Locked In with Ian Bick - Ex-NYPD Transit Cop Reveals Subway Crime Secrets, Survival Tips & NYPD Corruption | Tony Hernandez

Episode Date: November 10, 2024

Tony Hernandez, a former NYPD transit cop, shares his insider knowledge on subway crime, how to stay safe on public transit, and the realities of NYPD corruption. In this episode, Tony discusses the risks that commuters face daily, what to do if you’re pushed onto subway tracks, and the hidden challenges within the NYPD. His experiences offer a unique look at life in NYC’s transit system, the dangers below the city, and the hard truths about working within law enforcement. #NYPD #SubwayCrime #TransitSafety #ExCopReveals #NYPDCorruption #NYCSubway #CrimeSurvival #PublicSafety Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with Tony Hernandez: IG: https://www.instagram.com/corruptionconnection?igsh=MTllNGxsaWN4cTE0NA%3D%3D YT: https://www.youtube.com/@CorruptionConnection TikTok: tiktok.com/@corruptionconnection?_t=8iZvptpDq4w&_r=1 Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://www.ianbick.com/shop Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 Growing Up in Mafia-Ruled Queens 00:06:40 Nostalgic Reflections on Growing Up 00:13:10 Early Exposure to the Street Life 00:19:18 Understanding Dr*g Culture and Its Risks 00:29:58 Transition from Entrepreneurship to Law Enforcement 00:31:39 Journey from Restaurant Business to NYPD 00:37:18 NYPD's Historical Corruption 00:43:31 Corruption in Law Enforcement and Politics 00:49:43 Crimes on the New York Subway System 00:55:57 Challenges of Subway Safety and Communication 01:01:44 Subway Safety Concerns: Pushes and Risks 01:07:47 Chasing Robbery Suspects on Subway Tracks 01:13:39 Transition to Detective Work 01:20:01 Challenges of Working in NYC During Parades 01:25:41 Challenges in Modern Policing 01:31:13 Starting a YouTube Crime Series 01:37:21 Upcoming Events and Future Plans Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at Mintmobile.com. Tony, welcome to Lockton, man. Thanks for coming on the show. Glad we can make this happen. Thank you for having me, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, we always love former law enforcement on the show, and I saw you on Johnny Mitchell's show, and you have an interesting story. Yeah, definitely. Shout out to Johnny Mitchell, like, I appreciate him having me on, too. You know, that kind of gave me my entrance into this whole thing, you know, like I'm a mob historian by choice now,

whatever, you know, I have a channel called Corruption Connection. But on that channel, I kind of discussed different mob stories, history. It's almost like a crime noir series, you know. Those old school, like, gum-shoe detectives walking around. Like a huge inspiration of mine was Bill Curtis, watching those A&E documentaries and stuff. And then, you know, me growing up in New York City, you know, kind of just surrounded by the mob life. You know what I mean? And I chose a different path.

We ended up going to the NYPD. And, you know, that kind of just leads me back to, I guess, my, beginning of the story, you know. I'm from Queens, born and raised there. It's a section that's called, we called it the Hill. It's called Queensboro Hill on the map. It borders the LIE and Main Street. So where I grew up, actually, I could walk to Shea Stadium as a kid right through the park. It was like maybe a five-minute walk. So, of course, I was a Mets fan growing up, you know what I mean? And the neighborhood was a lot different back then. You know, I think New York City in general was a lot different back then, you know, it's gone through so many changes recently.

and you know growing up was was pretty normal for the most part or whatever it's it was a little cut out of suburbia in a big city you know five minutes anyway and you're dealing with big city problems but you kind of lived on tree line streets that's the neighborhood it was back then growing up so you know so you know in that neighborhood just like everybody else you run around the streets you get to know the kids you get into a little trouble but you know you're kind of okay And in that neighborhood was always like, it was a generational neighborhood, you know. So it was like the early European immigrants, Italian, Irish, German, that kind of makeup. And they were there for about three, four generations.

Like my grandmother's family got there in the 40s. They actually were from Corona, which was across the park as well. And that was a heavy Italian-American neighborhood as well. My grandmother's Italian. So when they moved over to the hill, you know, they kind of just moved from those apartments or whatever. and they got into like, you know, house, streetline street, back yard, you know, like who would want to move there, away from there, you know, who would want to move away from there

after they got there? So it quickly became a generational neighborhood. And in that generational neighborhood, like most other Italian-American neighborhoods, you know, the mafia was present. There was undertones of organized crime, you know. And examples were my grandmother would play cards, you know, all day with the old ladies. I'd be running around neighborhood popping on a card game.

or whatever, go across the street, get a bite of tea from one of the other old lady's house. And during those times or whatever, those card games will run by local organized crime. You know, the guy would come off to drop the cigarettes, you know, you get the legal cigarettes. It was just, they would take numbers too. It was that kind of neighborhood, you know, kind of reminiscent to some of the films that you'll see in organized crime, you know, Goodfellas, the popular ones. The neighborhoods were really like that. And then slowly but surely, like, you know, as different immigrants came in, you know,

it now if you see flushing, it's predominantly Chinese. I think it has the largest concentrations of Chinese people outside of China, more than Chinatown, actually, in flushing. Wow. Yeah. And when did that start to happen? The changes, was that in recent years or kind of around your time when you were growing up? Yeah, I saw that transition personally, actually.

So like I said, as a kid, my earliest memories were there was a main strip, main street, let's say, from the LIE to, let's say, about Booth Memorial Avenue. If you look on the map, you'll see what I'm talking about. And in that strip, kind of set the tone for what the neighborhood was. So you had the, you had a few different bars, okay, it was one on the corner, bars that have been there for years, you know, with the Irish Clovers outside, old sign, been there for 50-year kind of bars, you know. You can still see some of it now, but not really. So during that time, whatever, I'd say late 90s, it was still very diverse. So in regards to, you had a deli on the.

corner that was maybe a German deli. Then you had an Irish bar, then you had an Italian pizzeria. And it was very mixed, you know, and then the Asian businesses started coming in. You know what I mean? It was a lot of mom and pop shops. And I think this is relevant to a lot of America, not just this particular section of Queens, you know, a lot of other places in New York City experience the same thing. You saw the first Chinese own business come in. Then you saw the second, then you saw the third. And I want to say, and this happened a little bit before my time, but it started, it happened a lot way before my time, but it started in downtown flushing, like where the

seven train stops. It didn't really move all the way up to where, you know, we were located by the LIE until I would say, like, the mid to late 90s. And that was when you saw the transition of the old guard and the old people dying, the generations moving out, and the business has changed along that strip. And when the business has changed, it kind of reflected the next. neighborhood around it. Every single business now is Chinese and it kind of just, you know, gave way to what it is now. If you go back there on that strip, from the time that I grew up,

there is one pizzeria that's lasted. That's it. Like owned, that's not Asian owned. How safe was it growing up, like walking on the streets? Very safe. Very safe. I never had a problem. Like I said, you had those inner city feelings, like you could get robbed mug, drug dealing going on, that kind of stuff. But normally, you know, Italian-American mafia neighbors, they're normally very safe, you know? It's the problem is when, you know, the presence of those people start to flee, they go to jail, they die, they get arrested, the neighborhood changes, other immigrants and people move in or whatever. It kind of, you know, I don't want to say, it just, it transitions into a different kind of neighborhood, that old guard that kind of had that protection. And that's

what the mafia did to their neighbors. They protected their neighbors. People say it all the time. You could leave your car doors open. You leave your door open. You could run in and out of each other's house. My mother told me that she used to sleep in the alley between the houses, a little girl's. Imagine her and her sisters and friends. You think little girls can do that today, sleeping in an alley between house anywhere in New York City. It would be very dangerous. You know what I mean? So it's just a different time. But in my time, it was still a really nice place to grow up. You know, you kind of just knew everybody. I could walk to Main Street, which was maybe five blocks away from my house. say hello to 10 people along the way.

Oh, this is so-and-so's house, this is his house, this is the house. You know what I mean? Like people would be sitting outside. Now I could walk around a whole neighborhood and I don't know anybody, you know. And I think that resonates with a lot of people in New York City. You see that in places like Williamsburg, too, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You know, I spent a lot of time there growing up as a kid. My family has a lot of roots there as well.

And that neighborhood is totally different now. You know, at one point it was one of the most dangerous places in New York City. I remember going in the car with my father going to work, right? And we'd be driving on, let's say, towards Broadway, like going down under the train or whatever. And I would see in Williamsburg, and I would see like these girls in like bikinis and stuff. And I was young, you know, he was like, Dad, why are they in their bathing suits?

And he'd be like, don't look at that, whatever. And then, like, as you get older, you realize that's open-air prostitution going on. And that was all over the place there. Now, if you look at Williamsburg, some of the most expensive real estate in the whole country. I hear in some instances, it's more expensive than Manhattan. Wow. Why do you think like street gangs didn't follow kind of those, you know, codes that the mafia had with kind of, you know,

keeping the neighborhood safe and not really violent? I think that the mob and street gangs are two different things. So a lot of mobsters are former street gang members. If you look at street gang, even one of the most famous now on YouTube, Sammy the Bull, he talks about his years and the rampers and stuff like that. It's two, they're similar, but they're two very different organizations. gangs a lot of the time there's no rules you know what i mean they act on impulse they're more about

unity respect you know that kind of thing whatever you know territory and stuff the mob in my opinion a businessman you know what i mean and anybody who's been around a real monster knows that they are the most upstanding gentleman people when you're around they're so respectful they're very nice they're off you anything whatever but when you do business with them It's, you're dealing with a whole different animal, you know what I mean? And they're gangsters at the end of the day. But they're gentlemen, you know, and I think that gang members, you know, don't have that. You know, a lot of gang members are disrespectful, you know?

Do you know any gang members that are, like, hey, how you doing? No, it's totally different. Yeah, it's very different. You got to watch a gang, they do a lot more street crimes. You know, you have to watch your back. You know what I mean? With a mobster, you know, he's not going to do petty crime and rob you. You know what I mean?

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with some fresh merch. Do you think that those street gangs have made New York City, you know, more dangerous with the, you know, the mob kind of fading in the background and street gangs kind of taking over? Oh, a thousand percent. I mean, on the end, on the intro of my channel, you'll hear a guy say, I would rather deal with organized crime than disorganized crime. That's the famed French connection heroin detective, rest in peace, Sunny Grasso. That's actually him saying that. He investigated the mob back in the 60s when heroin was very prevalent. It was all over New York City, right?

It was heroin capital of America. When he did the investigation in far as breaking all these guys down, it was all controlled by organized crime. And when he said that, it was in 19. And he said this personally, a cop. I would rather deal with organized crime and disorganized crime. Because in organized crime, only certain people could do, you know, engage in narcotics. Now that drugs have been available to everybody and organized crime doesn't have that grass on the importation of drugs anymore. You know, anybody can be out there doing whatever they wanted to do.

And that leads to chaos. There's no order. There's no structure. You know what I mean? And that's that resonates in those neighborhoods. I was saying as well. You know, you can't go where John Gotti's old hangout was, the Bergen hunting fish over there in Ozone Park, you know, I'm sure it was a very safe neighborhood. It's not that safe anymore. Yeah. What about high school for you? What was that like?

So I went after, you know, let's say the 90s or whatever, you know, I start coming up age or whatever and I go to schools in my neighborhood. But then for junior high school, I got shipped out of my neighborhood. I got zoned to a school that was on a flushing Jamaica border. It was called Parsons at the time. It was a very, it was like in the middle of the projects. It was like a hood school. I think that's why I developed a little bit of my sense of the streets, you know what I mean, being comfortable around street people and stuff because I didn't really see that side. I was in a nice neighborhood or whatever. I kind of, you know, grew up around businessman. I knew that they were serious men. I just didn't know that extent, you know, because I was still kind of young.

And I want to say what may be like, you know, what are you going into junior high school, 12, 13, somewhere around there. And you know who like gangsters are, like you said, you know. So when I got to that school, it was a whole Crip school. So, you know, I was okay in the school, whatever, but I started to like it, like every other young guy or whatever, you know. And I started gravitating towards that, gravitating towards the street life, you know what I mean, kind of seeing what it was about. The projects were right there. The kids that lived in those projects went to the school that I was in. got thrown into a whole different environment here,

but I'm kind of like a chameleon, you know, I fit in where I go, you know. I don't try to cause waves, you know, I'm kind of laid-back guy. So, you know, I got there or whatever, and I saw that street influence now, and that just had like a grasp on me right away, you know what I mean? I wanted to be that guy with the nice clothes that eventually was going to get the nice car, had nice jewelry chains, and how do you usually do that, hanging around kids in the project? You saw drugs and all that kind of stuff.

So what do you start out with? Marijuana, you know. got introduced to marijuana and saw that that was something that I could do. I liked it, started smoking young. I don't know how old that was, but, you know, early teens, let's say. And then I started getting into the marijuana game a little bit, you know, dipping and dabbling. Nothing of ever anything crazy or whatever.

But when I got to high school, my dad saw me gravitating towards the streets, you know, and my dad grew up around wise guys his whole life. He understands that life. He never wanted anything to do with it. He was always, I guess, on the... outskirts of it bumping against it every once in a while because he worked for them in their legitimate businesses you know what i mean and when a mob guy has a legit business it can never really be 100% clean you know you're always going to see something a little some illegality going on that

you need to keep your mouth shut about and you know my dad and my uncle they were trusted men so they were around that and he saw me gravitating towards the street life whatever you know sometimes i come home smelling like weed just the way that i dressed you know what i mean it was street style you know, like gangst style, whatever. And, you know, he gave me an ultimatum, you know, because he saw that, you know, and I was 16 or 17. And he said, listen, guy, you know, at that point, the grade school, the junior high school I was in, went 70 and 9.

So technically I did freshman year in that school. So when I was about to go into 10, so I think I was like 16 or 17, I ain't gotten arrested. And that was like the last straw. It was kind of a messed up arrest. After I became a cop or whatever, I discovered out that those guys were totally illegal in searching me and stuff like that. I just fit the prototype, I guess, the look and everything like that.

And stopping frisk was crazy at that time in New York City. So I was coming out of this known record store that sold baggies, and I had a mistake. I did have a bag of weed on me. Personal use, but, you know, it was just one thing led to another. I thought it was getting robbed. I pulled the gun out on me. Yeah, imagine, you know, you're like 16, 17,

Like I've seen gums before, but get one right in your face or whatever. I was like, damn, I'm about to get robbed. So that kind of put a little halt on my weed involvement dealing days or whatever. You know, I wound up getting locked up. You know, they identify themselves, police, blah, blah, blah. I got a prison. So my father, having nothing to want to do with the street life, even though he could have went into that life full force

and been like, you know, someone significant, whatever, at least from his connections. You know, he was very upset, you know. So he was like, listen, like, you know, I could have. have been someone. We could have went that way. I didn't want to go that way. Now you're going to be some fucking petty criminal. You know,

it was like a really big deal. And I was like, damn, you know, like what am I doing? But I couldn't, I couldn't just shake it because he was telling me to, you know?

I still had that like angst, like, well, whatever, you know, but he gave me an ultimatum. And when you got an ultimatum, you have to make a choice. Military school, shipped away or Catholic school. What a choice.

My father didn't play no games, you know? And he knew you got to get this kid out of here in a different environment, you know? If he goes to high school here, which my local high school was John Bound. And if you look up some of the worst high schools around that time, let's say early 2000s or whatever, John Bound was on the list.

Metal detectors going in, kids getting shot, kids getting stabbed, tons of drugs. It would have been, I definitely could have gone deeper into the street or whatever and not in a good way. You know, I could have wound up going the wrong way there, you know? So these kids that are in the street around your age, do you think that's what they were missing, that father figure or a parent figure in general that could say, hey, you have two options, you know, and to get you on the right track? See, it's hard to say that. I think it depends on the individual, but I do think that having a father,

president of household, does have a major influence. And I'll tell you why. I had a kid in my neighborhood, same age, same thing, whatever. And he was into doing petty crimes and got locked up for petty crimes, and it just like kept going and going and going, you know? And he did some time in jail and got out, did some time in jail. And you could tell it was because of lack of the father figure. You know what I mean?

Like when I was like, damn, going home, I got to go home. My father's fucking, you know, he's going to beat my ass or whatever. There was nobody beating his ass. He stayed out there, whatever, and who knows what he got into. And eventually he got locked up for petty crimes and everything else. So I think, yeah, I think having a strong father figure, you know, that you feared. I feared my father when I was a kid, you know, he was a strong, intimidating man, you know, who got respect from very scary and dangerous people.

So, of course, I had to respect and fear him, you know what I mean? Did you look up to him and kind of want to become like that? Uh, my father? Yeah. Well, yeah, of course. I followed in his footsteps, you know, like he was in the restaurant business. Before I was a police officer, that's what I did. I was in the restaurant business.

You know what I mean? But I, you know, I kind of had my own way about it because I wanted to do street shit or whatever, and he didn't want nothing about that. Because I guess because he saw the dirty part of it as a kid that he didn't even want to get into that because he knew what could happen. Even if you start small, it gets big and it could be a problem. You know, he's seen people get killed, family members of his, you know? What about communities? How important do you think that is on where the child grows up to influence their surroundings?

Like, for instance, if you stayed in your old community and didn't switch schools, do you think you would have even dabbled in, you know, selling drugs or getting caught up in any trouble? When you say selling drugs, it's different because I could, like, I got to just stop you on that one or whatever because I stuck to the marijuana game. Was their kids dipping dabbling and coke and heroin and all that stuff at the same age and doing running, you know, runners and doing shit, dropping off packages for older guys. Yeah, they were. I could have easily got into that. But for me, the crimes that I felt, I have a moral compass in a way. You know what I mean?

The things that I were doing, like marijuana dealing, was no big deal to me. I was like, what do you do with that? Can you dial for that? Can you overdose on that, whatever? And if you could, it was fine. I didn't see the dangers in marijuana, you know? And I was an A-plus student, too, as I was smoking, you know? It didn't really affect me at all, you know?

It wasn't like, it was just like leisure kind of stuff. You know what I mean? So the things that I did in the gambling, too, that was something I was into. Those, to me, were, like, harmless vices that I didn't consider, you know, being that bad. However, going back to your question or whatever, like, kids that do grow up around that lifestyle, are they influenced by their surroundings? Like, I saw those drug dealers. I've saw it all that kind of stuff.

It's in you or what you want to do, you know what I mean? You could easily be influenced, but you got to know, going down that path, what it's going to lead to? You can't be naive about it. You know what I mean? I knew, like, the second you move from Maryland, I wanted to cocaine right now or whatever, even if it's dipping and dabbling or at the time a lot of guys used to like to do the vikes or used to call them the footballs. Used to get them for like two for five, pop one of those with a beer, and you would be set.

Like, you know, you'd feel like you were having a six-pack, so it were really popular, you know, especially with like high school, college kids. And, you know, for that instance, you know, you know that if you level up, you're going to get more problems and it could get dangerous right now. You know what I mean? People on Coke don't think or whatever. got to deal with some really shady characters, you know, and especially like, cocaine, if they know you got it, they want it, whatever, you know.

So you might have to deal with some people that you don't want to deal with. For the most part, weed is whatever. So I think the kids that are in those environments know what they're getting into. Because everybody knows who these inner city neighborhoods knows who the weed man is, who the crack guy is, who's the guy to get guns from, who's the guy that runs the gambling spot, who's the guy that got the prostitutes on the blade. You know, it's all very intertwined. Everybody knows what's going on in their neighborhood.

And that's inner city. Even if you go to the Italian-American neighborhoods, you know the gambling spots, you know everything that's going on. And I could say that you're influenced, but not everybody goes down those paths. You know what I mean? You could be. But if it's the only thing you see around you, it's understood. But it's not the only thing you see around you nowadays. You know what I mean?

The internet. You could, you know, there's kids that get influenced by neighborhoods they've never even been. I'm Hannah. I've lost 75 pounds in 20 months with G. PL1s plus diet and exercise. On row, I've gone from struggling to run a mile to running farther every day. You can access FDA approved GLP1s online. Get the support you need to reach your weight loss goals. Go to row.com slash weight to see if you qualify. I'm a paid row partner. 20% average weight loss in one year in non-diabetics with obesity or overweight with a weight-related

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extreme level and and you knew what was right and wrong do you think every kid is born with that with those morals or did that have to get taught to you? I don't know that's a little too deep for me to actually look into as far as like you know I have a degree in sociology but like that you know I study people I try to like study behaviors and stuff and as far as like instinct versus environment and, you know, basically what you're referring to. But, you know, I can't say that, I think that at an early age,

most kids know right from wrong. You know that if you, if they tell you not to touch that pot or whatever and you touch it and you get burned, you know not to touch it again. You know, a basic level of understanding, you know, consequences. Okay. So as far as kids not knowing the lifestyle, if they're easily influenced by a, you know, someone who's a little older that maybe they look up to

and that's like the cool guy or whatever and they want to emulate that, that's one thing, you know? Or they're getting influenced to do that, like, hey, you know, it's cool. And they're not aware of the consequences. But I think a lot of kids know right from wrong at an early age. So they know like, damn, if I go down this path or whatever, I'm going to wind up here. If I go, there's enough information out there nowadays, especially in, you know, our generation,

we're probably a generation apart. But, you know, our generation, my generation, your generation, and past generation and one before me to know cause and effect. Like, if you do this, you will wind up here. If you do this, you'll wind up there. Yeah, totally fair. So after high school, where do you go off to? So I go to high school now and I chose Catholic school.

So in that Catholic school or whatever, you know, I still was gravitating towards the street life. Just because you go to a circumstance, let's say you change your circumstances and you're in a different environment now, doesn't mean that there isn't criminality. And I mean, you can attest to this. You know, you don't look like the typical criminal. We're just talking about that. When I told you what happened to me, you're like, you're like, you're white collar? You know, right away.

The next thing I know, this guy is like the cocaine kingpin or whatever I never heard about. I wish I sold drugs. Well, I don't actually wish that. But like, it would have been different, you know, a different outcome. It would have been an interesting story. sure, but you got a great story. So why Catholic school? Why did you pick out of those two?

I didn't pick. I mean, I had a choice. It was either get sent away from military school or go to Catholic school. And I had nice long hair at the time. I would have picked military school. You would have picked military school? Yeah, because what you hear about Catholic school growing up, it's like if it's an all men's cat, that sounds like miserable.

No, no, no, no. My father wouldn't do that to me. You know what I mean? You know, he wanted me to get in line. He didn't want me to be gay over it. You know? But he was like, you know, listen. Like, you're going to go to Catholic school, whatever.

And a lot of my family that preceded me, you know, it's weird because my family has a, it's, it's the perfect Queens New York City story. Half of them are in organized crime and half of them are a police department. And we all were together at family parties and this and that. And it's just the way of life in New York City. A lot of people can attest it at. So going to Catholic school was kind of like, you're going to be like, you know, your older cousins who went there and now they got a good life.

Like I got an older cousin who's an FBI agent. He's like a straight arrow. And I'm like, you know, like, still bucking it, but like, all right, I'm going to go. So what I did was now it's like, you know, uniform and you got to go to this Catholic school, and I went to a Catholic school called St. Francis Prep, you know, and it's a notorious school for a lot of, you know, well-to-do individuals from the neighborhood, you know. So in there, who goes to those well-to-do schools, like the sons of organized crime people and others?

So it kind of gravitated towards those people myself, you know. And that was with the gambling, you know. They had the football she's, probably got it from their fathers, and we would gamble. And my cousins went to this school. So I already knew he's like, oh, you start gambling? And I'm like, yeah, of course. Like, you know, it was just like a thing. And what do I do?

You gravitate to what you know. Like, started getting into familiar with the guys who smoke wheat, you know? And then I started taking it to a new level now because you went from dealing with kids in the projects. And, you know, you're kind of getting wheat. I had nice, some significant weed connects or whatever, you know, around the city, especially in Washington Heights is at the time it was called the Home of the Hays, some of the best weed you could ever find. So when I would bring that around, it was like, where the fuck did you get this? Like those kids from Catholic school were not going to the streets of Washington Heights to buy weed, maybe a few, but not like that.

So when I would bring that stuff, forget it. It was like, yo, I need like an ounce of this for my party. You want a whole ounce of this shit? Like an ounce back down was going for like $4,500, you know? And I could easily put on $50, $500 on that. So it was like, it was a whole new like revenue stream. So, you know, I was still dipping in Davv. in the street or whatever and I guess at that point whatever I was smoking to whatever party lifestyle and all this stuff and and that went on for years you know in you know in the restaurant business a lot of my revenue came a lot of my income came from being in the restaurant business I made more money than I would ever make selling marijuana what do you do in the restaurant so when I was at this whole

time whatever as I'm growing up like I said I was always an a student you know I was maybe B plus whatever because I was lazy I wouldn't study for testing shit and I would go and get in there. Literally before, I'd give it like a nice little look or whatever, because I like consciously listen in class sometimes or whatever, you know, because at that time, you didn't have cell phones like that. Maybe had some text phones. I used to text on the little flip phones and stuff, you know, so. You could do it on one hand. Yeah, quick, quick, you know, a text like that. But, you know, you kind of had to pay attention in class. The only other thing was maybe staring out the window or something or if you had like a magazine or some shit, you know,

there wasn't really anything to distract. So I guess I would consciously listen to to the stuff going on in school or whatever, and I would do very well in school. So I never left school. I went all the way, whatever, I went pretty far as far as degrees and stuff. And at the same time, when I was very young, like I said, my dad and my uncle, they were working in the restaurant business themselves. They ran tons of restaurants and bars and stuff like that in the Brooklyn-Queen's area. So when I was young, I gravitated towards that.

You know what I mean? I wanted to go to work with my father at a young age, whatever I was doing. You know, he would take me on the holidays, something. Sometimes 4th of July so I could see the fireworks and stuff. And at that time, you know, me and my cousin were very young running around. We would be opening the doors for people and people would give us money. So, you know, at that age, like, you know, you're six, seven years old. You're opening doors for people or whatever.

And you don't know. You know, it's just a restaurant, a catering hall, whatever, whatever he was at that time, whatever. And you're opening the doors and you're getting some money. So then, like, dad, I made like 10 bucks or whatever, you know. A couple people give you a dollar. Like, what do you want to do at 7 years old? You want to come back like tomorrow? the next day, the next day, like, you want to go and go and keep getting more money and more money

or whatever, you know? So my dad, that's how I got started. My dad would bring me on the holidays of special occasions and then, you know, it wasn't an official job. I would just be there, maybe I would get nothing, but I would just sit there open the door, we watch the fireworks, hang out, free fool, my dad, you know, all this stuff, people coming and going. And I was like my foray into the restaurant. So I started, you know, running around with the valet guys, knowing them, and then I started Cochek, and then from Cochek, I started a busboy, and for a busboy I work my way up to running various restaurants and catering halls around the city. So you've always had a really good work ethic.

Yeah, I've always been a hustler, man. If I told you everything I've done throughout that, there's a lot of little caveats or whatever as far as business, you know, like legit businesses. You know, I was a huge eBay seller before that was even popular. I was in the perfume business. Like I did so many things, man, like entrepreneurial stuff. I guess the biggest question is why would you then become a cop if you'd you? You were so entrepreneurial, you know? That's kind of like the opposite of what an entrepreneur would do.

It was a quarter life crisis that I had. So I guess I'm like a bull, you know, like when I see red and I'm concentrated on a target, I'm going for it. But then when the bull doesn't see the red anymore, he kind of calms down. You know what I mean? Like, you're just looking around figuring out what to do, you know? And that's my sign. I'm a tourist, you know? So I think I follow that kind of path.

So when I have my mindset on something, my goal, nothing's going to stop me. I'm going to go. Even if it works, it doesn't work. If I get beat up along the way, I'm going for it. You know what I mean? And that's, like, commendable in a way. But then I was 20s, you know, around there or whatever, like, late 20s. And I was like, damn, like, you know, I got, I'm an entrepreneur, but I have no medical insurance.

You know what I mean? And I went to the dentist and I had a pain in my tooth. And I had to get a root canal. And at that time, you know how much it cost me out of pocket, like almost four grand. And I was like $4,000 as an entrepreneur at that time or whatever. We're talking 20 years ago, 15 years ago, whatever. That was a lot of money for me, you know? I was like, damn, that's like a month of revenue here in this business.

And then I'm going to have to make it up here. And I was like talking to my friend or whatever. And he's like, sure, I just got like 10 grand of work done in my mouth. I was like, oh, man, that sucks. He's like, you know what I know how much I paid? I said how much? He's like, zero. I was like, excuse me?

He's like, I paid zero. I was like, what kind of insurance you have? He was like, oh, the NYPD, they gave you the dental, this, and that. I'm like, you really pay nothing out of your pocket. And he had root canals. He had this. He had a bridge, all this kind of stuff. And it started going in my mind or whatever.

Like, as good as it is, being an entrepreneur, medical insurance out of your pocket is expensive as hell. You know what I mean? So it's like, you're getting some benefits here. You know what I mean? And the things that I was doing, all the different hustles, right? It wasn't really a career per se. I could have had a nice career in the restaurant business, but anything.

Anyone who knows about the restaurant business is extremely risky and a lot of them fail. So at this point, I didn't have my own spot. I eventually ventured out and opened up my own spot. I had a pizza rear in the Bronx at one point. But it wasn't at that, it was at that point, whatever, where I said, you know what, like, the hustling and the entrepreneur also had to keep me social. So by social means, I had to be out every night. I was around a lot of people.

I was, you know, in and out of a lot of places that maybe I shouldn't have been hanging out. And it wanes on you, you know what I mean? The drinking, the not sleeping. I'd stay away for days sometimes. Functioning, you know? I had to go to school the next day or whatever, but I'm about partying all night.

I'd show up to class, you know? I had to go to work or whatever, you know? I'd sometimes sleep in my car because I drank too much or whatever and just go right back in, same clothes, same everything, whatever from the night before, you know? That's not a sustainable lifestyle. You know what I mean?

So I was like in the back of my head, you know, where are you going with this, you know? So when I had floated the idea to, like I said, I had a lot of friends that I had made throughout the years in the restaurant business, you know, upper restaurant and police people, from all different walks of life I met people. But in this instance, I had went to them and I had family members who are on YPD as well, and I was like, I'm thinking about becoming a cop.

And they were like, what? And they were like, what, you know? And, you know, someone who would break my balls. Like, oh, yeah, what are you going to do? What picture are you going to use? The woman that you took with your mugshot and you got to run? You know? Because I look like a straight gangster in that picture.

I can't find that. I got to look for it. I used to have corn rolls, so I got like the nighty rights. I'm all like that. I look straight like a gangster. So they were like, you want to become NYPD?

So the wheels, I guess, started turning in their head. And they were like, all right, you know, aren't you, I reached out to one of the guys that I knew who was a member of the department with a significant status. He held a significant sway at the time.

And he invited me to a dinner. And I used to go to a lot of these dinners as a civilian, you know, not on the NYPD, just networking, you know? So I met a lot of these people before I was actually on the job, you know, a lot of them. So when I got on the job, it was almost like I was just, you know, it was nothing different, whatever. So I go to this networking event and it's actually at a mobbed-up catering hole in Howard Beach. It's called Romoview. So it's probably still there or whatever, you know, it's like known mobbed-up neighborhood, right? And I meet three operational on police people, whatever, and they kind of like ambush me.

I thought I was going there for dinner, hang out, say hello, whatever. And I did, but they were like, hey, you know, I heard you want to go to NYPD. I was like, yeah, I'm thinking about it. I was like, what do you think about undercover work? And I was just like, yeah, you know, like, you know, but in my head, I'm like, you know, you don't want to say it. It's kind of not intimidating, but you're like, you're ambush. So you're like, you don't want to say no and you don't want to say yes.

You're just like, I didn't see this coming, you know. So they were like, it's perfect. You told me you want to get into the NYPD. Look, you got, you got, you know, I didn't get arrested after that. but I did have a little charge of whatever. They saw it, whatever, it came up. And they were like, you won't even, we're not even putting you in the academy,

you're going to be, like, straight out there, whatever. Like, we don't even want you to go in the academy because we don't want you to learn any kind of police shit, whatever. We want you to be just the way that you are, you know? And I was like, let me think about it. So as soon as I told my father, like, no, no, you're going to do, do that. And I was like, listen, that's not in me to get any way.

To go, like, deep undercover. I couldn't do that. You know, I watch all those movies, Donnie Brascoe, all those shit, whatever. Like, for what? in the end, you know, like, I'm, I have a moral compass, you know what I mean? It's all about, if it's going under to investigate, like, child trafficking and, like, that dirty shit, fent and all the shit that's actually killing people, but you want me to go undercover and fucking, like, gambling and, you know, go to places that I normally go in the heights

and all the stuff. I'm like, no, I'm not doing that. I didn't feel comfortable with that because I still live in the city. I like to be around these neighborhoods. And then I don't consider some, you know, bodega in the Bronx that's taking bets in the in the back of a barbershop or whatever, harmful to society. I'm sorry, I don't.

You know, it's okay that they go bet in Las Vegas, but they can't bet over here. It's just illegality at that point. So my moral compass was like, I can't go undercover and like fuck people over. That's not going to be my thing or whatever. So then they, like, floated another idea, and they were like, well, why don't you go under the academy?

You know, like, you'll be somebody who just gives us information. You weed out corruption in the academy. So initially I said yes. So that was like the idea. Like, I totally changed my appearance or whatever. I put on a lot of. weight. I always had facial. My whole life never changed it. When I shaved for the first time, especially my goate, I look like a whole different person. Like totally different. So I put on all this

weight, whatever. And that was my deal. And at the last second, I was like, what the fuck am I doing? Like, I can't do this. And I was like, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it the right way. I'm going to go in as a cop and see if I make it, you know, because the academy is not no joke. You know, you have to like run and do homework and all this kind of shit, at least at that time when I went. And I went to the old academy. I didn't go to this new one that's sinking in College Point. I went to the real old, grimy, disgusting building. So if you made it out of that building, you were okay. If you made it out of there alive without tetanus

or one of the things falling off from the disgusting showers that they had in there, you were okay. Sounds like prison. It was like taking a shower in prison, swear to God, from all the movies and everything. They flooded all communal showers, 12 guys naked in the pod, just showering. That's the way it was.

So are those practices of recruiting undercovers without even the academy still exist today? Yes. That's crazy. They want you without the, sorry to cut you off, they want you without any kind of police knowledge. Because when you go to the academy, you know, you have to learn how to stand right, your bag, you get yelled out.

I don't know how it is nowadays. Now I hear they're very soft on the recruits. I actually know they are because I worked with one of the legends in the academy that taught there for like 20 years. He taught so many of the, he taught everyone. Everyone went through him or whatever. He was one of the big bosses. A lot of people know who I'm talking about there.

And he trained a lot of the big bosses and everything, you know. So he told me, like, when I left, and he left a couple years before, you know, I had got off the job. And he was like, when I had left the academy, I couldn't do this. I couldn't yell at them. I couldn't do it. I was like, forget it. You're training a bunch of soft guys coming out if you can't do that. Because they train you to be a cop, you know.

Stand back, you know, parade rest. Put your hands in front like this, you know. And then you're leaning on your gun. You're standing like this. Like, there's cop movements. When you're in the street, you don't do that. You're a civilian, you know, you might lean against the wall. You might put your foot up, you know, you might be totally like.

Like nonchalant about your surroundings, cops aren't really like that. You know, at least the good ones. They're very vigilant. They're looking around. Like, you know. And was there really that much corruption in the academy that they even offered you to go undercover in the academy itself? Well, I mean, I think you got your answer or whatever with what's going on right now in present day. I mean, you know, the corruption is everywhere in the department, you know.

And that's one thing that I can attest to that the NYP being, you know, I'm a student of history. and the NYPD is a systematically corrupt organization. It's been in corrupt since its inception, and it's kind of hard to weed out the corruption that goes on because there's so many different facets of it. And when I say by corruption, I'm not saying just, you know, give me the money and you look the other way because I'm going to be selling drugs or doing this over there.

It's not like that. It's just there's so many forms of the corruption that it's embedded into the system, that the new guy that comes in or whatever that runs it, even if he weeds it all out, there's just the way that the wheels operate. They have to operate in a corrupt fashion sometimes. It's the harsh truths of society.

So in my essence, I think that, you know, what they wanted to do was kind of just get someone in there that can weed out the people that are going to bring bad publicity and bad headlines to the apartment. Not anything of a systematic corruption, but that little shit that puts the spotlight on the big stuff. So catching them before they become really like a villain kind of in the force in a way. catching them before they become a villain or catching them before they put a spotlight on anything else that might be going on at the moment. You understand? Like if there's some guy who just switched through the cracks or whatever and he's a coke dealer

and a crack dealer or protecting drug dealers like that Bronx cop, the female who got the busted using her, she only had a couple years on the job and she was using her shield and everything bodyguard and drug dealers like escorting curring drugs throughout the Bronx and Washington Heights and that area. And she gets pulled over by Marshalls. She's like, hey, I'm on the job or whatever.

they're like, we know, come with us or whatever. You know what I mean? Like they had already been investigating. She had a couple years on. That put a spotlight now on NYPD corruption. What happens? Like federal probes, they start coming in, you know, they start investigating everyone. And the thing, like I said, it's a systematically corrupt organization.

There's always something going on there. You're going to find something if you want to, right? It's a big, they have a budget of $5 billion. There's something going on there always. It has to be. And what I've seen so far is that if something slips through the cracks like that where someone comes in, it puts a bad, it's bad publicity, puts a bad spotlight because now people start asking questions and it could lead to other investigations.

I feel like all the time there's a probe into a commissioner or a union chief. I have Norman Seabrook coming on the podcast. I'm not sure if you're familiar with him. He was the union chief or something of the NYPD at one point and then got arrested for making some deal and then served time in federal prison. But I mean, you see like what you were just saying in the news right now what's going on New York City. It's nothing new.

Like I said, I'm a student of history or whatever, you know, and I talk about it a lot of my channel as well, as far as the police and mafia connections, police and political and mafia, police and drugs and all that kind of stuff that goes on, you know, like go back to the early 20s during Prohibition, you know what I mean? You had not the first corrupt,

one of the first corrupt mayors, right? The Tamini Hall, Jimmy Walker. And, you know, you keep going on. Then you had Frank Costello, who was boss of the Genevese crime family, had all the politicians in his pocket, the 50s. You go on to the 60s, the notoriously corrupt S.I.U. Police Department were competing with the mafia in far as selling heroin in New York City. I mean, it's crazy. You go to 72.

The mafia and the police department working together. They stole drugs out of the police precinct or whatever at 400 Broom Street, notorious French connection theft. You go to the 80s. You start getting the, well, you had Serpico as well, who blew a big light on the 70s. Then you start going to the 80s and you have the Michael Dowds in the 90s, you know. It just, there's so many commissions and so many things. And then in the 90s as well, there's another big story about corruption that led all the way to the police commissioner from an undercover cop. Yeah, that it was exposing corruption as far as upper echelon police officials

in bed with known members of organized crime. And that got completely swept under the rug. Not a lot of people know about that story. They wrote a book about it. How did you come to learn about all this history of the NYPD and corruption? Was that just through your experience or do they teach you this in the academy? They teach you some stuff as far as there is a section where they do teach you as far as NYPD and corruption. But I guess like I said, growing up around known members of organized crime and stuff like that,

like once I got my hands on the computer and I asked Jeeves at the time or, you know, whatever it was Bing or whatever you did before Google came around and you type those people's names in and something came up, I completely went down a rabbit hole. You know, because it's not something you're really supposed to talk about. You know who's who and this and that. So when you go down that rabbit hole of mafia and gangsters and all this stuff, you read about the corruption that goes on and this and that, whatever. So I've always been fascinated from it since then when I started exploring it, you know, and then you get your hands on old newspapers, and it just kind of goes from there, you know.

And I'm into history, you know, I love history. So mob history, cop history, kind of intertwines. And going into the academy, you know, I had been around. the real thing. I had been around the people that some of these people are talking about. You know what I mean? Like, I know the history of this because this guy was in that trial, you know? I know this because he got named in that indictment. And I spent my life growing up around these people. So I understand what it's about. In the academy, though, they kind of try to scare you straight. You know what I mean? They give you that like, Mullen Commission, Keefe of hearings, like all this kind of shit, whatever, you know,

doubt this corruption don't do this and this and that whatever and they show you like unreleased footage let's say of plants like the NYPD would actually have an internal affairs investigation plant like if a cop's got many complaints about hey this guy was stealing from my apartment and they get like significant complaints that they actually have to open an investigation they might put some hidden cameras in some places and they did in this instance and they were showing stuff like that like look at this cop he had four years on the job and look he was eventually fired and he went to jail like trying to scare you and stuff like that. But like we were saying before,

people still slip through the cracks and if you want to do it, you're going to do it. So are many cops as knowledgeable as me as far as corruption? I don't think so, just from what they learned in the academy, the main ones, you know? Does learning about all that make you a better cop, like going into it knowing that all of this exists?

Of course. In my opinion, and in anything or whatever, the future is in the history, you know what I mean? I just read somewhere that they asked Elon Musk how he built SpaceX and he pointed to the books like I read about it in the book so you know I studied history a lot and a lot of the patterns that you see in history you can start to put them together

and recognize them going on today you know like it was no surprise that and I mentioned this you mentioned the Johnny Mitchell interview and I think he had asked me about Eric Adams and I was like you know I'm not completely shitting on New York City you know and I don't want to call him corrupt yet but all science point to is he doing a good job absolutely not and he's hopping all over the place going to nightclubs going on Miami, you could tell that there was something wrong going on. I don't like to accuse people of anything before the facts are there or whatever, but, you know, now you see or whatever, the kind of job that he was doing in regards to the corruption. So if you didn't read about the Michael Dowd and the Mullen Commission and all this stuff going back or whatever,

you really wouldn't recognize the pattern of behavior that Eric Adam has in regards to, he calls himself the nightlife mayor. I believe Jimmy Walker called himself the nightmare too, you know, one of the most corrupt mayors in New York City history with Tammany Hall. I mean, I feel like these mayor jobs now with social media are just becoming like a pony show hopping around, going to different places, and that's it, and taking pictures and going on social media, how much work is actually getting done and decision making? I don't know.

It's just a whole new world now with mayors. I don't know if it's new, okay? Because if you go back or whatever, and I mean, Miami, how many mayors got indicted during the cocaine days? You know what I mean? Detroit had a very... corrupt rare forget his name or whatever you know and the other mayor in dc who was uh smoking crack on camera you know in chicago so it's like i hate to say it man but we live in a corrupt society

hence my channel corruption connection everything that i've experienced and i've experienced it from the upper echelon all the way to the bottom has some form of corruption whether it's like oh the nypd doesn't fix the numbers right i love how later you know a couple months ago when i had um done that interview with Johnny, some of the comments were like, oh, this guy's exaggerating the crime or whatever, blah, blah, blah. They say crime is down and this and that. And then I just saw a stad that came out from like a really reputable source or whatever, you know, you could Google it, whatever you want to do.

It's there, whatever. Crime in the subway, as far as like murder and shooting, I think, somewhere along those lines. I'm not sure which of the seven major felonies is associated is the highest it's ever been in 25 years. Do you realize that? Like 25 years. We've gone to two generations now, and it's higher than it's ever been. We're talking like days of New York City crack epidemic, you know what I mean?

Like really harsh days. And in my opinion, I don't know if it's that bad, but I do think that, you know, the migrant crisis has added to that, you know? And when you don't have strong leadership, when you have weak leadership, like there's 200,000 migrants that just came to their city, they're hungry, they're starving, they're hustlers, they're not some of the best people, they're not getting vetted. and you're partying in the nightclub, you're the mayor, and you're partying in a nightclub, and you're on vacation in Saudi Arabia, Miami. This guy's all over the place. Yeah.

I thought the mayor's a full-time job. How can you be all over the place or whatever? And who's paying for all this? Not for nothing. Doesn't the city pay for the food and every outing and everything like that? It puts it all on the expense account of the city. You know, we're paying for it. Whoever lives in the city, you know, the taxpayers.

Now, you brought up the subways. You ended up working in that kind of division. under transit, right? Can you tell us about how you got into that role after the academy? When I turned down those individuals and, you know, they asked me to do the undercover work and I was like, nah, you know, eventually, like I was like, hey, I'm just going to go the academy regular. They still took care of me.

They were like, well, where do you want to go? So I was like, hey, you know, I think I'm going to go. I'm feeling transit, whatever. You want to go to transit? I was like, yeah. Everybody was with all wondering, like, why do you want to go to transit? You're not going to really learn the job and all this kind of shit or whatever. So I still had a lot of friends all over the place.

you know, friends, legit life, all the way to friends that don't do legit shit. You know, I don't judge. If you're cool with me, cool with me. If you're not doing some scumbag, dirty stuff or whatever, you know, I don't care what you do really to make a living or whatever. You know, it's not my concern. Like, my concern is our interaction, you know.

Some guys, whatever, who are known criminals, whatever, who are some of the best people I've ever met in my most stand-up best people I've ever met in my whole life. And there's some people who are these straight-edge, you know, I went to Harvard and whatever, and they're fucking scumbags, you know? So I never really judge anyone. Um, so when I decided, um, that I wanted to go on the transit was, God forbid, I'm in a precinct, okay? Or I get assigned here or this and that. And what about if, you know, Bill or my friend Ian is over there.

And Ian's, you know, he's the local own shark or he's a local, you know, he has a dice game or whatever, you know, and now I got to go investigate Ian or whatever. I'm in a fucking predicament here, whatever, you know what I mean? I'll be exposed to, to being corrupt if I give you. my um if i give you a heads up and if i don't give you a heads up whatever i'm not you know i got to do my job or whatever and now we ruin our relationship so how was i going to avoid that situation because like i said i knew people all over the city from washington heights to Brooklyn queens i lived in queens i was all over the place transit transit was my solution i was like you know what i can go everywhere i'll have a sense of freedom and yeah i'll run into some badass people on the train or

whatever, but I won't have to be, you know, any conflict of interest of being a cop or eventually a crime cop or a detective in any precinct where I might know people or where I might hang out. You know what I mean? Did you know about the transit division before going into the academy before you agreed to do it? Oh, yeah. I was enamored from a movie when I was a kid. You ever see Money Train with Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes? Yeah, I've heard of it.

Yeah, that's what it was like work. That's what I tell people. Well, Hollywood glamorized it, but we did do a lot of stuff. stuff that they do. You got to watch it. It's a good movie. A lot of that stuff that they, you know, get into as far as like chasing sadistic people or whatever, people like people people on fire, people shoot people, people, rob people. They have a bunch of people called lush workers. They pray on people that are falling asleep in the trains and all that kind of stuff. You know, they portray that in the movie. And I think it's one of the only subway crime

movies or subway, you know, they call it some way undercover, New York undercover, those kind of things. But it's really called plain clothes, you know, so you're doing plane clothes in the subway system after you expose yourself as a cop, whatever, you know, people know that you're in an officer, you know, undercover, you're going deep undercover, you go down with the bus, all that kind of stuff. So you're never in uniform when you go on these trains or buses or anything like that? In the beginning when I started out, I was to get the feeling of it

and to go all these places. So obviously I got into transit or whatever. And, you know, whatever I do, remember I was telling you, it was an entrepreneur, hustler. So I would, I hit the streets running, you know, like I was very good, like so good that a couple guys I was parted with those rookies. they were like, bro, how do you, like, what are you doing? Like, how do you know to do this?

Like, were you a cop somewhere else? Like, that was the common question. You were a cop somewhere else? I was like, no, I just, I'm from the city. I'm not scared of anything. I've been all over the place. I've talked to every person. I grew up in Queens, most diverse place in the whole world.

You should see the picture from my second grade or third grade or whatever, you know, looks like the United Nations. There's so many different people from different nationalities. So it's like I wasn't scared to talk to people from the city or whatever and in a commanding way because you've got to be aggressive growing up. here, you know? So in that instance, you know, I kind of just hit the ground running and, you know, I started getting noticed, you know what I mean? Like, who knows their way around Queens? Me? Who knows every single, you know, every single subway stop in Queens? Yes. Can you take me there?

Yes. No GPS. No GPS. Okay. That's how I started getting, you know, recognized by some bosses or whatever and trusted, you know, and I'm from the city, you know, the way I can carry myself, you know what I mean? So I kind of catapulted myself into the crime spot with a little help, you know, You know, I had the record. When you're in those kind of positions that people always say, like, hey, you got hooks and you could do this and that, whatever. I never wanted to be that guy that looked like, hey, he got the hook. And he was underqualified, though. That's why he got it.

You know, he wasn't qualified for the position. He was not qualified for the position. He only got it because of his hook. I wanted them to see, like, yeah, he's got the hooks. But, oh, he's also qualified. You know what I mean? Like, I wanted to have my resume like that. So that's what I did.

I built up my arrest. It was one of the first guys in my little unit, whatever, to get accommodation. you see some of the guys that got it all the way up to their fucking ears. But, you know, I was one of the first guys with as far as like CPWs. I found three CPWs within a certain amount of time and they give you one. That was like coming right out of the gate. I just knew what to look for. I knew the swag.

I knew the kind of guy I was going to maybe go after. I was watching them. You know what I mean? So it kind of gave me an edge up. And then I got noticed and eventually placed into the crime team. Yeah. What are you looking for on the public transportation as a transit cop? What are kind of some signs and when do you kind of reveal yourself as a cop versus not?

So it depends on the criminality. Depends on what I'm looking for. So if, and who I'm with and all the totality of the circumstances. So let's say in this particular time and at this particular station, there is gunpoint robbery or knife point robbery or phone snatching or chain snatching or lush workers. I mentioned before, people that prey on people sleeping on the trains, you know. And these guys are very skilled. Like, they've been out of few years. They're like those old school, slick 80s characters that used to Jimmy locks and stuff

like that. They're all old timers. They take razor blaze and they'll cut your pockets open and take all your shit without you even knowing. You know, that's how good they are. So, you know, they also, if you wake up while they're doing it, some of them are, you know, bastards. They'll slice you with the knives.

They'll actually rob you now. You know what I mean? So you're kind of like going, looking for those individuals that are doing those kind of violent crimes in the train. and you kind of make your schedule, you, you kind of, they kind of form the schedule around those crimes. So let's say, for example, I see someone coming from, I'll give an example of a rest of mine where I knew that this kid was kind of like,

you know, you could just kind of feel it. And it was the courthouse, okay? So it was Q Gardens on the E.F line. It's a nice station, really. There's not really much going on. Everybody would think like that. But you're right by Queens County Court. So anyone that gets arrested and all of Queens goes to that court for anything.

As soon as they get out, that's where they come. And a lot of them are bad criminals from all different neighborhoods, and they jump turnstiles and they have weapons on them. They'll get out. They'll meet with one of their boys or whatever. They'll restock a weapon. And the reason I know that they do that, whatever, to get weapons and stuff, was there was a group of kids or whatever,

and one of them had opened the door for the other one. I was like, boom, this is perfect or whatever. but when you, hey, when they see you or you go like, hey, you know, watch the first reaction. Watch the initial reaction when they see blue, okay? Or they see the shield if you're in plain clothes, whatever. I happen to be in blue at this point. They will do something that's a tell-tale sign. And I think I got this from my ears in the street, whatever, knowing.

They'll hit what they have to make sure it's there or to make sure it's not or whatever. So the kid went like this, like, you know, like, quick, you know? And I was like, you got something in that pocket, you know? it look like something. And I was like, what's in there? Whatever. And he went to go grab it. I was like, uh-uh. I was like, wait a second. It was in the shape of the weapon. And this is where a lot of cops get mixed up with the whole stop and frisk thing. You cannot frisk a individual if you don't believe that it's something in the form of a weapon.

If I have a big bulge here and you think it's a kilo cocaine, it's not, you're not in immediately serious physical risk of danger. You're not going to get killed by this cocaine. Now, if it's a gun, a knife or something along those lines that you might articulate that it is, Now you can go and get it. So I went, took it out, whatever was a Batman knife. Like, you go like, you press like a button or you go like this, and the things pop out on each side. And that's what he had.

And he was a bad dude. And he had just got out of court. I was like, how do you have this on you? You don't even have shoelaces on. And his friend gave it to them to have knives or whatever. And to say what they were going to do, but, you know, they weren't good boys, you know? Yeah. Now, say you're on the train, the train's moving and something happens,

like a crime's being committed. How do you call for help? How do you call for backup? At that time, it depends where you were because sometimes the most dangerous times that things can happen on the train is when you're crossing the bridges or the tunnels. So if you're going from Queens to Manhattan,

you know, that's like a seven-minute ride or a five-minute ride on the ground with no help. You know, you're by yourself, you know. Some of the radio, I think now all over the city, the radio's work, but a lot of those stations, the radio would work, so you kind of just put it over. Like, hey, I'm rolling in, you know, I'm aboard on board and F-Tren.

or an E train or whatever, a seven train, and I'm pulling into this station or whatever, have conductors close the doors or keep the doors closed or whatever, so that way all police can arrive on the scene and catch whoever's there. But yeah, you kind of want to be situational awareness is paramount. I always say this. You kind of want to be aware of your situation. You don't want to go and confront something if you don't have to until the train stopped. You understand?

Why do you want to start shit on the train if you don't have to? You could be rolling around in there for a fucking few minutes. And anybody that's ever been in a fight, 30 seconds feels like 30 minutes. So the last thing you want to do is, shit, it's five minutes to the next train stop. Maybe it's okay. I don't have to get involved in anything yet. You might be there physical presence or you might see something going on in the next train car or whatever. Maybe an argument, but it's not physical yet.

And as soon as like, you know, it might, or it gets physical, but it's not like anything crazy. Or it depends what the situation might be. You want to wait until the train is at a stop and you can get in contact with the conductor to tell him, do not move this train, hold here just in case I need some help. Did it take time to adjust to, like, the loud noises and the darkness of the subways, always being on it? I've been taking the subway since I'm 12 years old by myself. I guess you grow up differently. You know what I mean?

So the only thing that you get, I guess, gives you the overwhelming feeling is now you're in uniform. You have that vest on, you know what I mean? So you're soaking wet sweating as soon as you put it on. You got all the belt, you know, so it's heavy. You're clunking around. And the subway smell like piss. And you actually, you're not just getting in and out. Like, I just got to deal with the smell for five minutes.

You might have a fixed post there where you got to smell piss and shit and bums and all this stuff for and break dust from the trains for, you know, 10, 12 hours sometimes. What's more dangerous? And New York City bus or a New York City train? I would say the train by far. Oh, what do you mean by danger? Just to travel on. Like, if you were a civilian, what would you rather travel on? What's safe for to travel on is a civilian?

I would say the bus, definitely. because, you know, there's not as many people as there are in a train car, let's say, and you're also above ground, and there's a lot more people that can respond just in case something happens. When you're in the train, unless you're actually on that train or in that train station, you know, everybody's moving. There's not much help, whatever, you know? How many memes have you seen when the guys are going, police, please! And there's just nobody there or whatever.

There's so many train stations, I think it would be physically impossible for the New York City to cover every single train station. And they can say they do it, but they lie about it. I know that because there's tons of train stations or whatever that are unmanned with no police. Now, I think because of the press release that they're trying to put people, they actually have topside cops. We call them topside cops, the regular precincts, signed enough for overtime to go and man these subway stations. But where was that before?

That really wasn't going on before, you know? Transit was transit, and that was it. And you only concentrated on the sensitive locations, and that was it. Do you think that deters crime having a uniformed officer? Physical presence of an officer? Yeah. It's Nowadays, I feel like, you know,

criminals are going to do whatever the hell they want because, you know, they record it everywhere and they still don't give a shit, whatever. So, you know, when people say it like, oh, cameras will deter this and that, no. Criminals are going to do what they want to do. They're opportunistic.

They're going to feel like what they want to do. However, in New York City, it's like a double-edged sword. On some hands, like, yeah, you're going to deter someone or whatever from doing it when there's physical presence, regardless of it. And petty crimes, who gives their shit? You know what I mean?

But if the cop is there and he's in his presence prevents a stabbing, an old lady getting pushed down and punched or robbed and, you know, the violent shit that nobody really wants to see. I don't think any criminal really wants, unless you're a sick bastard. You don't really want to see an old lady get hurt. If the cop is there to deter those crimes, that's great. You know what I mean? But for the most part, whatever, the criminals that are going to do shit

are going to do it whether the cop is there or not because of the law is in New York City. It's a bail reform. Okay, go ahead. arrest me. I'll be out in fucking five hours. Yeah. How often are you seeing someone commit like one of these petty crimes or a violent crime on the subway that were previously incarcerated

and got released and they have a record? Before my shift was over. Really? That's when I saw it. Yeah? That's when I saw the wheels starting to turn to what we have today and known as zero cash bail and the bail reform. By the time that I was

finished, the paperwork and all that stuff or whatever, the fucker was coming in get his property or whatever to go back. And a lot of times it was, you know, misdemeanor crimes or maybe a violation. A violation you understand. All right, maybe they'll come out. But when it's a misdemeanor and you have a rap sheet, you know, long as hell rap sheet, whatever, significant crimes or whatever, talking felonies or whatever, you're a recidivist,

you know what I mean? You continually commit crimes in the subway or whatever, and they're letting you out, that's bullshit, you know? And a lot of times the ADAs would decline to prosecution. It's also bullshit. You know what I mean? Like it's legit arrest. I articulate it, right?

I have the evidence or whatever. Hey, I'm not feeling it. I think we're going to knock it down to petty larceny, whatever, you know, whatever they would say or whatever, you know, well, how is that, you know, this? And they would just get so technical with you. And it was just like, all right, well, don't do it, you know. And then you'd let your, if it was a significant crime, you'd let your commanding officer deal with them and whatever.

Wow. And now something that's really big that I'm constantly reading about and seeing, like, on TikTok, say, is people getting pushed in front of subways. Was that around when you were there working those subways? Oh, yeah. Why do you think that happened? Where does that come from? People getting pushed is not anything new.

I think a lot of times it's sick individuals. I mean, right now, whatever, I think there is an enormous amount of emotionally disturbed persons running around New York City, and the services aren't there to attend to all these mentally ill, especially with all the migrants taking up all the recent services. that were available. It's just a powder keg.

And a lot of times you see it's like, why did you push this person? Sometimes they're having a bad day. Sometimes they're just sick. Individuals that just do this, you know? Sometimes there's fights, sometimes, you know, whatever. You know, it just happens. But it's not anything new as far as pushing people

and the subway tracks and stuff like that or people jumping. It's an age-old thing. People do it all the time. In my time, in the police department, I saw tons of people get. I don't know if I saw people get pushed on the tracks, but I saw people get pushed down the stairs.

My first week on the job, I saw an old lady get pushed down the stairs. I didn't see her get pushed. I came after, but she was pushed down the stairs. She was in the scorpion position. Her face was here to the side. Saw like the skull and everything. She was on the floor planted.

She was still conscious talking to me. She didn't even know what happened to her. I mean, that was disgusting. It was my first week on the job. A big pool of blood behind her. Like, who could do something like that? What the hell was she doing? She was going to church.

You see it again in the Bronx or whatever. The lady was walking into church. Snatched the thing, whatever. She went flying down the stairs. Come on, man. You're letting these fucking guys out. They should do life in jail for that shit. You know what I mean?

That's what they should be concentrated about. Now, if you get pushed or if you fall onto the subway tracks, is there any way to survive? Yeah. Do you want to hear a miracle? One story? Me, another cop and a sergeant, routine patrol or whatever. I don't remember exactly the circumstances.

Maybe we just drive it around. I'm sent out to the precinct. And you could call for a man under, you know? And a man under, technically, is anyone that comes into contact with the train. But in this instance, it was a confirmed man under. Because you'll get it like, oh, man, under, where's the victim? Victim, we heard it. Victim is under the train.

It was like, oh, shit, all right. Boom, lights and sirens or whatever. And it was at one of the most unsuspecting train stops ever. 75th, Queens Boulevard, nothing goes on there, Forest Hills, quiet neighborhood, whatever. We get there, confirmed. I think we were the first on the scene. We look, we kind of put the flashlight, there's a person down there, okay? Now, what they do is, depending on the position of the person, if they're actually squished

and mention this, whatever, that they put a, like, they call an airbag or whatever, and they kind of push the train or whatever so that way they could separate, whatever, but mostly all the time, the people die at that point because you just kind of bleed out, you know? So in this instance, you know, we're kind of looking. FD comes, they get like the stretcher and all that stuff or whatever. They get him. Not a fucking scratcher on this guy. Not a scratch.

He walked into the precinct the next day. He was a drunk Polish construction. or whatever fucking got drunk all on his own whatever tripped fell in the tracks and he fell so perfectly in the middle of the tracks that the train ran right over him came into a priest's the next day to thank everybody wow and what was he laying right in the middle right in the middle he fell perfectly if this guy fell fell fell a little bit to the left a little bit to the right he's dead or lost a limb for sure or if the train has something hanging or underneath it no you can escape i think if you're in that little caveat if you're in this little you if you've ever taken a

New York City subway in between each of the landings, I guess. There's like little landings, you know, there's like a perfect little space that you can kind of fall in that he fell right in that space. He touches the third rail. He's zapped. He's dead. No coming back because I think is full of so much electricity. It's covered a little bit.

But when you're down there, if you get come into contact with that, you're finished. He was just lucky enough to fucking fall right in that little thing. And he survived. Can you climb your way out of a subway thing or do you need to get physically lifted up by someone else. Depends on your strength. Everybody's different, whatever. Can you do a couple pull-ups? If you can do a couple pull-ups, you'll be able to pull yourself out of there, depending on how tall you are.

Because it doesn't look far down, but it is. During track training, I've actually been down there. So what they'll do is whoever works for MTA will know this, and anybody who works transit, we're required by MTA to take the same courses that the conductors will take. So we'd go down to the MTA training

facility and they make you go down there. You walk and a train actually passes by you in front of you while you're on the tracks, on each side sometimes. So they'll be like, you know, so when you go down there, you know, you'll look and, I mean, it's about six feet, whatever, you know that thing. Let's say five to six feet, whatever. So can you pull yourself up, five, six feet? It's hard, whatever.

I've seen cops do it in full uniform and some cops couldn't do it because they had to get hoisted up. It really depends on your strength. But it's very intimidating being down there and it doesn't look as deep as it is. Because when you're down there and that train comes, you have to be. you have to put your arm against the wall because the force of the train or whatever will blow your ass back or blow your ass forward

and there could be trains coming on either side of you. A lot of times they'll notify the conductors like, hey, go slow, but that train could be moving 10 miles an hour. You feel it, you know? So it's very intimidating being down there. If you could pull yourself up, you have to be a strong individual. The average person, American person, we're overweight.

There's no way they're going to fall down there and pull yourself up. Do you ever have suspects that jump down there and kind of run through the tunnels or anything? Yeah, that's happened many times, actually. So when that happens or whatever, it depends on what, you have to put person on the track. Once they do something stupid, they'll run down or whatever, and you have to be like, oh, you have to put over the person on the track.

Depending on who you're with and the circumstances, you can do a ride through. Like if a train is there, you get in the conductors booth, hey, I need to do a ride through. And you and the conductor go by slow with the lights on in the first cart, and you see, like, you know, you look around and see what's going on if the guy's there or not. But there's many, excuse me, there's been many times or whatever, like guys have ran down there. I mean, personally, I've dealt with it. Robbery suspect. Snatch something off someone. Whether it was a purse or a chain. I can't remember it exactly.

Seventy-first incontinental. Pretty busy station or whatever, you know, and he got, you know, we were there, luckily. And we ran, it was like, hey, he just stole it, blah, blah, blah, whatever. We chased him down thing. The fucker ran right, jumped right on the tracks or whatever, like a fucking track stop, boom, started running. So we put it over, whatever, like, hey, he might be coming. What's the next station, whatever, you know?

Like, units be aware, he might be coming out. The next one's 67. He thought he was going to come out on 67, you know. So they'll do whatever to get away. Criminals don't give a fuck about that. They're rail, the train's coming. And there's been instances, I don't know if, no, I showed up after. But there's been instances where guys have run from a crime or whatever and gotten hit by a train and killed.

Wow. Yeah. Do you ever have to go into the sewers or anything underneath the subways? Oh, I've been in all those tunnels, all of them. Is it scary? What's it like down there? like a whole, dependent on where you are. So in Queens, the extensive tunnels were like by Jamaica.

There's so many like hidden doors and hidden. It almost looks like a teenage mutant Ninja Turtle Sea. I swear to God. It's like, and there's people that live down there. Really? Like encampments and stuff? I haven't seen a full, full encampment, but I've seen like a collective of five. I guess that would be considered an encampment.

They all got their own little personal thing. So there's literally intricate cities. You'll see it more in Manhattan. And this goes back to the early days probably when the fucking rum runners were here doing the prohibition back in the 20s or whatever. You know, the tens, they were, they have underground tunnels and underground cities all over New York and abandoned subway stations. So a lot of people live in those things.

In Jamaica Center, I saw this, like, so once you walk back on those tracks, there's tons of, like, ladders and there's tons of doorways and stuff. So I'd get a little creative, whatever, it was boring, you know, like, there was nothing going on. The radios would still work, or whatever, you know? And a lot of times you don't want to be in the public view. You want to be somewhere where you can see the public and they can't see. So transit was a master for that.

We used to hang along the catwalk sometime and look down. There's a nice catwalk. I don't want to give away where it is, but there's a great catwalk or whatever. And you can literally, it's almost like the old school days in the casinos where you can see everybody above you. It was fantastic, you know? And that thing led to like so many underground doors. And yeah, it was definitely people.

Definitely people living in the subway tunnels, for sure. Tucked away in a little thing. Sometimes you'll find them dead or whatever. In Manhattan, though. there's so many different doors and tunnels and this and that that you could literally get lost. And one time we were in, I think it was District 4, which covers like the east side of Manhattan, maybe from 14th up, I'm not sure the exact barriers of what they cover. And me and my partner were looking for a room to eat, you know, because you don't want to eat in public or whatever.

So we're going to go take our meal or whatever. And one of the guys opened the door for us, MTA guys, we had tons of keys that opened up everything anyway. And we walk in there and we're like, oh shit, we can go down this door and we will go abandoned tunnel all the way down, fucking five homeless guys just fucking hanging out or whatever. And we were like, whoa, shit, you didn't expect to see anybody. And we just kept walking. They looked at us, we looked at that, and we was just like,

I'm going to eat, like, you know, whatever. It's my meal time. You're not doing anything wrong. I guess you live here. Not my problem. Yeah. So that's just one that I saw. Who knows how many more there are.

They've done documentaries about this about people that live down there. What was your normal shift? Did you work just days or nights or was it mixed? And what was like a typical day like? So when you're a rookie, they kind of give you whatever they want. I was lucky to be in a unit where they kind of gave us like the daytime. So it was like I think when I first got out it was like 11 to 8, something like that, whatever. So it was like a full day, like a late full day or whatever.

You still got a little action at nighttime. But it was kind of like nice in the day. But the shitty part about in a good way for the job. But the shitty part about it as far as travel was they bounce you anywhere in the beginning. So I worked in the Bronx for a little bit. I worked in Queens. I worked in Brooklyn. I, like, all over the fucking place.

Manhattan a lot. It was wherever they needed people, you know? So when you're in uniform in the beginning, you're bouncing around, you know. But like I said, I was, you know, making some quality arrests or whatever, you know. I had a good background as far as Queens. I was doing a lot of whatever you needed. Prison or transfer. Oh, shit, somebody arrested somebody out there.

Who knows how to do it? You van qualified? Some people weren't band. Yeah, yep. I hit all the boxes. So I kind of steadily, I changed very fast in whatever I was in. So we were like, oh, we can't send Tony to the Bronx anymore. We need somebody in Queens.

So I eventually I would stay in Queens. Then I got shipped out to a summer detail in Brooklyn down in Coney Island. I did that for a few months. It was only supposed to be two. I wound up there for like four, almost five, I think. You know, so just like I was all over the place. And in uniform is just like you were saying, you know, physical presence, pretty much just, you know, patrol. But you're also looking for shit, you know?

Or you're hiding on the catwalks. You know what I mean? You're doing shit like that, you know? You're watching for criminality wherever you are. And that was me. I was doing that. I take my time and relax and, you know, dick off like whatever, you know, I'm not working today, whatever, sure, you know, physical presence, you know, I'm not looking for any activity, whatever, you know, as long as everything's okay, I'm not really, you know, I'm giving people a break today, you know.

We had that discretion, they called it. I don't know if they can do that anymore, you know, the body cameras change everything. They're good in a way and not good in a way, you know. So it's like, I think I'd rather have the cameras. I don't know. I've never really worked with them. I, like, left right when it was really getting implemented and I was plain closed. So at that point, they didn't require it. Now they do, I think. So, you know, after the routine patrols, like you're a rookie or whatever, you know, you kind of move on. So at that point, I was close with a sergeant who was in the unit and he had got promoted to a field intelligence officer. So then I started, you know, hanging out with him or hang out in his office or whatever. And the assistant to the field intelligence officer kind of goes on the investigated detective

route. And me and him were kind of cool. So I was like, oh man, like, what do you think? Like, you know, you might be working me? He's like, fuck yeah. I want you in? That guy's leaving. and whatever. I got to replace the thing anyway. So I was like, oh, that's great. So at the time, whatever, you know, it was like making sense or whatever. The other guy was like kind of training me, showing me how to do it. You have to write like a formal letter, you know, I call it 49. You have to write a 49 of why you think you're qualified and how you can do it. So, you know, it's like a job interview pretty much. So you give you a whole pedigree and this and that. And the wheel started moving. So I started hanging out. Now I started, you know,

dressing regular now and things like that. And then I got blocked from going in there. Yeah, they gave it to someone else at the last minute. And the guy who gave it to someone else was actually a family member of mine, rest in peace. And I was, kind of pissed, you know? He was, he's married. He passed away, but he was married to a family member of mine. So he was pretty much like my family. I'd see, I knew him for years.

Even before I was on the job, I knew him. And I was like, damn, I was upset of him. I didn't know if he didn't want to make it look like he was doing me favors, right? But he really did do me a favor. He was like, I don't want you in that office doing that shit. You know what I mean? I want you out on the street. I think that you're a good cop,

and I think that you make good arrests and all that stuff. And they check you before you even check yourself. You know what I mean? Like, they ask about you. They ask what kind of, they talk to people or whatever and stuff like that, and they find out who you are before they even offer you the position. And this is with everything in the police department.

Unless you've really juiced in, it's like, they know, like, oh, that's his son-in-law or some shit like that. So in this instance or whatever, after, you know, kind of,

I cultivated one reformment. You know, I was getting into this whole, like, you know, FIA field and tell you, intelligence shit, whatever. And I was like, damn, this is kind of cool. And then the rug got pulled from me.

And he pulls me into his office. At that time, it was a commanding officer. And he's like, I want you on the street. I want you doing other stuff. I think it would be better for that. I'm going to put you in the crime team. So without me actually knowing, he blocked me from that, but he helped me. Because then I soared from there.

You know what I mean? Like, I did good work. The team that I was with was a solid bunch of guys. You know, there's always guys that maybe you'll conflict with or whatever. and that happened in the unit, but for the most part, we all got along. Everybody knew their position. Like at the time, you know, I was a little stronger.

The other guy was a little thinner, a little better. He was the runner. You know, I was the guy to put the cuffs on. You know, I could wrestle a little bit with the guys. You know, we all played a part. And when we did that, whatever, we did great work, you know? Now, when you say crime team, is that specific, like, crime organizations or just, like street crime?

No, that's what they call it. So what I got placed into was the anti-crime unit. We call it the crime team. So that was plain clothes in the, the subway. You'll see them around other precincts as well. They have citywide units as well that are referred to as crime teams. So yeah, I wanted to up being in there and everyone in there had a significant amount more time than I did. One of the guys who actually trained me was in there, you know what I mean? So it was like these people, you know, they were fucking seasoned cops,

tons of guns of right-ass knife. No pussy's here. You know what I mean? Like this is serious, you know? It was a female in there as well. I love it to this day. She's one of my best friends. You know what I mean? These are people, whatever, who are serious about the job, but cool, and know how to get the job done. You know what I mean? You work with them, you know, there's not going to be any problems. They're professional, and they do what they need to do. So, you know, when I got there, whatever, it was almost like, oh, you know, he knows a CEO, whatever.

And the guy who, you know, he knew me from the other unit that he had trained me a little bit. He's like, you guys are totally wrong. He's like, this guy's good. He's a good cop. He's going to be beneficial to the unit. And I was, you know, we did good work together. We took tons of people up the street, pickpocketing teams from all. over the place. We had a pickpocket team from Columbia that my unit was involved in taking

down. I mean, these guys were professionals. They'd hit the line or whatever, and we would be on the line, and they would be pickpocking people while we were there. That's how good these people were. You know, we busted them up, tons of guns arrests, lush workers, you name it. We went after everything. Whenever there was crime patterns, we were there. Hey, I need the crime. That was sometimes the shitty part, because if we worked midnights, I always work midnight. I like to work the nighttime, and that's where a lot of shit goes on, you know, and it's not many people, to help, you know what I mean? Like civilians, you know, they might step in or whatever in the daytime.

Like, hey, stop messing with this guy. Or if they see somebody trying to pickpock somebody, they might say something, a lusher worker trying to cut. And at nighttime, you might be on the train by yourself. You know, there's really nobody to help. So I like that because I knew that the criminality, like the old school, you know, the freaks come out at night. You know, there's a lot of fucking freaky people or whatever in the subway system.

So, you know, that was where I like to work. But if there was a pattern, let's say, from, you know, hey, you know, four people just came in yesterday. and the pattern is from 2 to 4 p.m. or whatever, each one of them got their cell phones taken between this station and this station. Guess where we had to wind up. We had to be working the hours of 2 to 4 p.m. at that station. So as far as, like, personal life, it kind of suck. But as far as, like, getting activity and furthering the arrests, you know, to solve the crimes or whatever, that's what we would do.

Would you say civilians, for the most part, stand up for another civilian if they see, like, a crime happening? Or are they kind of turning their back on it? Depends. You know? I think it's a 50-50. I really depends what it is too. You know, New York City, we mind their own business. You know what I mean?

I know that. We mind their own business so much, whatever. They had to put up a sign that says, if you see something, say something. Because they even put it in Spanish. See, best algo, di algo. Even the Spanish people know. Shut the fuck up, mind your business and do what you got to do. And that's a beauty of New York City.

You know what I mean? Like, everybody just minds the business, you know? I don't like anybody in my business. And I'm sure you don't like anybody in your business. You keep it going or whatever. But people put themselves in your business when they see things they don't like. And I think, you know, at least in my day growing up or whatever, there was a generality, like a social fabric that we had. I think it's been deteriorated a little bit that, yeah, people will kind of look away, but it really depends on the circumstances, you know?

Is it, you know, someone that really can't defend themselves or something like that, you know, somebody's picking on somebody. You know, you'll see it. You know, there's tons of videos out there now, you know, that people like, you know, stop messing with him and stuff like that. You know, people do stand up for people, you know, and the cell phones, too. they kind of deterred, but, you know, for the most part, I think it's 50-50. I think a lot of people are just worried about getting to where they got to go, minding their business, and, you know, nobody wants to be a hero here and minding my fucking business, it's your problem, whatever, you know, depending on what it is.

And then everybody has their threshold of what they had enough of or when they'll speak up or whatever. What's the worst day or the worst holiday to work on the subways? Would you say it's like Halloween or is there a... Holiday? Yeah. As far as what? What do you mean by worse? Danger?

Yeah. Anytime there's a parade. So parades and, you know, they did have the West Indian parade or whatever. They do that in the Brooklyn train stations. Most of those trains are shut down or whatever, but people always get shot and stab. It's one of the most violent parades that there is, you know. I don't know why that parade isn't on Fifth Avenue or park like the rest of them, whatever. They should give them just like everyone else, the four hours or whatever,

but they give them three days of drinking and boozing and closing down the parkway, Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. I mean, no matter who you are, it doesn't have to be West Indian or whatever. You could do the same thing with Irish, Italian, Greeks, German Mexicans, whatever. You leave them partying for two, three days. Somebody's going to get hurt, shot.

You know, it's just going to happen. It's a recipe for disaster. But, you know, they'll start to argue. I want to take this away. You know, there's too many social justice heroes. But in my opinion or whatever, you know, you have to limit the behavior or whatever because it could get very dangerous.

You know, you saw it back in the 2000s or whatever during the Puerto Rican. Day parade, you know, they were pretty much groping, you know, essay and I don't know if you could say the word, but whatever, women in the street, you know what I mean? Like, that was, a lot of people forgot about that, but that was a dangerous time, you know,

like, and what was it during a parade? You know, you're helpless. There's nobody coming for you. What do you think about these guys that are, like, running up and punching women or hitting women in the streets in New York City? Scumbags. Petty criminals, low

lives, you know. A lot of them are emotionally disturbed, like I was saying before or whatever, so that kind of ties into it. But it really depends, you know, like, are you emotionally disturbed or do you have a history, a pattern of knocking out people and taking their shit? Like, are you a pussy or whatever that, you know, that you'll prey upon the week who is a woman, a kid, you know, an older woman, a kid who can't defend themselves? I think it's a little bit of a combination of all three. Did you stay in transit your whole entire career? Pretty much. until around the time of the pandemic

I had gotten hurt and then they needed bodies to man all the fucking stuff that was going down in the medical division so I wound up going down there and man that was probably the worst part of my career actually working there. It was height of the pandemic

the riots were going on cops were getting hurt left and right whatever there was tons of paperwork you had to take a test it was for the COVID every week or whatever, it was like a madhouse. You know, you'd walk in. It'd be, you know, 50 reports of cops that got hurt, whatever,

that you got to file on the system. Then there's 100 calls on hold or whatever, people going out sick for COVID. It was like a mess. This guy just in the next desk or whatever got the whole office sick with COVID. So now nobody's here. You know, it was just like all over the place, you know, and the radio was going nuts to the point where, you know,

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Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. We could come out here or whatever. That's how bad it was. It was a terrible time to be in law enforcement. Did that contribute to you wanting to leave? Oh, without a doubt. Oh, a thousand percent.

I couldn't. I had the chance to go back on the street and all that stuff. And I was like, you know, the department, the NYPD is 150, 60 years old, something like that. So, 1860 something. Since is it inception? Cut that. the NYPD is an old organization. It's been there for quite a long time.

Over 160 years. You know, we're not talking about anything new. However, in the last five years or maybe seven years, the department has changed more than has changed in this whole entire history, and everyone on the job will tell you that. Record rising crime, you have new laws that were never, ever implemented. You know what I mean? The elimination of a lot of the tools that did work for previous.

as far as the broken windows theory and the stop and frisk and all that kind of stuff that contributed to a lower crime rate you know what i mean so you know i think with all the the dynamic of society right now it is a lose lose to become a cop you are villainized if you do the right or you do the wrong i was taught in the academy that he was a guy or whatever with a baseball bat if you didn't shoot you failed now if you shoot whatever you fail how does that fucking change what's the what's the danger that got taken away with that bad baseball bat. If you see the two cops that recently, I mean, that big shoot out in Brooklyn, it's sad. You know, innocent people die. But in my opinion, that was a good shoot. It was that, you know,

I'm not going to sit here and Monday morning quarterback the whole thing or whatever. You know, it's a long video. But if you saw it, you know, it was sad to see the circumstances. But if you watch the body camera footage that was just released, you'll see whatever that these cops were too patient, in my opinion. You know what I mean? Like, you see a knife. And I mentioned this before. like, you know, knife, you know, you have to be, it's a killing distance of 21 feet, you know what I mean? So anyone within 21 feet could get killed. These cops are literally right in front of him, screaming at him many times to put that knife down. You know, like, in my opinion, gun out or whatever, like, whoa.

Like, I remember in the academy. It was a thing in Tag Village was like this make-believe village where they had scenarios like that. And, you know, I myself or whatever put the gun or saw a guy with a gun and shot. And they were like, that's a good shoot, you know, no questions, no nothing. And I just saw somebody immediately open to serious physical injury or whatever, and I had to save them, whatever. So that's what I did. I was marked okay.

So these cops or whatever now, they were pleading with the guy to put the thing down 40 fucking times or whatever. You know, put the knife down, put the knife down. He didn't. He's walking around. There's civilians on this train. You know, this could get bad really fast. And not only that, the cops themselves, you know what I mean? And they did what they had to do, you know?

The taser doesn't always work. I've seen it not work. I know it doesn't work. If you're at me with a knife and I shoot you with a taser and you're crazy or mentally disturbed, you might get upset and now start, you might just slice the wires

or something, you know, go crazy. So, you know, in that instance, I really, you know, I know it's still an ongoing investigation, whatever, but that was a good shooting. You know, they should have shot him before that, whatever. You have to do what you can do

to eliminate the threat to save the public. You know, understand? Like, you know, if you got to put this guy down, you got to put him down. That's what it is because there's 10 people over here that he could put down, you know? You have to think about the threat of safety,

the threat to the public and kind of, you know, establishing their safety. You know, it sucks the way it turned out. I think the way it may be a little too long and it got a little too much and somebody else got killed. But, you know. Do you think it's harder to be a police officer now more than ever? Oh, yeah. Oh, thousand percent. I think.

And anybody who's on the job, remember when I was telling you, it changed. So many things changed in five years. They see the record amount of people leaving this job than never before and they can't even fill the ranks. And the quality of people that they're filling the ranks with aren't, you you know, it's not the A team here, you know what I mean? It's a bench warmers, if you'd be honest with you, you know. You see them or whatever, you know, a lot of them are scared. They're hesitant.

They don't know what to do. They're worried like, oh, my God, am I going to lose vacation days? Like, you know, they're getting disrespected or whatever. Like in the old day, this shit kind of shit wouldn't happen. Why? Because they're scared. You know, they're scared to do anything because they're like, damn. Like, is the job even going to have my back if I stand up for myself?

No, they're not. They know. They've seen the cops or whatever use the scapegoats over and over again. And what do you create? You're creating nervous cops. out. That's why I didn't take their guns out. That could have led to a whole worse situation, you know? They could have got hurt themselves, you know? Then we got to deal with another cop death, you know? Nobody that signs up for that job deserves to be killed, you know what I mean? Like, you sign up to

kind of do the right thing here and help people. When you call 911, we show up to help. Why the fuck you want to kill them for? You know what I mean? It's really like, it's terrible when a cop dies. So I think right now, whatever, it makes it really dangerous to be a cop, you know, because it's like they villainize that they do, villainize if they don't, whatever, and then they're hesitant. When you're hesitant in a profession like that, it's the difference between life and death. How long were you on the job for, total? Just under 10 years. So were you able to actually retire and get like a pension or you just had to leave? Yeah, I got a pension. Yeah, I got a partial pension.

You can leave that early then? Yeah, depending on the circumstances. Okay. So you left and what did you decide to do after? So I didn't really know what I was going to do after, you know? But like I said, I kind of was always an entrepreneur. so I always had things going on, like a side thing on the job. And another thing, if I would have worked in a regular precinct, everybody would have thought I was on the take because I used to drive luxury cars to job all the time.

I swear to God, like, it was just like, you know, I was a businessman before. I kept up some of my businesses during, you know, I don't know if they know about it, they're not. Legitimate stuff. I had pizzeria and a couple of the things or whatever that, you know, they want to know everything. You know, they literally want to know everything about your whole life,

and I didn't really like that too much. If I wasn't doing anything bad, you know what I mean? Like, nobody's going to kill me for selling slices and sodas, you know what I mean? like I pay my taxes. So, you know, things like that. And I'd roll up to the job or whatever with a bends and, you know, Range Rover and Alexis.

And like, you know, it was just like I couldn't hide that, you know. So, you know, after I retired, you know, I kind of got back into the private sector. And, you know, I decided to move out to Vegas. Vegas was always like an escape for me. So I made it a permanent thing. Is it a hard transition switching from law enforcement life to civilian life? I kind of feel like I'm back to my old self. so I don't know if it would be a hard transition.

I kind of feel like I did a prison sentence in a way. It's kind of weird to say that. And I don't mean it in a bad way. I just mean it like in a way like, damn, it was a hell of an experience. I did it. I never ever thought in a million years that I would ever be a cop.

And it's something I checked off or whatever as far as a life accomplishment. And, you know, now I'm, look, now I'm here or whatever, talking to you about it, you know? Like, I never would have thought that I would have ever talked about this law enforcement thing again. I swear to God, I was just telling my cousin yesterday.

I was like, oh, when you retire, save all your shit. Because when I retired, I was like, free! And I threw everything in the garbage. And I was like, you know, all my paperwork, all my rest of it. Because I never thought I would talk about this stuff again. I was like, I'm out of here. I'm going to retire. And I'm going to just, you know, start a new life, whatever, get back into the business field.

And, you know, do that kind of thing. You know, so, you know, that's where I'm at now, you know. Why did that change? Why did you start to want to talk about it? What got you over that hump? So if you check out my channel, corruption connection, I was always a mob historian. Like I said, I was really immersed in that culture, in the world or whatever, you know, so it was always kind of fascinating to me at the same

time. And it really is history now. You know what I mean? You're not going to go to many places in New York City and see social clubs and guys hanging out there and playing little card games or smoking their cigars and stuff. It's a thing of the past, you know? There's no, there's no guy on Pleasant Avenue with a fedora anymore, you understand? So it's like, I enjoy history. I enjoy talking about mafia history, organized crunch. history and stuff like that and i was like you know what i see the rise in social media and youtube and i come from a dial-up generation you know and i never stuck with the computer so i kind of just stopped it there and went out into the real world so now i'm kind of getting back into the whole

online computer world as far as like seeing where it's gone and i see that podcasting and that kind of stuff is the way of the future so a lot of people told me for a long time write a book you know as i was thinking about it but i say you know what let me start like a youtube channel and i'm going to do like a crime series and in that whatever, you know, I'll intertwine, you know, organized crime and police and New York stories and all that kind of stuff. Did you, do you ever run into the people you were growing up with to see kind of how their life ended up, you know, compared to yours? Because you took one path, they took another.

You know, after seeing, like, you know, everybody's path and the way you go in life and all that stuff, like, I actually ran in, I disappeared in a way. You know what I mean? I stopped going to the card games. I stopped hanging out in the places I was hanging out with. I didn't see a member of any kind of street activity or whatever. I didn't drink. I kind of like went into a little isolation because I knew like where I had it to go.

So when I did that, a lot of the guys that were in the street, whatever, that I had done business with, some of them saw me when I was in uniform. You know what I mean? Like they never knew and was like, oh shit. You know what I mean? And, you know, just, hey, what's up, you know? Pound or whatever. Hey, how you doing, whatever, you know?

And then guys from the neighborhood, too, that I grew up in or whatever. You know, not necessarily street guys, you know, but neighborhood guys, you know, maybe some of the street, maybe not. You know how it goes in a bunch of group of neighborhood guys. And they ran into me in a Halloween parade. And they were like, holy shit. Like, you became a cop, you know? And it was just like, you know, I ran into a lot.

I went to a strip club one time. And it was a guy who I used to buy my weed from in pounds or whatever. And he was like, what are you doing nowadays? I didn't see him in years. And I was like. And I took. up my shield and he's like get the fuck out and I was like yeah man and he was like in shock in shock because we had done a lot of business when you make money with someone like that and you establish a rapport

you party together you hang out together you go to different spots together clubs bottles women you know how it goes you had a lot of fun we went vacation whatever you know so they respected me because I went and did my old thing and never never to this day that any of anybody say that I talk shit to law enforcement or pointed that damn or whatever. Some of them are still in the streetlight to this day, you know, graduated to other things, you understand? Not marijuana anymore, whether it's other drugs or other kind of businesses, but still shady shit.

And that's their business, you know. It has nothing to do with me. It has nothing to do with what I'm about, you know. I just have friends with check it past, you know, what it is. It's just kind of impossible going up in New York City, you know, not to know these people, you know? Like I say, and I'm, you know, I'm not going to judge you, you know, I judge you based on how you treat me or whatever, you know?

Like, your business is your business. You know, so I think a lot of guys that I, that knew me in my previous life and then knew me from growing up and then, you know, saw the transition. Now, you know, if I say hello, if I see them, whatever, it's not like, you know, it's like respect, you know. So how you doing, you know? Do you think there's a lot of cops that grew up with your background, especially in New York City? Yes and no. Is there someone who, you know, grew up around the mob that became a cop? yes. Is there someone who was a street guy that became a cop? Yes. Is there someone who did a lot worse shit than me in the street and became a cop? Yes. I think there's a lot of stories that do in the twine. Mine just happens to be very, I guess, entertaining, you know? Like, I'm recently new. You know, I didn't retire in the 80s or the 90s. You know, I'm from this generation, whatever. You know, I did transit and, you know, you got to watch money trains. So, you know, I'm sure you'll have some more questions for me. When I come back, it's just, you know, those kind of things, they really did have.

happen, you know, and I mean, some of them might, I see some guys or whatever talking about, you know, they grew up in these certain neighborhoods and they knew organized crime and this and that to the extent of the day working restaurants connected to organized crime when they were kids and, you know, get to do all that kind of stuff, maybe, you know, I don't know how common the stories are, but my story is 100% true. You know, it's just a life I lived, you know. Yeah, I mean, I think it's good for people to see the background of law enforcement because then you realize you're not so, you know, far apart as just because they're wearing a uniform, doesn't mean you guys didn't have a similar upbringing or anything like that.

Oh, a thousand percent. I actually, I interviewed Gene Borrello. I don't know if you know. You guys look like each other a little bit. Yeah, you're sitting next to each other. It's the bald head and the beard. So you interviewed them for your channel. I interviewed it for my channel.

And the title of the episode is the thin line between cops and gangses in Queens, New York. And to be honest with you, I, you know, new Gene or whatever. were on the street, I knew his reputation, we would hang out in the same spot, you know, give him a handshake or whatever. We weren't closer, anything like that. I knew who he was because in the spot that he hung out with, one of the owners was a cop and one of the owners was a mobster. So you would just be in these places.

So there is a very thin line. And I always say that, you know, like you grow up in these neighborhoods and you just intermingle. Like you, this is a good background to know for a lot of police officers, you know? Like some of them, I never thought I could become a police officer because I wasn't like that straight edge, you know, like cut, you know what I mean? Like who you think is like the cop, like Johnny Law? That wasn't me.

You know, I had a little swag and I was a little dipping on the lines of this and that. Never did anything violent. Never wanted to hurt people. But I was a businessman. You know, I want to make some money. I don't see anybody getting hurt over a fucking card game, you know what I mean? Like people could get killed. Yeah, but that's their own business.

You know what I mean? Nobody's going to really kill you over $20, $50 worth of weed. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, I think that, you know, a lot of deep. These neighborhoods kind of breed people like me who see that kind of stuff growing up or whatever, but you don't want to do the right thing and help. You know, you don't have to be a straight, you know, hello, you know what I mean? Like, you know, I'll write my mother a ticket.

Nah, you know, like I had a hard day at work or whatever. I don't give a fuck, man. I don't let him go. You know what I mean? Like, that's being a neighbor. That's being a nice guy. It's being, you know, intermingling and being okay with the community. You know what I mean?

Absolutely. Well, Tony, thank you so much, man, for coming on the show today. It was a pleasure to meet you and talk to you. Pleasure is mine, man. I appreciate you having me, definitely. Yeah, and keep in touch and looking forward to seeing your channel grow, and we'll have it plugged in the description of this. Yeah, man, yeah.

Hopefully I come back, you know. We'll do this again. Definitely. All right, man.