Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's executive order barring city police from working with federal agents is "a bunch of silly nonsense" that ignores the reality of crime in the city, retired Chicago police Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith told Newsmax on Sunday.
"Well, you know, I served in the Chicago suburbs, but like a lot of Chicago cops, I worked on a task force that involved federal law enforcement," Smith said on Newsmax's "Sunday Agenda." "Johnson's cops are already working with federal law enforcement. I read that executive order twice. It's a bunch of silly nonsense."
Johnson has signed an executive order that bars the Chicago Police Department from assisting federal authorities with immigration enforcement or other related patrols or actions, directing all city departments to guard residents' constitutional rights "amidst the possibility of imminent militarized immigration or National Guard deployment by the federal government."
"All he is doing is opening the door for the federal government to come in," said Smith. "If he won't let his police officers help federal law enforcement, then the National Guard is going to have to come in and do it."
Smith said Chicago politicians and liberal activists are insulated from the dangers that residents face daily, telling Newsmax that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Johnson, both Democrats, "don't have to worry about their own safety."
"You see all these far-left influencers taking their little selfies from the beach and going to the farmers market in Lincoln Park," she said. "I challenge them to go to Gresham and go to Austin and go to so many of these other neighborhoods and see what is happening. Take a look at the 25 people who were shot just in the last 30 hours and the 25-year-old woman who was murdered yesterday."
The former sergeant added that Chicago's leadership has sided against law enforcement. "Crime is out of control in Chicago, but for some reason, Brandon Johnson embraces the criminals, not the cops," Smith said.
"We all know he hates law enforcement," she added. "He hates his own police department. It's eventually going to be up to either the state or the feds to take care of this problem."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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