♪ ♪ >> this week on q&a, corey pegues former deputy with the new york police department. he discusses his book, "once a cop: the street, the law, two worlds, one man".

>> corey pegues, your book is called "once a cop". what is it about? guest: it's a memoir, my life story, details i have been through the retiring. host: when did you retire? guest: march 2013, officially retired, but i was injured september 2011. it back surgeries. i was injured at work trying to arrest someone i popped a disk in my back. host: at the time, what was your rank and where are you a policeman? guest: at the time of my injury i was a commander north of the 67 precinct and my rank was deputy inspector. host: in the new york police department? guest: yes. host: let me show you video of george herbert walker bush would he was president in 1991, and

get you to talk about this moment because you talk about it in your book. scenic this, this is crack cocaine seized a few days ago by drug enforcement agent in a park just across the street from the white house. they could have easily have been harrowing or pcp, but it's as innocent as looking as candy, but it is turning our cities in the battleground and murdering our children. let there be no mistake, this stuff is poison. host: using your book almost right away you sold that stuff. guest: yes. host: why? guest: because of the environment i grew up in. i grew up with gangsters and drug dealers. i grew up on welfare. i was in a family of six , five girls and myself. my father left after the third grade and it's ironic in my book, "once a cop", in the fifth

grade i was sitting indian style in the front and i'm holding my feet because i've hold in the bottom of my shoes and i had cardboard in it so my socks would not get wet, so i do rough upbringing and i got involved in the streets that were selling drugs, so was the thing to do and i started selling drugs. we sold marijuana, cocaine, then crack cocaine came out we started selling that. i was on the streets from the age of 13 to 18 host: what's the difference between cocaine and crack cocaine? guest: crack cocaine is cooked in rock form. host: like we saw in that bag? guest: yes. host: and what is mescaline? guest: it's a little tiny pill that people take. they put it under their tone. i don't even know if that stuff is still around. host: what's is a lucy? guest: a lucy is unlike what eric gardner got killed for in

staten island. he got killed for by a lucy e-cigarettes. the origin of lucy was when we were in the streets selling marijuana, a loose joint. instead of selling a nickel or dime bag of weed and you have to roll them up yourself, we did the rolling for you and we would sell you a loose joint for 1 dollar. you have lucy's or you would nickel bag of. host: what is a woolly? guest: just a loose joint of marijuana laced with cocaine and marijuana joint sprinkled with cocaine. you got the height and the low. host: who was smooth? guest: smooth was a good friend of mine who i grew up with and he actually introduced me to the streets and at the ironic thing about him is he didn't really have to, so he had a two-family home. mom one for that that telephone company and father worked for the post office, house, car, white picket with--

friends and just because of the amount we grew up in there was a lot of people involved in the streets and he gravitated towards the streets and he brought me in on whole drug gang that i started hanging out with. host: why did you want to write about? guest: i'm glad you asked that question. no one ever asked that question. the real reason i wrote this book is for generations behind me, my kids, grandkids, great karen kids pick a one of them to another's life transformation and made in the net into this book i had to write and tell my story because i was put on the front page of a new-- newspaper in new york city and i took some shots of my personality, my demeanor, my character and try to vilify me cause i had to tell my story. the backup people don't know is i wrote my whole book and stopped at walk across the stage, graduating so it's like

all this stuff i did on the street i was poor. i was on the street, went to the military and graduated and became a cop and it was over and that was the end of my book until this newspaper hits and then i had to go through like my entire police career just so that i could, you know, lessen some of the stuff that was put out about me that were all lies. host: here's the front page of that new york post that i think you are talking about right there and it says "i don't crack as a gangster: nypd honcho reveals that cop "we saw that what was your reaction? guest: my reaction to that, i wasn't happy about it because i never was a thug cop. i did sell crack when i was in the street. i don't know if i consider myself a gangster. a gangster to me is like a john gotti. i wasn't murdering people. i was a street hustler that sold drugs, so i was a criminal. it was bad for my

family. i family had to endure that and wake up in the morning. there's a picture of me with the president of the united states in the book, maybe the future president hillary clinton, michael bloomberg, ll cool j. i had such a fantastic life after those five years and now with me being on that front cover, it took all that away and it wasn't an easy time for my family and i knew i was never a thug cop. nypd has a federal probe going on now and there will be numerous executives walked up. those are thug cops. i never committed a crime is a con. i was probably the cleanest cop for 21 years and the reason being i thought that they were a was looking at because of my past, because of the came i came to work dressed, because of my tattoos and stuff like that, so i was so clean i was thought it was a set up. host: lets go through just some

brief outline of your life. you were born what hearing where? guest: 1968, in queens hospital beds closed. host: where did you go to school in those early days? guest: in jamaica, queens. psw six. i got kicked out in the third grade for pushing girls. i had to go to 136 and i got bust out to-- junior high school 158 and into newtown high school for engineer program and invited some of my crack friends to come see me play basketball and they had a riot and the school can beat up your -- everyone out after the game and i got kicked out of there and he went to one of the work's high schools and ended up graduating from jackson high school. host: what year? guest: 1987. host: what years reselling drugs on the street corners? guest: eighty-four, 85. i left and 87. host: after high school and after eating-- 87 what happened?

guest: i went into the u.s. army host: how long? guest: three years and eight months. iraq one, that war 30 days, my list that was up and george bush was the president, and he extended everyone. host: were you on duty eight years and three months? guest: yes. host: and active duty in the national guard? guest: i was in the national guard for 14 years, so that 18 years of us military service. host: that takes us up to what year, 92, 93? guest: march of 92. actually, march of 91 i got out of the military for january, 92, went to the police academy. host: when did you become a policeman? guest: generator 13, 1992. host: how long did you serve as an active duty, new york police -- policeman and we will

talk about what happened during your promotions. guest: twenty-one years as a new york city police officer. host: going to show some video of you on the street corner talking about where you used to sell drugs to people and get shot of what it was like. >> this is my spot right here. i spent countless hours here, 12, 24, 48. this is where the drug trade was all day every day there was not enough to do, but to sell drugs took it was our most like cool thing to do. this whole park was the supreme thing, so i like i had this area here. yet understand supreme team. all the lieutenants had different color caps on their crack cocaine, so i might have the blue. if you were-- were blue you need can overhear. the handball court was another worker.

we had someone down here by the baseball-- it was just crack all over the park. host: who was buying? guest: everyone was buying. with crack hit it decimated that community and i was one of the people that was supplying the poison. everyone was buying your cat friends, family members-- i'd family members on drugs. everybody and it came from all walks of life. people who did not have money. there were pretty that were pretty fluid. it was a middle-class neighborhood for the most part. there were people with nice houses and stuff that were buying. white people would come in. white people would drive into by. everyone was buying this crack cocaine. host: talk about the violence with the blue tops and all that. how much would each of those costs? guest: we had two vials. wit a small one and a big one. the big one we would call a jumbo and that would go for $10 or $5.

$5 for the little one and 10 for the big one. host: how much did you make it a? guest: so, now i worked to different places. i worked on my own as a freelancer where you saw that video we just showed. that was the supreme team, but i was working on my home. we were making a thousand, $2000 a day. i worked for the supreme team and it has been made that they made upwards of $20000 a week. host: who was the supreme team? guest: it was a drunk the crew ran by this guy named supreme and he had his nephew working with him and a bunch of lieutenants, maybe about five lieutenants. it was actually run like a fortune 500 company. i don't know if they do this today. like we worked shift, 12 at night till the morning, eight till four then eight till for

midnight. it was a job. the ironic thing was we worked that exact same hours as the police officers. some of these criminals out here could run fortune 500 companies. they are smart pick the emulated the police department schedule and it was so good they started to pay the police often i talk about that in the book. host: did you ever get paid off as a policeman? guest: now, i could not be bribed. i was deathly afraid. i was that it was a set up. guest: no one even offered me money and time i talk about the book where we stopped someone with a bag of money in it he said i don't know whose money it is as if to insinuate take it, no care. i was like no because i did the math really quick. if you have 15: 20000 and i split with my partner i could make a million dollars if i keep this job for 20 years. i would embarrass my

family took it just in work. host: where would you personally get the drums on a day to day basis and how much-- where did you keep it when you are standing on a street corners were at the park? guest: back then a lot of times we held drums on as because the police were not as prevalent as today. the ironic thing was there were more police, like 50000 police officers in new york city back then and now there's 36 thousand, but they were proactive. we would just put it under a tire well, stick in a tree, but you would keep some on you so you wouldn't have to keep running back to the stash. obviously, you can't carry 200. as a supreme team i would package two or 300 files for a shift peer to had that in your pocket pockets and just laid it down somewhere. host: there are supreme team members that are still around you know? guest: yes. host: was it ever uncovered-- by the way, and this book there are

so many names. how many of those names are the actual names of the people? guest: only two people names are the same. everyone else-- host: those two are? guest: supreme and prince. host: by the way, when we saw you in the video who is the other fellow in the video with you there? guest: smooth. host: tell me more about smith. guest: smooth went on to become high ranking official in law enforcement, also. people don't know. they find out in the book. he changed his life. he actually went to catholic school. he went to catholic high school and he went to prestigious university all while doing these things that i was doing. he changed his life and became a law enforcement supervisor. he just recently recite-- retired also. host: here's the former mayor of

new york city, read up giuliani. you have a few things to say about him in the book. this is only about 25 seconds. >> doesn't know why the morale of the new york city police department is so low. he blames it on me. he blames it on you. the reason of the morale is so low is one reason and one reason alone, david. host: and affectionately called former mayor a clown. guest: yes. host: why? guest: i worked that detail. i will never forget. host: you were there. guest: i was on the steps of city hall because it was growing to be a big protest, so they had to have police officers there and i will never forget that protest. there were people, cops these were all cops walking around with nooses, signs with the letter and word. it was bad. i felt really really bad to be a police officer,

probably the worst day in my career of being a police officer. felt really bad. host: 1992. guest: yes and the things he was saying. he was just rallying up-- it was basically a major racist protest. that's really what it is you could just look back at the old footage. a bunch of drunk white cops and a couple of white agitators such as giuliani packing them on saying these really nasty things about the mayor, sort of like what's going on now. in bunch of cops sammy's nasty things. host: david jenkins was black? guest: yes. host: he was sane racist things you say? guest: the whole crowd to. host: what was the reason for him making a speech? guest: he wanted to be the mayor. he had lost the election to him. mary jenkins became the mayor because he beat rudy giuliani in the state election and so

now, for the reelection giuliani was going really hard because he wanted to be the mayor and with a few missteps by mayor jenkins, the rights, the washington heights riots, he tipped the scale and he won. host: someone else you call a clown is a man named bernie kerrick. guest: bernard kerrick, former police commissioner nypd. host: why a clown? guest: will, it was cronyism at its best. here you have a guy who had a police career and his only claim to fame as a police officer was being a detective in the police department, which is on the same scale as a cop. the rate structure its cop, lieutenant, david spector, chief, cheap, cheap and he became the mayor of new york city and he made this detective down here and

brought him and made him the police commissioner. number one person in this paramilitary organization, which is the biggest police department in the country. i mean, after ivan ray kelly and the police commissioner to bring kerrick, get a you could see. he just did four years in federal prison for corruption, taking things. like that would not happen. when you're going through the ranks you know you cannot do this, you can't do that, you can't do this, you can do that. leadership does not start down here project to work your way to the top. you just can't springboard someone there because he was your bodyguard. and giuliani was running for mayor kirk was his volunteer bodyguard and he won the mayor and he made corrections commissioner and then brought him to the police department, which was the biggest joke in the police department. it's well known he wasn't running the police department. host: what was your personal reaction when bernie kerrick

went to prison? guest: i was like basically he wasn't prepared for the job. that was basically it in my estimation. he wasn't prepared for the job. host: since you published this book, you made some people very unhappy. want to run some video of the fellow that runs the police benevolent association. you seen this before and explain it. think this gentleman is patrick lynch. before we watched those what his job is. guest: union president for bike 35000 or 30 something thousand cops in the nypd, so union president. host: what after this new york post story cannot-- before we do this, the thug life thing, where did that come from? guest: i really couldn't tell you. host: the tattoos is what i'm getting at.

guest: just started. the rumor mill, someone said i had thug life on my neck, which i don't. host: and you didn't have it removed? guest: i never had it removed. you can't write overriding. to have two laser my tattoo often that would have a shadow. it just don't work. if you took a pin right now and wrote cat and right-- tried right dog on it, dog won't be legible. i could only put a snake over to cover it up. host: so, where is it? guest: i have a tattoo of my wife's name on my neck right here. host: you have been married twice. which wife is it? guest: my current wife, brenda. host: that's what's on your neck? guest: yes. host: ended as for the thug life thing came from? guest: yes. host: patrick runs the police benevolent association and you remember that? guest: guests. yes as you move up you

change unions. host: larger high-strength? guest: deputy inspector deputy inspector. host: did you look at commissioner being the cop then where does deputy inspector commend? guest: commissioners about four or five ranks higher, but in terms of numbers with the department 36000 as a deputy inspector you probably have 35000 people under you. host: here is patrick lynch on the street being interviewed in new york city see that there's a headline a month ago about a retired deputy inspector. he was on a announcing he was sold crack cocaine and that he wants-- >> he never should be collecting a pension is a new york police department. if he was palling around with drug dealers or had information about drug users that killed a new york city police officer, he never was a new york city police officer. he should not be allowed to carry that id in his pocket. it's a privilege, college to serve. he is not entitled to that privilege.

they should look back at the initial investigation and find out where he lied and pulled his pension and never allow him to be a police officer. host: what's your reaction? guest: that shows the major difference of a cop and an executive. lets just say i light on my application. see, he is so not informed that lying is what you call perjury and the statue of limitations may be five years, so if he was executive he would know that, but he's a cop spewing venom. he didn't have a clue. all he did was arrest people. he was never any policymaking position to be well-informed on what crimes are. host: wising that you? guest: he standing next to eddie burns brother who is the deputy commissioner. they are upset because i know the killer of eddie burns and i claim that in the book. host: eddie burns was a cost? guest: yes. host: when was he killed? guest: february, 1988. i went to the military.

host: who is the guy that killed him? guest: there were three guys who are in jail for decades now. host: and the one fellow they are upset about that you knew? guest: david mcclary. host: he's in prison? guest: he's in prison. host: again, just because-- that's his brother standing right there-- guest: for him to make such a-- you know what really gets me is there is no pushback with the reporter there appear for him to say i withheld vital information on the killing of a cop, do you think for one iota or second that if i had any information leading to probably the most infamous murder in the history of the nypd, if my name was on any sheet, any pad, any little sticky, if my name was on anything, do you think i would've been able to be a new york city police officer? no way in the world. i can guarantee you that if i was implicated in any crime of a murder,

forget it, any murder. find out where he lied, i never lied on the application. if they would've asked me if i sold crack cocaine i would've told them. i was try to get my life in order. i just got out of the military. my wife and kids, wanted to do what's right and i wanted this job because i knew this would be a life-changing event for my entire family. first-generation police officer, first one with a high school diploma, first one to go to college, get my masters, be of professor, i was ready to take life and do what was right and i wasn't going to say anything to jeopardize that. host: where the circumstances of eddie byrne being killed? guest: there was a murder out there, drug gang murdered a witness. one of the drug games was pre-much brands with the dream team. they ordered a hit on a police officer because he got locked up.

there is this poor kid, eddie burns sitting in front of this house and these three guys came up and murdered him. the other thing about the whole eddie burns up for is that every year his family after he died they had a memorial. i would go to the memorial every single year. and met his brother, his mother, father. and that's all of them i did it every year. i went there, but because i wanted to tell my life story of this transformation of selling drugs and i knew these people and i did all of these crazy things as a young kid, but i was never arrested , so why shouldn't i be able to tell my story? i mean, every month the nypd says a few hundred checks to prison for a pension check for people in the prison. they want to take my prison, but i never did anything. host: you make $135,000 a year tax-free as your pension? guest: that's what the publication say.

i have a tax-free pension, yes. host: and they want that taken away from you? guest: they can't do it. it's impossible. host: is a very lossy back-and-forth? guest: no, the lawsuit pending if the nypd now for taking my guns in the new york post for slandering me. i'm a couple hundred million dollar lawsuit that will be successful because i did not do anything. on did was tell my story like i'm sitting here. i was on a podcast and told my story. trying to get the book build, get as much excitement as we can and it actually worked. we got the book, but i did not know i was going to be on the front page next to jeer that derek jeter next to his three or four games. host: combat jack has a podcast? guest: yes. host: what year did you talk to him? guest: 2014. host: who is he?

guest: he has the number one hip-hop podcast in america. any hip-hop star goes on his show. i was able to leverage and meet with him through my lawyer. he was fascinating. combat, reggie ocean is his name and he was passing by my story and wanted to bring me on. host: how long did you talk to him? guest: about an hour. host: as the first time you ever told your story? guest: is the first time i ever publicly told my story. host: so, it was after that that the post picked it up and put it on the front page. what's with that headline again, so people who may have tuned in later, there's the headline, told cop. now i want to run just bit of the audio from combat jack's program. guest: verse one or the second one quick one i don't know. you'll have to tell me.

you hear what started to all this that led to the book publishing this. >> grab me like 13, me and my man sean. i need you to get these lucy's. the ironic thing, if you're going to get murdered in staten island, for the record you heard what i said murdered, air carter was murdered and that's what it was a we to that. @13 i'm selling lucy's. you know what the lucy's was back then. wasn't a cigarette. loose joint. host: so, explain more of what you are talking about their? guest: we were talking about what you asked me about the lucy's. in the lucy-- in the streets they call them joints, but they were marijuana cigarettes for the most part it's still an accusation murder, was that story in case people were not following that closely?

guest: that eric garner incident eric garner was a young man staten island who is trying to sell untaxed cigarettes allegedly in front of a store in staten island. the police responded to the location and pretty much was going to arrest him. he didn't want to go. it's all on video. he had a little bit of pushback. not enough for him to be murdered, but enough for him to be read-- arrested. he ended up being choked out and killed. i mean, the medical examiner-- i was the purse-- first person to say this guy was murdered in that combat jack interview. i called a murder because i knew the nypd was illegal to do eight chokehold. medical examiner said it was a homicide. host: that's what's making the bowl of and association mad? guest: you got understand this blue wall of silence. host: blue wall of science, one of your chapters in the book.

guest: its real serious, like how my brother's keeper. whatever you say, don't worry we will make the story up and make it fit i never was a part of that, so for me to come out say cop murdered someone, they did not take that too lightly. host: you trigger another memory from reading your book, a guy named bill work in greeley. you have strong themes-- are they both irish? guest: yes. host: you have strong things to say about irish cops. explained that. guest: i had strong things to say about irish cops back when i was a cop because it was us old guard. these guys were like i came and 92, so these guys was like 17, 18 years. late 70s early '80s and they were second, third generation. on first-generation, so these guys were coming in and had a lot of racist tendencies.

some of the irish cops wouldn't even speak to me when i would walk into a room. they would look at me like i didn't exist. i write one story there about i'm sitting in the lunch room by myself watching television eating my lunch and a tall irish guy of 20 years comes in and turns the tv off in front of me and i flipped the table over and mean he was going to have a big fight and everyone had to run in and break us up. it was a nasty disrespectful. host: he had been there 20 years and you had been there how long? guest: two years. host: you're watching television , comes and does not ask anything and just turns the television. guest: just turns it right off. it wasn't the first thing he did to me. they would use the n-word loosely. this was 92. i was in it predominantly white precinct story of the 140 precinct. there were only 28 plaques.

we were spread across the different tours, so my tour from forth till midnight, there was about four of us. it was tough. host: how did you see racism the size the story you just told. give us other examples. guest: there are a lot of examples i could give you. most of it was like promotions, assignments. i talk about putting in papers to go to this elite unit where my party who graduated the same day as i did see one was he white? guest: he's italian. i get the letter back and we had two years on the job in big red letters it said you need three years to apply. we go to roll caught and they call him at the rollcall and they say your 20 minutes ago down for your interview for the test. he was a really nice guy. he came to me almost with tears in his eyes and he said corey, i'm sorry and i was like don't worry about it. do good on your interview.

he ended up going to that elite unit, sight seeing things early on. we got 9 millimeters. host: 9-millimeter guns? guest: 9-millimeter handguns and it was supposed go by seniority, but all the white guys under me with less time got there is first and i had to wait blind to get mine. there were a lot of things, but all of that stuff made me stronger and wanted to get promoter because one thing that can stop racism is being in charge and when you are in charge, they don't have to like you, but it's a paramilitary organization. i tell you to do and you move it i don't care what your feelings are. and your funds the boss i could make change. host: you mentioned your lawyer earlier. much did your lawyer have to approve of this book? guest: not that attorney. simon & schuster, i have a whole staff of lawyers work of that book has been heavily vetted. i mean, we had go

back-and-forth on names, places, no yet to take this out, take that out. so many drafts are on the books. host: how did you do the book? how did you actually put words on paper? guest: believe it or not when i got injured september, 2011, and harry had major surgery-- i had to back surgeries and i knew i would never be a police officer again because you have to be full duty even if you are the boss. if you get hurt while you have the surgery i would be liability for the city so they won't let you work again except for exceptions and i knew i wasn't one of those exceptions, so i started writing my story in the hospital then. host: did you write this all yourself or did you talk it? guest: i wrote my own story. i walked into simon & schuster with a script like this, date books, a big second date books. i don't have that picture in the book. i really should have

that picture in the book i kept a journal every year, read book after the break i will show you my phone. i kept a journal every single year as a police officer. i wrote down-- i did it right every wake. there were stories. the giuliani story, all of the stories in the book, wrote them already, so i walked into simon & schuster with my book agent and we sat down everyone was looking like well, you wrote all that stuff in there and you wrote your own manuscript. i already wrote the book-- the book was written. host: lets me read something. we are jumping a bit all over the place, but i want to get to as much as we can. let me read back to what she wrote and tell us the circumstances. by the time they pulled the guy off of me i was hot. i was seeing red dirt i was covered in cuts and scrapes. this guys a blood all over me. we cuffed him and i went to walk you not to the patrol car.

at the top of the stairs he stumbled and slipped out of my hand. i didn't push him, but i didn't try to catch him either. i let him fall and he went on the stairs handcuffed headfirst, boom, boom, boom, boom. why did you tell us a story? guest: because i wanted to be transparent. worst thing i ever did as a police officer. that's the worst thing. i could have killed a handcuffed prisoner by not securing him and that taught me right then at that moment it's almost like the incident years ago when they took the nightstick and stuck inside of him. whenever you are involved personally with a personal and it goes south when you're fighting and stuff, once it's over someone else should be the calm her figure to come in and use it to decide and let them because they did have interaction with the person i learned from that day. i had a fight with someone i would have some no space the rest. i was happy they got the

guy and you didn't read the best part of that is , wasn't good at the time, he was hiv-positive. had to do testing for a whole year. host: define some of these things in the book that you wrote and this goes back to your earlier life. what is how fly we were ask what is that mean? guest: we looked good. we could give a lesson on slang. how we-- how fly we were means how good we looked host: what's good shooting? guest: i kind of hate that term, but is a police term. if the shooting looks like it's justified they call it a good shooting. as i got older and went further my career i hated that because any shooting, someone you hit with a bullet is not a good shooting, but in the police world, so a cop would have a shooting with someone and investigation. the cheaper, they went to brief him and then

the investigation would say it's a good shooting host: why did you tell us about your personal life, i mean, you talk-- correct me if i'm wrong about this, but you talk about having to women in your life early in your life to get at the same time. tina-- is that her real name? guest: yes. host: and teresa any married teresa, but those children were born to each of those women about the same time and you were in attendance for both. why you tell us about that? guest: i wanted to be transparent and real work i put my life out there and like some of the things, some friends and family members are not happy, but the only way i could come on c-span is to be real and honest with people because that is one thing people understand his honesty. when you're honest with people, then they believe in you. host: this happened twice in your life, two different women.

how long we married teresa? guest: eight or nine years. host: how me children did you have by teresa? guest: just one. host: with that person's name. guest: natasha. host: and teen had one child, corey junior. wears corry junior today guest: he's still in queens. host: house he doing? guest: he's doing fine. host: you in touch with him? guest: of coarse. host: which one of those women was the most upset when they found out about the other one? guest: you can flip a coin on that. and a girlfriend and queens cheating on a one in brooklyn, so the one in brooklyn that she was my per girlfriend, so when they both found out it was pretty upset. host: as you told us earlier you have a tattoo with brenda. didn't have another affair at the same time and have another woman

pregnant at the same time brenda was pregnant? guest: no. absolutely not. host: i misread that one? guest: yes. she would probably kill me. host: brenda l had to children before? guest: yes. host: and then you two had come a children? guest: to children. they a family. host: where did you meet her and how he other people and your family are cops? guest: i met her in the third grade. she was sitting to the left all the way in the corner with the big bushy hair. after my divorce from teresa, so maybe 20 years after that picture in the book. host: what do she think of this book? guest: well, she likes the book. she's not happy with everything in the book. host: when did she read it?

guest: honestly, i don't think she's finished reading it yet. she's picking and choosing. it's very emotional because of all the things-- mostly with the whole new york post thing. it's very traumatic for her, so she don't really want to involve herself in that, but she definitely read like the early parts of the book. host: so, you are friends with ll cool j and run dmc? guest: on friends with ll cool j and i was friends with jam. we all grew up in the same neighborhood. we all grew up in the same neighborhood. the ironic thing, crack and wrap all i came up together. it came up, you know. the rappers back then were making big money p the drug dealers were driving the fancy cars. the pendulum swings today. on the crack dealers

want to be rappers. ll cool j, actually had three or 42nd cameos one of his problems. host: you are a cop then? guest: yes. host: was a independent of being on the police? guest: yes. host: you are there and he put you in the middle. do we have that clip? guest: i haven't heard that clip since that day. host: you had to listen very carefully on this because do you remember what your lines were? guest: i thought you fell off, kid. host: this is from ll cool j's rap song "god bless". you had to listen carefully because it comes near the end. lets run this so you can explain all this to us. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ host: i thought you fell off. guest: i thought you fell off, kid. he's bragging about what he got and i commend saying it basically i thought people said you fell off, kid. host: explain the world of rap and hip-hop. with the difference between the two? guest: it's all the same. rap is hip-hop. as we walk, talk, the car you drive, it's everything. its all-in-one. host: what is your dd bop? guest: my walk. my dd bop is probably a ditty group now because of my back surgery. host: did nick tick people off from time to time? guest: i had this distinctive walk. i grew up in hip-hop. everyone's swag. it's the confident step that you have when you

walk and it's just more pronounced than everyone else. host: what is the whole bling thing? you said people in their their -- in your book that people had so much money that they just went out and bought all of this jewelry. guest: always dressed to impress and pretty much for the young guys growing up like i grew up it was always to impress the ladies and let the other guys know you making more money than what they are making. as you see now, i'm not pulling out. i've a little watch on, but we are older now and the bling is gone. host: i want to show you a clip from a movie that you talk about in your book "new jack city" and tell us how close this is to the real world. >> i think my cousin also likes the fact you are in the tradition of joe kennedy. >> who? good because you got to rob to get rich. they running a strange

program, you all. i mean, disenfranchised folks. you see they pretend it don't exist. me welcome the rich get richer. >> and the poor don't get a thing soon wreck in times like these people want to get high, real high, real fast and this will do it and make us rich. >> me what, people going crazy over there? i mean, really it look like pieces of soap. host: how real is that? guest: there's a lot of hollywood to that, but they say that movie was, you know, largely based on the supreme team. that's what a lot of people say. i'm quite sure-- remember i was a street hustler, so i was not privy to the meeting said supreme had with his lieutenants, but i'm pretty sure it was sort of like that.

host: one advantage was it being a cop that you had been a member of the supreme team? guest: it wasn't just been a member of the supreme team, my advantage of being a cop was being a young black man growing up in the inner city, so i understood like what would go on in the city, so police work came fairly easy for me. if they put me in chinatown come in downtown manhattan he would've been harder for me to navigate. most of my precinct i worked in queens, which is a greek area. i worked in minority neighborhoods, so it was easy for me to fit in and as i was going higher to the ranks i was able to impart my knowledge on officers that worked for me to tell them, listen everyone-- every time someone in the streetcar you son, they are not disrespecting you because they are older. that's how they talk. they refer to each other as a son. i would drop say tools on them, in part knowledge on them and say this is how it goes down here.

guest: in the suburbs when they go to the park, in the park or the benches right there, so you keep hanging in the park after dark. they have nowhere else to go. what are we going to do? they can't pay a summons, what are we going to do, so a lot of police work is common sense and discretion. host: during the name right, may sean. you call to like his thing in my life the day the guy did not fire. explain the story. guest: so, that was probably december 12, or does have a 13th, 1986 took my son was born on december 12. it was either that day i came home or the next day i get off an echo back on the block because i'm happy. my son is born and may sean walks up to me pulls out a pistol point in my head and tells me to get off the block you can't hustle down here no more.

i left, obviously he had a gun. iran and went home for two days and thought about what i was going to do because back then it was sort of street credibility or street cred. i had to get my revenge, so i decided i was going to kill myself and the gun i had, at a nice little wi-fi that i went went down there two days later and i was like so crazy back then that i said i want to do this in front of everyone. on a dude at prime time about 6:00 p.m. and killed him in front of everyone for hitting me with a gun. i pulled the gun out and put it in his chest and i pulled the trigger three types it don't go off. he pulls his gun out and starts shooting at me. i run and a friend of mine turn the corner and saw what was happy and pulled his gun out and started shooting and he

ran into another friend's house. we wanted him out of the house and we were going to do something, but my friend's mother would not let him come to the house. host: what happened that the gun did not fire? guest: because we were so young and crazy and running around and shooting i did know a about guns it was a semi automatic. i never wreck the slide and bullet in the chamber, so there was no bullet in the chamber to fire the gun. host: it's it to say that if that guy fired you would not be sitting here today? guest: definitely. host: did you ever shoot someone? guest: some stories in the book, can't give away everything in the book. you got to get them to read something in the book. i had some brushes with guns. host: i want to show you a clip of you in a barbershop and those folks to go to movies, there's barbershop on a barbershop two.

let's watch this. this into the dialogue between you and the barber. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

host: can you fill in the blanks on what that's all about? guest: yeah, so that's my youtube web series barbershop cops. i have filming some shows going around new york city to barber shops all over talking about real issues that affects the community getting feedback, real feedback. that's live stuff right there. that's not scripted. i start a topic, what you think about this question of frisky. it's not scripted as you can see and it's good stuff so america see how young black men fell about costs and law-enforcement in general, so the point i was trying to make there with that particular situation was that cops are getting paid-- when i say this i'm talking about nypd. their deep heat over thousand dollars a year to make sure they are not discriminating against people, so like i would tell my cops every date, check your attitudes at the door.

i know you just had a domestic violence incident with your wife, but you have to come to work. can you do it, see up to look at everyone individually. a tree, police. car accident, police. someone shot, police. anything police, so you are asking someone 19, 20 years old in most jurisdictions with six months of training never lived out of their mother's basement, give them a gun and badge is a of the world. they never had a girlfriend and they have to handle domestic dispute. it's a tough job and i criticize police a lot, but when i criticize i criticize bad police and as a small percentage. the smoke-- overwhelming majority, and do their job, but you don't hear about that. you hear about the riots from that era garner case. you care about the bad cops are bad policeman work once law-enforcement start-- every time you see one of these cases, you look at the person's background, seven

complaints, use of force, five substantiated. the guy was a mess and we don't find out about until they kill someone, so what are you doing prior to do they kill someone. when they curse him out we should handle it from the jump. host: where does your last name come from? guest: it has french origins, but i trace my roots to north carolina. host: and you say in your book your dad was an alcoholic? guest: yes, my dad was alcoholic, a functional alcoholic. he would work every single day, but he drank every single day. host: what you're up your life did he die? guest: third-grade-- no, no, no my father left in the third grade. he died my second year as a police officer. he executed to my police it's one of the happiest days i had with my father. he told me i let-- he led me that day. i never heard him say

that, but he told me that they. host: with a different feeling for you if the guy sitting here asking you questions is black versus a white guy? guest: it doesn't matter. seek him i don't base that things on race unless it's quite obvious to me there is a racial component to it. uncomfortable in any settings. and white friends, spanish friends, black friends. it's just when people show me racism it kind of this is me off, possess me off big time because there should be no room for that because i know what i'm made of. if they didn't fight for civil rights i wouldn't even be able to stand here and have this interview. so, i feel very strongly host: let me ask it a different way. do you notice a difference in the questions a white interviewer will ask you versus a black interviewer? guest: not necessarily. you talk about the combat jack show, it's a hip-hop show. it's a whole different

environment from these type of interviews. i mean, i go on interviews and someone want to take a shot at me, they contract. it's kind of hard to take a shot of that book because you can fact check everything. host: what is the question you are asked all the time as you do this book tour? guest: how did i become a police officer by selling crack cocaine host: what would you say-- you see in the book that you never missed a day of school. guest: i didn't see one that you did not use drugs. guest: i did not use of drugs, believe it or not and my little team around me-- i didn't smoke marijuana. that was a big thing. i even very rarely-- we used to drink 40 ounces of beer, colt 45 and a barely rarely did that.

i was so money hungry i just wanted to make some money, be able to take care of myself. didn't want to waste my money. help my girlfriend. i didn't mess with none of that. i never smoked a cigarette in my life. host: still haven't? guest: no. i smoke a cigar once in a while. i had one last night. host: so, what does corey pegues want to do for the rest of his life? guest: for the rest of my life i just want to go out spread my message because i believe i have a transformational story that can touch the lives of some of these kids and i want to start a nonprofit. it's best for me to open a computer center and have financial literacy classes for these kids and try to help these kids because they are hurting out there and they need someone in the main thing is that when they see me they see someone that look like and that did it. i can go to any community, college campuses. i want to get on these

canvases and talk to these kids. there's a lot of kids going through things and they think it's a dead-end and i'm here to tell them you can make it. host: is very website people can go to? guest: yes, corey pegues.com. and they can find me on my website or hit me on twitter, instagram and i'm all over the internet. google my name. everything pops up. host: we will show you the cover of the books of people can see the spelling of your name and the title of the book is: "once a cop: the street, the law, two worlds, one man". corey pegues, thank you very much for joining us. ..

in journalist monique morris discusses how some school policies have a negative impact on the lives of black female students. also this weekend