Richard Brzeczek exposes rural hospitals as lifelines for 5,000+ U.S. communities while slamming Chicago’s leadership: Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor J.B. Pritzker’s stand-down order left ICE agents trapped in Brighton Park, risking federal obstruction charges. He ties Chicago’s police corruption to Daley’s merit system and Emanuel’s cover-ups, like the LaQuan McDonald case, calling Johnson’s "ice-free zones" a felony and his Nixon comparisons delusional. Brzeczek warns of insurrection risks from Johnson’s anti-federal rhetoric and Chicago’s alleged vote-fixing, linking it to Trump’s Texas National Guard deployment and broader Democratic-era scandals. [Automatically generated summary]
Rural Americans deserve access to the best of what our nation has to offer, especially health care.
Across every state and every community, America's rural hospitals are the first line of defense, protecting our families, neighbors, and loved ones.
No matter where you live, hospital care doesn't clock out.
They're there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Each year, America's over 5,000 hospitals care for millions of patients, providing 24-7 emergency care, delivering babies, cancer treatments, and other life-saving care that patients rely on.
Behind every one of those patients are doctors, nurses, and caregivers working tirelessly to keep people healthy and safe.
Hospitals are our community's lifelines.
They employ our neighbors and keep our families healthy.
But now, some in Congress are threatening access to care.
Tell Congress, protect patient care to keep America strong.
Don't cut rural health care.
The Stone Zone.
Entertaining and informative.
On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
Welcome back into the Stone Zone.
Yesterday we had Mark Vargas, the editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review, reporting on the shocking developments in Chicago.
Yesterday, 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.
Turns out that stand down order came from the mayor and the governor themselves.
There's some question as to whether they have some serious legal liability, but 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 Brezak.
He 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.
And trust me, although she may have been a Mondale delegate, she definitely voted for Ronald Reagan.
But Richard, thank you for joining us today on the show.
I want to get your assessment of these shocking events.
The 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.
That's absolutely correct, Roger.
You have two people, Brandon Johnson, the DEI mayor of Chicago, that's dumb, evil, and incompetent.
Not the other DEI, but you got him, and you've got Pritzker, the wannabe next Democrat candidate for president 2028, trying to make a name for themselves with their continuing anti-police decisions and activity.
And when I say anti-police, they're telling the police to step down is not trying to protect the Chicago police from harm.
They're trying to really embarrass the police.
The 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, because that kind of order to stand down is disgraceful.
It's despicable.
It's a shameful, shameful order.
Well, 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.
And 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, and they may have personal liability for anyone who is injured.
And 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.
This is shocking that in the once great city of Chicago, where Richard J. Daly, I don't mean Richie Daly, I mean Mayor Daly, who's the mayor during the 1968 Democratic Convention, a man who was seen on national television but not heard saying two uncouth words at Abe Rybakoff, who was making an anti-war speech from the platform.
Daly was a stout supporter of the Vietnam War, Lyndon Baines Johnson's conduct of it, and he opposed those in his party like Eugene McCarthy and later Robert Kennedy, who broke with Johnson over the war.
So I saw that the president ordered the Texas National Guard or raised the Texas National Guard to send 300 guardsmen to Chicago.
Commissioner Brzak, is that, can they be effective with that smaller force?
Sure, that can be effective.
You know, well-trained personnel can be effective.
And 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.
The thing is, is that this is a political game being played by two amateurs, Brandon Johnson and J.B. Pritzker in Illinois.
And President Trump is absolutely correct.
It isn't, I'm not sure about the civil liability of the mayor and the governor because I've just not, I haven't really looked at that area of law recently, but 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, can subject them to criminal prosecution for interfering with a federal law enforcement officer.
And they don't really care.
Let me make clear to people, just so you know, Richard Brizak has not only served the city as probably their last great police commissioner, but he also is an attorney.
He was a partner at the firm of Levy and Ahrens, where he was specialized in commercial litigation, bankruptcy, and real estate law.
And later went into private practice, concentrating primarily in criminal defense with experience with civil jury trials, administrative hearings, criminal and civil practices, and the state and federal courts.
He's not just a law enforcement officer.
He's a skilled attorney.
So I give great weight to his words regarding the possible penalties here.
Richard is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School.
So it is, it's amazing to me that J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Johnson.
Johnson says the Republicans want a civil war, yet he's the guy who has hooligans throwing bricks, rocks, bottles, swinging clubs at police officers.
He's the one who has Antifa operatives surrounding and endangering ICE agents who are merely trying to carry out their responsibilities of arresting and deporting some of the most dangerous bio-criminals in society.
This administration recognizes that there are many people in the country illegally who are peaceful, and the emphasis has been on identifying those who have criminal records, either here or substantial criminal records where they came from and deporting them first.
But that is not being assisted by the Pritzker-Johnson Brigade.
The politicization of the Chicago Police Department, Richard, this is not something that happened yesterday, is it?
Rural Americans deserve access to the best of what our country has to offer, especially health care.
Across every state, every community, America's rural hospitals are the first line of defense, protecting our families, neighbors, and loved ones.
No matter where you live, hospital care doesn't clock out.
They're there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Each year, America's over 5,000 hospitals care for millions of patients, providing 24-7 emergency care, delivering babies, cancer treatments, and other life-saving care that patients rely on.
Behind every one of those patients are doctors, nurses, and caregivers working tirelessly to keep people healthy and safe.
Hospitals are our community's lifelines.
They employ our neighbors and keep our families healthy.
But now, some in Congress are threatening access to care.
Tell Congress, protect patient care to keep America strong.
Don't cut rural health care.
No, it isn't.
It started under Richard M. Daley, the second Daly mayor.
Richie.
He was the one that began the program with his so-called merit appointments in promotions.
These were people who couldn't pass promotional exams, but were promoted anyway because they had political connections.
And they were so bold to post the list of the political merit appointees as to who their sponsor was.
It could be an alderman.
It could be a state senator.
It could be a U.S. congressman or senator.
They posted their sponsor right there, made no bones about it.
I mean, you talk about chutzpah.
At least in the old days when they fixed the promotion list, they fixed it in secret and made it look like it was legitimate until the U.S. government civil rights division of the Justice Department came in in 1972 and legitimatized all the exams.
But what happens here is they just do what they want.
We see it not only in Chicago.
We saw it during the Biden administration in Washington.
You saw it in the Obama administration in Washington.
You see it with Hochel up in New York, you know, any place, Newsom in California.
They just do what they want.
They don't care about consequences because they're so corrupt.
It's gotten to the point where corruption to them is their new normal.
And that's the way it is.
And they've always been corrupt, but now it's openly, outwardly corrupt.
And 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.
They've been denied because of the vote fixing.
You know, it's been going on all the time.
Vote democracy.
Wait a minute, vote fixing in Chicago?
I've never heard of such a thing.
It's amazing.
A few days ago, Mayor Johnson signed an executive order that designates parts of the city of Chicago as ice-free zones.
The order bars city police from sharing information with federal immigrant officials or assisting in arrests involving illegals.
Johnson said the policy was intended to protect immigrant communities.
What about protecting the law-abiding citizens of the city of Chicago?
I guess he doesn't care about that.
By 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.
Anyone, 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.
So it sounds to me like Pritzker and the, pardon me, Johnson and perhaps Pritzker, if he also was a party of this, which you know he was, could have a serious problem.
Additionally, other legal analysts point out that 18 U.S. Code's 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.
And then, of course, 18 U.S. Code 1505 criminalizes obstruction of federal proceedings or investigations, carrying an additional penalty for up to five years.
I'll tell you this, J.B. Pritzker would lose some weight in prison, that's for sure.
Well, 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.
But the problem is that these people simply want to demonstrate their pejorative ignorance.
You know, Johnson would be better off if he created ice-free zones in his frozen brain.
It would maybe loosen up a little bit, and he could see what the law is and what people are entitled to in terms of overall safety.
Brandon Johnson is an embarrassment.
First of all, he has a 6% approval rating.
My sources tell me that he's in and out of the hospital with panic attacks.
He's not up to this job.
He 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.
That's an act of insurrection.
I think that's highly illegal.
He also said, this shocks me, but I do love it.
Richard Nixon's Impact00:05:35
He said that all of the problems of the city of Chicago, including the rise in crime, were Richard Nixon's fault.
Richard Nixon's been dead for, Richard Nixon's been dead for 40 years.
I think what this lame brand was trying to say is that Nixon's southern strategy is the cause of New York, of the country's racial problems.
Let's be very clear.
Richard Nixon, who desegregated the public schools, 86% of public schools were segregated when Nixon became president.
When he left office, that number was 16, with no bloodshed, done totally legally through lawsuits.
Nobody killed, no violence.
Richard Nixon, who tripled the funding for black colleges.
Richard Nixon, who increased ninefold civil rights law enforcement in the U.S. Justice Department.
Richard Nixon, who gave us affirmative action, which many of my conservative friends despise, but was a huge leg up for the black community.
So 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.
So 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.
So 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.
You would expect that they could have the local police at their back as opposed to standing by idly as their lives are endangered.
Anyway, we're with Richard Brezak.
He's the former commissioner of Chicago Police and will be right back.
The Stone Zone.
Entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
Thank you for staying with us here in the Stone Zone.
We're talking to Richard Brezak, the former commissioner of the Chicago Police Department in the once great Guindy City.
Chicago used to be known as a city that worked.
That's when Richard J. Daley was mayor, succeeded by his able taxi commissioner, Jane Byrne, who was a great woman, a great mayor.
She served when Richard Brezak was the police commissioner.
I think the police, the Chicago Police Department really went downhill under Ram Emmanuel in an incredible scandal where the department essentially hid evidence regarding a shooter shooting of, I think it was an African-American by officers who were white.
Tell us about that, Richard.
That was the LaQuan McDonald case.
What happened is there probably were two dozen to 15 officers at the scene.
Nobody had their guns out.
The kid was a little hyper and he had a small knife in his hand, although you can get hurt by a small knife very seriously.
And they were keeping him at bay.
And 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.
Even after he went down, he was shooting into his body.
And 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.
And one car had an in-car camera that happened to be going.
And it caught the whole thing.
It would happen right in front of that car's camera.
And all hell broke loose.
Not right away, because while the bosses and Rob Emmanuel 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, but an independent reporter who got a Freedom of Information Act request granted by a judge who ordered the video to be released.
And they went into high gear, the Democrats, state's attorney, the prosecutor, the county, indicted the shooting officer the day before the judge released the video.
So, you know, everything was, you know, CYA.
CYA.
Wow, that's extraordinary.
Yeah, Rob Emmanuel, who I hear, by the way, is actually thinking about running for president.
I know that sounds crazy, but he recognizes the total absence of a field.
And he is a wily, canny guy who understands the game.
Not an admirer by any means, but he didn't get to be mayor of Chicago for no reason.
He did not get to elect a president for no reason.
All right, I'm afraid we have to leave it there.
I want to thank our guest, former Police Commissioner Richard Brizak, who always brings the heat and the real authority on what's going on on the ground in the windy city.
Rob Emmanuel's Presidential Ambitions00:01:45
Thank you for joining us today on the Stone Zone.
We are here five days a week.
And here we talk news, politics, history, and food, my other favorite subject.
Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.
Thanks for listening to the Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
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So you never have to wonder what the heck is going on here.
Rural Americans deserve access to the best our nation has to offer, especially when it comes to health care.
Across every state and every community, America's rural hospitals are the first line of defense, protecting our families, neighbors, and loved ones.
No matter where you live, hospital care doesn't clock out.
They're there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Each year, America's over 5,000 hospitals care for millions of patients, providing 24-7 emergency care, delivering babies, cancer treatments, and other life-saving care that patients rely on.
Behind every one of those patients are doctors, nurses, and caregivers working tirelessly to keep people healthy and safe.
Hospitals are our community's lifelines.
They employ our neighbors and keep our families health.
But now, some in Congress are threatening access to care.
Tell Congress, protect patient care to keep America strong.