the war.
00:22:35.980So I saw that the president ordered the Texas National Guard or arranged the Texas National Guard to send 300 guardsmen to Chicago, Commissioner Brzezak.
00:22:50.600Can they be effective with that smaller force?
00:22:56.280You know, well-trained personnel can be effective.
00:22:59.600And at the same time, there are other significantly large law enforcement agencies in the Chicago area, starting with the Chicago Police Department, whereby they can assemble large numbers of officers, you know, with the appropriate riot gear if they need that, to go into an area fairly, fairly quickly.
00:23:23.860The thing is, is that this is a political game being played by two amateurs, Brandon Johnson and J.B. Pritzker in Illinois.
00:23:36.320And President Trump is absolutely correct.
00:23:40.900It isn't, you know, I'm not sure about the civil liability of the mayor and the governor because I'm just not, I haven't really looked at that area of law recently.
00:23:52.700But the president is absolutely correct because any action by a local official to interfere with, obstruct, obscure, defeat the actions of federal law enforcement officers, whether it's by action or a refusal of an action,
00:24:15.020can subject them, can subject them to criminal prosecution for interfering with a federal law enforcement officer.
00:24:24.960Let me make clear to people, just so you know, Richard Brzezak has not only served the city as probably their last great police commissioner, but he also is an attorney.
00:24:36.400He was a partner at the firm of Levy & Aarons, where he was specialized in commercial litigation, bankruptcy, and real estate law,
00:24:44.900and later went into private practice, concentrating primarily in criminal defense,
00:24:49.500with experience with civil jury trials, administrative hearings, criminal and civil practices, and the state and federal courts.
00:24:55.600So he's not just a law enforcement officer.
00:24:57.720He's a skilled attorney, so I give great weight to his words regarding the possible penalties here.
00:25:06.660Richard is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School.
00:25:11.200So it's amazing to me that J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Johnson, Johnson says the Republicans want a civil war,
00:25:21.040yet he's the guy who has hooligans throwing bricks, rocks, bottles, swinging clubs at police officers.
00:25:30.940He's the one who has Antifa operatives surrounding and endangering ICE agents who are merely trying to carry out their responsibilities,
00:25:41.200of arresting and deporting some of the most dangerous, vile criminals in society.
00:25:48.420This administration recognizes that there are many people in the country illegally who are peaceful,
00:25:55.100and the emphasis has been on identifying those who have criminal records, either here or substantial criminal records,
00:26:02.140where they came from, and deporting them first.
00:26:04.900But that is not being assisted by the Pritzker-Jonskin Brigade.
00:26:14.740The politicization of the Chicago Police Department, Richard, this is not something that happened yesterday, is it?
00:27:55.640And they've always been corrupt, but now it's openly, outwardly corrupt.
00:28:00.540And the problem is, is that President Trump is taking the position of cleaning up the corruption, cleaning up the crime, cleaning up the politicization, where people have, you know, the right to vote has been affected.
00:28:17.720They've been denied because of the vote fixing.
00:28:20.380You know, it's been going on all the time in the Democrat city.
00:28:55.220By the way, virtual all legal analysts say that this order signed by the mayor is a blatant violation of federal law, specifically violates U.S. Code 1324, as it is a felony to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection an individual known to be in the country illegally.
00:29:15.840Anyone, whether a private citizen or an elected official who aids and abets such actions, could face up to five years in prison or more if the offense involves violence or results in injury.
00:29:28.160So it sounds to me like Pritzker and, pardon me, Johnson and perhaps Pritzker, if he also was a part of this, which you know he was, could have a serious problem.
00:29:41.920Additionally, other legal analysts point out that 18 U.S. Codes Section 111 makes it a crime to forcibly audit, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, or interfere with federal officers engaged in their duties, which is punishable by up to eight years in prison if the officer is injured.
00:30:00.580And then, of course, 18 U.S. Code 1505 criminalizes obstruction of federal proceedings or investigations carrying an additional penalty for up to five years.
00:30:11.940I'll tell you this, J.B. Pritzker would lose some weight in prison, that's for sure.
00:30:15.840Well, yeah, he'd probably be, you know, holding court in prison, you know, talking, you know, to all his Democrat voters who put him into office even while they were in prison about how great he is.
00:30:31.500But the problem is that these people simply, you know, want to demonstrate their pejorative ignorance.
00:30:40.280You know, Johnson would be better off if he created ice-free zones in his frozen brain.
00:30:47.580It would maybe loosen up a little bit and he could see what the law is and what, you know, people are entitled to in terms of overall safety.
00:31:08.420He spews nonsense about civil war and he keeps calling on the city, residents of the city, to rise up and resist these federal officers doing their duty.
00:31:52.660Richard Nixon, who desegregated the public schools, 86% of public schools were segregated when Nixon became president.
00:32:00.840When he left office, that number was 16 with no bloodshed done totally legally through lawsuits.
00:32:07.120Nobody killed, nobody killed, no violence.
00:32:09.980Richard Nixon, who tripled the funding for black colleges.
00:32:15.260Richard Nixon, who increased ninefold civil rights law enforcement in the U.S. Justice Department.
00:32:22.900Richard Nixon, who gave us affirmative action, which many of my conservative friends despise, but was a huge leg up for the black community.
00:32:32.240So the myth of the southern strategy that Nixon, yes, he did have to run between Hubert Humphrey on his left and George Wallace on his right in the south and carry those border southern states in order to win the 1960 election.
00:32:47.780So the southern strategy of having a number of conservatives support you, if you look at his actual civil rights record, well, the 1958 Civil Rights Act would not have passed the U.S. Senate, but for Vice President Richard Nixon going out and rounding up the votes for which Dr. Martin Luther King wrote him a glowing letter.
00:33:07.560So I'm not sure what Brandon Johnson's talking about, the fact that he's even in office and that he continues to impede this heroic effort where these law enforcement officers with ICE are putting their lives on the line to fulfill their duties.
00:33:24.340You would expect that they could have the local police at their back as opposed to standing by idly as their lives are endangered.
00:33:36.800He's the former commissioner of Chicago police, and we'll be right back.
00:33:43.080The Stone Zone, entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
00:33:52.460Thank you for staying with us here in the Stone Zone.
00:33:56.240We're talking to Richard Brzezak, the former commissioner of the Chicago Police Department in the once great, windy city.
00:34:05.800Chicago used to be known as a city that worked.
00:34:08.380That's when Richard J. Daly was mayor, succeeded by his able, a taxi commissioner, Jane Byrne, who was a great woman, a great mayor.
00:34:18.460She served when Richard Brzezak was the police commissioner.
00:34:23.580I think the Chicago Police Department really went downhill under Rahm Emanuel in an incredible scandal where the department essentially hid evidence regarding a shooting of, I think it was an African-American by officers who were white.
00:35:04.640And one of the last cars that pulled up, the officer got out of his car, walked around the car, took his gun out, and he put 16 shots into Laquan McDonald.
00:35:18.080Even after he went down, he was shooting into his body.
00:35:21.240And no one thought that this was ever going to get out because they had an informal policy in Chicago to turn the in-car cameras off.
00:35:31.840And one car had an in-car camera that happened to be going, and it caught the whole thing.
00:35:38.520It would happen right in front of that car's camera.
00:35:41.440And all hell broke loose, not right away, because while the bosses and Rahm Emanuel knew about it the next morning as to what exactly happened, it took a freelance reporter, not the fake news that's in Chicago, who protects all the Democrats over there all the time,
00:36:00.600but an independent reporter who got a Freedom of Information Act request granted by a judge who ordered the video to be released.
00:36:27.840Yeah, Rahm Emanuel, who I hear, by the way, is actually thinking about running for president.
00:36:33.620I know that sounds crazy, but he recognizes the total absence of a field, and he is a wily, canny guy who understands the game.
00:36:44.200I'm not an admirer by any means, but he didn't get to be mayor of Chicago for no reason.
00:36:49.740He did not get to elect a president for no reason.
00:36:54.040All right, I'm afraid we have to leave it there.
00:36:55.620I want to thank our guest, former Police Commissioner Richard Brzezak, who always brings the heat and the real authority on what's going on on the ground in the Windy City.
00:37:05.820Thank you for joining us today on The Stone Zone.
00:37:08.880We are here five days a week, and here we talk news, politics, history, and food, my other favorite subject.
00:37:18.920Until tomorrow, God bless you, and Godspeed.
00:37:22.960Thanks for listening to The Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
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