to set an example for our children. that is who we are and that is who we always have the capacity to be and that is the best way for us to honor the sacrifice of the brave police officers who were taken from us this morning. may god bless them and their families, and may god bless the united states of america. thank you very much. ♪ ,"his week on "q&a corey pegues. he discusses his book "once a cop -- the street, the law, two worlds, one man." "once your book is called a cop." what is it about? mr. pegues: it is my life story.

brian: when did you retire? mr. pegues: march 2013, officially retired. injured september 2000 11 so i was out of work for about a year and a half, almost two years. i had to back surgeries. -- two back surgeries. i popped a disk in my back. brian: at the time, what was your rank and where were you a policeman? mr. pegues: at the time it was a commanding officer of the 57th precinct in my rate was deputy inspector. brian: in the newark police yorktment -- in the new police department. mr. pegues: yes. brian: talk about this moment because you talk about it in your book. cocaine.s crack

seized a few days ago by drug enforcement agents in a park just across the street from the white house. cocaine. it could easily have been heroine or pcb. it is as innocent looking as candy but it is turning our cities and two battles owns is murdering our children. let there be no mistake -- this stuff is poison. brian: as you said your book almost right away, you sold that stuff. why? because of i sold it the environment i grew up in. i grew up with gangsters and drug dealers and pimps. i was in a family of 6, 5 girls and myself. my father left after the third grade. in my book i have a picture of me in the fifth grade and i'm sitting indian style of the front and i'm holding my feet because i poles in the bottom of my shoes and i cardboard edit so that my shock -- socks wouldn't get wet. i had a rough upbringing.

i have friends who were selling drugs so start selling drugs. so it marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine came out and we started selling that. 13 to 18 years old, five years. brian: what is the difference between cocaine and crack cocaine? mr. pegues: crack cocaine is rock form. brian: what is mescaline? mr. pegues: a tiny pill that people take. back then i don't even know if that stuff is still around but they did back then. brian: what is a lucy? he got killed for buying lucy, those little cigarettes. the origin of lucy was a lucy joint. instead of selling a nickel back right dime bag of weed, you have

to roll them up them's -- yourself. we would roll them up for you -- we would roll you a loose it was a loose joint marijuana joint laced with cocaine. sprinkle a little bit of it in there. you get the high and the low. brian: smooth? mr. pegues: smooth was a very good friend of mine way grew up with. he introduced me to the streets. their run of about him was he did not have to. a two family home, mom worked for the telephone company , father worked for the post office. house, car, white defense. just because of the -- white picket fence. just because of the environment -- he brought me in on the whole drug game and i started hanging out with him. brian: why did you want to write

the book? mr. pegues: i'm glad you asked that question. nobody really asked. you really reason i wrote it was for generations behind me. kids, grandkids, i wanted to know this life transferred -- transformation i made. then it morphed into this book i had to write and tell my story because i was put on the front page of the newspaper in new york city. they really took some shots of my personality, my demeanor, my character, they tried to vilify me. i had to tell my story. that i wrote my own book and stopped walking across the stage, graduate. i was in the streets selling drugs, which the military unit graduated in came a cop and it was over. that was the end of the book until this newspaper hit. that i had to go to my entire police career just so i could

lessen some of the stuff that was put out about me that was all lies. brian: here's the front page of the "new york post" that i think you're talking about. it says i dealt crack as a gangs reveals.honcho when you saw that, what was your reaction, and how did it happen? mr. pegues: my reaction to that -- i was not happy. i did so crack when i was out in i don't know if i would consider myself a gangster. a gangster to me is like john gotti. i was a street hustler come i sold drugs, so i was a criminal. it was really bad for my family. my family had to endure that waking up in the morning. there's a picture of me with the president of united states and the book, maybe a future president, hillary clinton, michael bloomberg, l local j.

i had such a -- ll cool j. i had such a fantastic life after those five years. then with me being on the cover it took all that away and it was not an easy time for my family. i knew i was never a thug cop. they have a federal program not now where there's going to be numerous executives locked up. those are thug cop spirit i never committed a crime is a cop. i was probably the cleanest cop for 21 years and the reason being i thought they were always looking at me because of my past, because of how i came to work dressed, because of my tattoos. i was so clean, i always thought it was a setup. brian: let's go through some brief outline of your life. you were born in what year in where? mr. pegues: 1968 in queens. brian: where did you go to school? mr. pegues: in jamaica, queens.

i left in the third grade. i got kicked out for pushing a girl behind the stairs. i personally played a girl and they felt down the stairs. i got bust out to junior high school and 58. i went to high school for an engineering program and invited some of my friends, some of my crack it friends to play basketball. they had a right at the school and beat everyone up out of the game, but i get kicked out of there. i interjected high school ended up graduating from andrew jackson high school. 19 and seven. --0 -- 1987. brian: after high school and after 1987, where did you go? mr. pegues: the u.s. army. brian: how long? mr. pegues: three years and eight months.

and was up, so george bush was the president at the time, he extended everybody's ahead to stay longer. brian: were you actually on duty the all-time? active duty in the national guard? mr. pegues: then i was in the national guard for 14 years for it have 18 years of military service. brian: that takes us up to what year? mr. pegues: march 1992. actually, march 19 901i got out of the military. in january 1992 and went to the police academy. i became a policeman 1992. brian: how long did you serve as an active-duty new york police man? we'll talk about what happened during your promotions. mr. pegues: 21 years. brian: i want to show some video of you on the street corner

talking about where you used to sell drugs so people can get a sense of what it was like. this is my spot, right here. i spent countless hours here. this is where the drug trade was. all day, everyday. there was nothing else to do but to sell drugs. it was cool, almost like a cool thing to do. -- i had this was area here, this area. all the lieutenants had different colored caps on their crack cocaine. i'm a happy blue caps, so if you wanted blue you came over here. worker,s another another worker on the basketball court. we had somebody down here by the baseball. there was crack over the park. brian: who was buying? mr. pegues: everybody was buying. crack decimated that community.

i was one of the people who was supplying that poison. but everybody was buying. members.family i have family members on drugs. everybody. they came from all walks of life. people who do not have money. people who work affluent. you had some people, nice houses, they were buying. coming toite people predominantly black communities. just driving into by. everybody was buying crack cocaine. brian: talk about the violence. how much would east of -- each of those cost? mr. pegues: we had two files, a small and a big one, the jumbo. that will go for $10 or five dollars. five dollars for the little one, $10 for the big one or $20 for the big one. brian: how much should you make a day?

mr. pegues: i worked two different places. , that waseelancer with the supreme team. ,ut i was working on my own what i would make $1000 a day. when i worked for the supreme team, they made upwards of $2000 a week. it was a drug crew ran by this guy named supreme. his nephew work with him and he had a bunch of lieutenants, maybe five lieutenants. they had an iron fist organization. it was actually run like a fortune 500 company. -- i do not know if drug companies are doing this today. i would work shifts. we update on fridays. it was a job. -- i got paid on fridays. the erotic thing that was, we worked the exact same training

hours as a police officer. these guys are smart. they emulated the police department schedule. they were so good that they started paying the police off. i talk about that in the book. brian: did you ever get paid off as a policeman? mr. pegues: no. i could not be bought. i was definitely afraid. nobody ever offered me money. stopped somebody with a bag of money and he said, i do not know whose money it is, as if to insinuate take it, i do not care. and i was like, no. if he had $20,000 in there and i split with my partner, i can make $1 million if i keep the job for 20 years or this could be a setup. just the network. brian: -- it just did not work. brian: where did you get the drugs on a day-to-day basis and where did you keep it when you are standing on the corners? mr. pegues: back then, a lot

times we held drugs on us because the police were not as prevalent as they are today. is -- thenning thing ironic thing is there is like 50,000 police officers. we just put it in a tire well, stick it in the tree. you keep some on you so you would not have to keep running the stash. obviously you cannot carry 200. of 300 have a package files for the ship. we just lay them down somewhere. other any team members that are still around that you know? mr. pegues: yes. brian: in this book, there are so many names. are the actualse names of the people? mr. pegues: only two. brian: those two are? mr. pegues: supreme and prints.

-- and pricne. -- prince. brian: was the other person in the video with you? mr. pegues: smooth. he went on to become a high-ranking official in law enforcement also. he changed his life. he went to catholic school. he went to catholic high school, and he went to a prestigious university. all while doing these things i was doing. he changed his life and become law enforcement supervisor. he just recently retired also. brian: here's the former nader -- mayor of new york city, rudolph giuliani. this is only about 25 seconds. >> the morale of the new york city department is so low.

he blames on may, he blames on you. -- it on me, he blames it on you. the reason the morale is so low is one reason and one reason alone -- david dinkins. brian: you called -- mr. pegues: i worked at detail, i will never forget. i was on the steps of city hall to be a bigas going protest so they had to have police officers there. i will never forget that protest. these rogue cops walk around with -- these were all cops walking around with nooses, signs with the n-word. probably the worst they my my career.ay in he was riling up.

it was basically a major racist protest, that was what it was. you can look back at the old footage. it is a bunch of drunk, white cops and a couple of white agitators such as giuliani egging them on. saying nasty things about the mayor, kind of what is going on right now. a bunch of cops saying he is nasty. brian: david dinkins was black. and he was saying racist things? mr. pegues: the whole crowd. brian: what was the reason for him making a speech? mr. pegues: he wanted to become mayor. he had lost the mayor. -- the election. david dinkins beat rudy giuliani. for the reelection, giuliani was going hard because he wanted to be the mayor. there were a few missteps by mayor dinkins. the riots, the washington heights rights.

it tipped the scale, and he won. brian: someone else to call the cloud was a man called bernie. mr. pegues: former police commissioner. brian: why a clown? here you have a guy who had a police career. as anly claim to fame police officer was being a detective, which is on the same scale as a cop. cop, detective, sergeant, lieutenant, kathy, -- captain -- chief. he became the mayor of new york city and he made this detective down here and brought him and made him the -- the number one person in this paramilitary organization which is the biggest police department in the country. kelly, after having ray

as the police commissioner to bring him -- you know, he just did four years of federal prison for corruption. that would not happen to a seasoned veteran. yougo through the ranks, know you cannot do this, you can do that. leadership do not start down here, you have to work your way to the top. you cannot spring board there because he was your bodyguard. when giuliani was running for mayor, he was a volunteer bodyguard and he was made corrections commissioner and brought into the police department. he was the biggest joke in the department. it is well known he was not running the police. brian: what was your personal reaction when he went to prison? mr. pegues: i was like, basically, he was not prepared for the job. that was basically it, in my estimation. he was not prepared for the job. brian: since you publish this

book, you made some people very unhappy. of theto run some video fellow that runs the police benevolent association. you have seen this before. explain it. before we watch it, tell us what his job is? mr. pegues: he is the union president for 35,000 cops in the nypd. he is the union president. brian: right after this story came out -- by the way, before we do this, the thought of life thing, where did that come from? thing, whereife did it come from? the tattoos. mr. pegues: i do not have my neck. you can't write over writing.

you have to laser my tattoo often than it would have a shadow. it just don't work. if you have cap and you try to write dog, it will not be legible. you cannot write over writing. brian: where is it? mr. pegues: i have a tattoo of my wife's name on my neck. brian: you been married twice, which one is it? mr. pegues: my current one, brenda. thug: that is where the life thing came from? -- were you a member? mr. pegues: you go to sergeant call you tenant -- you change unions. brian: what was your highest rank? mr. pegues: that the inspector. commissioner -- deputy insepector.

of 36,000,ment deputy inspector q probably have 35,000 people under you. a month ago a retired deputy inspector was on a podcast announcing he once sold crack and cleans. -- in queens. >> he should not be collecting a pension. he was palling around with drug dealers. if you get information about drug dealers that killed a police officer, he never was a police officer. you should not be allowed to carry a retired id card in his pocket. that is a privilege. it is a privilege to serve, it is a privilege to say you did serve. you are not entitled to that privilege. they should look back, find out where he lied, was pension and never allow them to be a police officer. brian: what is your reaction? mr. pegues: that shows the major

difference of a cop and an executive. let's just say i lied to my application. so not informed that lying is what he called perjury and the statute of limitations is maybe five years. if he was executive you know that, but he is a cop just spewing benefit all he did was a recipe book. he never was in a -- arrest people. brian: why is he mad at you? mr. pegues: he is standing next to eddie burns'brother and he is the deputy commissioner. he is upset because i know the killer of eddie burns. brian: when was he killed? mr. pegues: february 1988. brian: was the guy who killed him? mr. pegues: three guys were in jail for decades now. brian: the one they are upset about -- he is in prison.

that's his brother. you know what really gets me? there's no pushback. he says i withheld vital information on the killing of a cop. to you think for one iota of a 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 tag, any sticky, do you think i would've been able to be a police officer? no way the world. i can guarantee you that if i was implicated in any crime of murder. any murder. i never lied on the application. that was not one of the

questions. if they were to ask you would've told them. i was scared, tried to get my life in order, i just got out of the military. i want to do my family right and i wanted to get this job because a new this would be a life-changing event for my entire family. first-generation police officer, first went to get a high school diploma, first to go to college. by theeady to take life years into what is right and i was not going to say anything to jeopardize that. brian: what many circumstances of eddie burns being killed? mr. pegues: there was a murderer out there, a drug gang murdered a witness. one of the drug gangs that was friends with the supreme team. this guy ordered a hit on a police officer because he got locked up. burns, wasid, eddie sitting in front of his house guarding a witness and three guys came up and murdered him. or --her thing people up

went to hisroar, i memorial every year. i met his family, i did every year, i went there. but because i wanted to tell my life story, this transportation -- transformation from selling all this crazy stuff that i was never arrested and convicted of a crime so why should i not be able to tell my story? every month the nypd since a few hundred checks to prisons for pension checks for people in prison. they want to take my pension, but it never did anything. brian: you make a hundred $35,000 a year tax rate -- ta --0

i have a lawsuit and i'm positive it will be successful because i do not do anything. all i did was tell my story, like i'm doing sitting here. i told my story come i'm trying to get a book deal. get as much excitement as i can. actually worked, we got the book deal. i'll be onot know the front page next to derek jeer. jeter.k brian: what year did you talk to him? mr. pegues: 2014. . july. brian: who is he? star.gues: a hip hop they all go on his show.

i was able to leverage a meeting with him through my lawyer. they were all partners. he was fascinating. he was fascinated by my story anyone to bring me in. brian: how long did you talk to them? mr. pegues: about an hour. that was the first time i publicly told my story. that the new york post put that on the front page. let's look at that headline again so people who mail to do in late -- there is the headline. thug cop. now just want to run a little bit of the audio from the program. you'll have to tell me which one it is? just a brief excerpts of they can hear what started this. my friend grabbed me and said

i needed to get these lossies off. murdered, i'm a- cop, he was murdered. that's what it was. at 13 i'm selling loosies. but they wasn't cigarettes, they were joints. explain more of that, what you are talking about. mr. pegues: you asked me about loosies, they were marijuana cigarettes for the most part. brian: the accusation of murder, what is that story? garnerues: the eric incident. he was a young man in staten island who try to sell untaxed cigarettes allegedly in front of a store out in staten island.

the police responded to the location and pretty much were going to arrest him. he did not want to go at the time, it is on video. he had a little bit of and he ended up being choked out and killed. the medical examiner, i was the first person to say this guy was murdered. quoted -- called it a murder because i knew the nypd put in a choke hold and he died but ecstasy asian. -- his fixation. asphyxiation. this was a serious thing. this blue wall of silence is a serious thing. it is like i'm a brother's. whatever you say, i will go with , don't worry. we will make the story up. we will make it fit. i never was a part of that. for me to come out and say that a cop murdered somebody, they

did not take that too lightly. brian: you trigger another memory from reading your book. a guy named overworked -- ely.urke and gre they are both irish? strong things to say about irish cops. mr. pegues: i have some strong things to say about irish cops when i was a cop. it was still the old guard. these guys were, i came in 92. years,uys were 17-18 they came in the late 70's. they were second, third generation. in, theys were coming had a lot of racist tendencies. they would not even speak to me. some of them would not even speak to me. i would walk in a room full of cops and say, how is everyone doing? they would treat me like i didn't exist. i write one story about me sitting in the lunch room

watching television eating my lunch in a tall irish guy comes in and turns the tv off right in front of it. i for the table over and we were getting ready to have a big fight and everyone had to run it at break this up. it was so nasty. and disrespectful. brian: he had been a 20 years and you had been there how long? mr. pegues: two. brian: he comes in, the but as you anything and turned the television off. mr. pegues: turns a writeup. it was not the first thing he did to me. they would use the n word loosely. i was in a predominantly white present. -- precinct. there were 300 cops and 28 blacks. we were spread across. my tour from 4:00-midnight, i could remember the names. there were four of us. it was tough. brian: how did you see racism?

examples.me other mr. pegues: a lot of examples i could give you. most of it was, promotions, assignments, i talk about go to thisers to elite unit with my partner who graduated the same day as i did. he's italian. i get the letter back saying you had two years on the job, you need three years to apply. we go to rollcall and they call him and said you have 20 minutes to go down to your interview. he was in a sky. he had tears in his eyes. corey, i'm sorry. don't worry about it. do good on your interview. he ended up going to the elite unit. i was seeing things very early on. i had a few years on the job. nine millimeter handguns. when from a 30. supposed to go by seniority.

although white guys under me with less time, they got theirs first. i had to wait in line to get mine. a lot of things. that made me stronger and wanted me to get promoted. one thing that could stop racism was being in charge. and you're in toss, they have to like you, but it is a proud military organization. you do it. i don't care what your feelings are. i knew if i was the boss, i can make change. brian: you mention your lawyer early. how much did he have to improve -- approve? staffgues: i have a whole of lawyers, that book has been .eavily vetted we had to go back and forth on names, places, take this out, take this out. so many draft of the book. heavily vetted. brian: how did you do the book? mr. pegues: believe it or not, when i got injured in september,

2011 and had a major surgery, i knew i would never be a police officer again, as you have to be fit, even if you're are the boss. he have to be able to run and jump over a fence. if you get hurt, i would be a liability. they would not let me work again except for exceptions. i knew i was not one of those exceptions. i started writing my story in the hospital bed. brian: did you write this all yourself? mr. pegues: i wrote my own story. i walked into simon & schuster with a script like this, date books. i should add that picture in the book. the -- i kept it journal every year. i kept a journal every year as a police officer direct outcome i do not write every day, sometimes every week or month.

the stories,. all the stories in the book, i wrote them already. when i walked into simon & schuster with my book agent, we sat down with harpercollins and everybody and they were looking, well, you wrote all of that and you write your own manuscript? our the wrote the book. it was written. brian: let me read something. the words jumping a bit, but the -- i want to get as much as we can. the married back what you wrote. by the time they pulled the guy off of me, i was hot. i was seeing red. i was covered in cuts and scrapes, this guys blood all over me. we cuffed him, and i went to walking out to the bedroom car. at the top of the stairs, he stumbled and slipped out of my hand, i did not push him. i do not try to catch them either. i let him fall, and he went down the stairs handcuffed, headfirst , boom, boom, boom, boom.

why did you tell the story? mr. pegues: i wanted to be transparent. the worst thing i ever did as a police officer. i could have killed a handcuffed prisoner by not securing him. that taught me right then at anotherent, almost like incident, when they took the nightstick and sucking in the side of him. whenever you are involved personally with a prisoner, it goes south where you are fighting, once it is over, somebody else should be the common figure that comes in and use it to the side and let them, i went from that day if i have a fight with somebody, i have to let someone else take the arrest. die. happy the guy did not you did not read the best part, he was hiv-positive. had to be tested for a whole year. brian: you point to some of

these things in the book, this goes back to your earlier life. how fly we were, what does that mean? mr. pegues: a lesson on slang. that means how good we look. brian: what is good shooting? mr. pegues: i kind of hate that term. it is a police term. it is the shooting, looks like it is just a fight, big call it a good shooting. shooting where someone got hit with a bullet, not a good shooting. but in a police world, a cop would have a shooting with somebody, it shot there's investigation, they keep comes and they want to break in. want to investigate the good shooting. us abouty did you tell your personal life? correct me if i'm wrong, you

talk about having to women in your life pregnant at the same time. tina, and person. you married teresa. the children were born to each of those women around the same time. and you -- tell us about that? mr. pegues: i wanted to be transparent and real. i put my life out there. some friends and not happy about that. but the only way i could come on c-span and to all the shows is to be real. and honest with people. that is one thing people understand. when you are honest with people, then they believe in you. brian: what was the story, this happened twice, when was the second time? how lower you married to teresa? mr. pegues: 8-9 years. just one child. natasha. tash. you call her

mr. pegues: tina had one child. corey is in queens. brian: how is he doing? brian: fine. i'm in touch with him -- mr. pegues: fine. i'm in touch with him. brian: which woman was most upset when they found out? mr. pegues: you could flip a coin. i was living a double life. had a girlfriend in queens cheating on the one of brooklyn. he one of brooklyn thought was my girlfriend. when they both found out, they were upset. brian: as you told us earlier, you have a tattoo. fair? -- ather a fair -- affair? mr. pegues: absolutely not. she would kill me. brian: she had children before? mr. pegues: yes.

brian: how many children did you have together? mr. pegues: two. one big happy family. brian: where did you meet brendale, the other people in your family are cops? mr. pegues: i met her in third grade. with a bushy hair. --an: when did you get her get with her? mr. pegues: after my divorce with three so. -- teresa. a few years after that. brian: what does she think of this book? mr. pegues: she likes the book. she's not happy with everything in the book. brian: when did she read it? mr. pegues: honestly, i don't think she has finished reading it. she is picking and choosing. it is very emotional. things, mostly but the whole

new york post thing, very traumatic for her. she don't want to involve herself in it. she definitely read the early parts. brian: you are friends with ll cool j. and run dmc. mr. pegues: i'm friends with ll cool j and i was friends with jam after day. we grew up in the same neighborhood. ironic thing, a talk about that in the book, crack and rap came up together. the rappers back then, they were making -- the drug dealers were driving the fancy cars. all the crack dealers wanted to be rappers. have a three or four second cameo on one of his albums. brian: you were a cop then?

with the independent of being on the place, you were there and he put you in the middle of this. we have the clip. [laughter] mr. pegues: i haven't heard that clip since that day. brian: you have to listen very carefully. do you remember your lines? mr. pegues: i think you fell off kid. brian: this is from ll cool j rap song god bless. you can see the whole thing on youtube. it comes in at the end. you can expel this afterwards. ♪ ♪ fell i thought you off.

mr. pegues: he's bragging about what you got. your people saying you fell off, kid. brian: explain the world of rap and hip-hop, what is the difference? mr. pegues: it's all the same. the way you walk, talk, cars you drive, everything. brian: what is your ditty bop? mr. pegues: my work. ditty boot. brian: did it take people off -- off?people mr. pegues: i had this walk. a confident step when you walk. a more pronounced than everybody else. brian: what is the bling thing? you say in your these people had so much money so they bought all

this jewelry. mr. pegues: it is all dressed to impress, pretty much for the young guys. growing up, it was to impress the ladies and let the other guys know you are making more money than they are making. i'm not linked -- blinged out. the bling is gone. where older now. brian: let me show you a clip from the movie, you talk about in your book. tell us how close this is to the real world. think my cousin also like the fact that you're in the tradition of joe kennedy. who? good. he have to rob to get rich in the reagan and area -- era. disenfranchised. act like it don't exist. meanwhile the rich get richer and the poor don't get a thing.

times like these people want to get high. real high and real fast. this is going to do it. and make us rich. people going crazy over this? it looks like cracked off pieces. brian: how real is that? mr. pegues: a lot of hollywood to that. they say that that movie was largely based on the supreme team. i'm quite sure, i was a street hustler, where he had meetings with lieutenants. i'm sure it was like that. a copy remember of the supreme team? mr. pegues: my advantage of being a cop, being a young black man growing up in the city, i understood what would go on

the city. police working fairly easy to me. chinatown, it would have been harder for me to navigate. most of my precincts i worked in, queens, a great area, minority neighborhoods. easy for me to fit in. as i was going higher through the ranks, i was able to impart my knowledge on officers that worked for me to tell them, listen, every time someone in the street cut a son, they are not disrespecting you because you are older to them, that is how they refer to each other. drop jewels onke them and impart knowledge. this is how it goes out here. in the suburbs, when they go to the park and projects, their part of the benches. them -- have no us

to go -- place to go? what will they do. ? a lot of police work is common sense. nayshaun, call it the luckiest thing in my life. they dated a guy did not fire. explain that story? mr. pegues: that was probably december 12 or december 13, 1986. it was either that day i came home or the next day, i get off, come from booking and black on the block. born. was sean walks up to me and pulls a pistol out and says get off the block. you can hustle anymore. i left. he had a gun and iran. i went home for two days and thought about what i was going to do. back then it was all about street credibility. revenge.get my

i decided i was going to kill him myself. with the gun i had. 25.ad a nice little . and i was so crazy back in. i said i wanted to do this in front of everybody. to go primetime at 6:00 when everyone is out there and i will kill him in front of everybody. for hitting me in the face with a gun. i walked down there and he walked up to me, didn't i tell you, i pulled a gun on put in his chest. i pulled the trigger three times and the gun did not go off. he pulls his gun out and start shooting at me and i run and a friend of mine turned the corner and pulled his gun out and started shooting at him and we ran into another house. mother would not let us come in the house. brian: what happened at the gun did not fire? mr. pegues: we were so young and

crazy, i do not know anything about this. it was a semi-automatic. there was not a bullet in the chamber. it is a just and that if that gunfire, you would not be here today? mr. pegues: without a doubt. brian: did you ever should somebody? mr. pegues: some stories in the book, i can't give away everything. some brushes with guns, yeah. brian: i would to show you a clip of you in a barbershop. there is barbershop one and barbershop two. you're sitting getting a haircut and listen to the dialogue between you and the barber. [indiscernible]

brian:2 fill in the blanks? mr. pegues: that is my you tube webster's arbor shop -- youtube

web series barbershop cop. getting real feedback. that is lifestyle. that is not scripted. i just think of a topic. then we talk about it. it is not scripted. it is good stuff said that america sees how young black men feel about cops and law enforcement in general. the point i was trying to make with that particular situation was that cops are getting paid, on time at nypd over $100,000 a they areake sure that not discriminating against people. i would tell my cups everyday check your attitude at the door. i may have a domestic violence issue at with your wife, but you will have to handle your job. you the look at everyone as an individual.

you are asking somebody that is 19-20 years old and most jurisdictions, six months of training who have never looked out of their mothers basement and give them a gun and tell them to cockapoo world. -- conquer the world. it's a tough job. i criticize police a lot. but when i criticize them talking about the bad place. that is a small percentage. overwhelming majority are just coming to work and doing their job, but you don't hear about them. you hear about the tamir rice, eric garner cases. once long for starts weeding them out, every time you hear or see one of these cases, you look at the person's background, seven complaints, use of force, five substantiated, the guy was a mess. we don't find out about it until they kill somebody.

when the cursor layout, we should be handling it. brian: where does your last name come from? mr. pegues: french origins. i trust my roots to north carolina. brian: you say in your book your dad was an alcoholic? mr. pegues: he was a functional alcoholic. he went to work every day that was drunk every day. brian: what year elected he die? die? his life did he mr. pegues: he left in the third grade and he died my second year as a police officer. came toto one o -- the police graduation. he told me he loved me that day. youn: different feeling for if a guy sitting here asking you questions is black versus a white guy? mr. pegues: it does not matter. i don't base the things on race

unless it is quite obvious that there is a racial component. i'm comfortable in any setting. i have white friends, spanish friends, black friends. just when people show me racism it does is me off. big time. there should be no room for that. i know what i made of and i stand on the back of the 3m's, m alcom, martin and megan. i would not be listed here without them. i feel strongly about that. a difference in the question that white interviewer will ask you versus a black interviewer? mr. pegues: not necessarily. show, no suitk and tie, different environment. i got to interviews and if someone was to take a shot at me, they can try. it is hard to take a shot that that book is everything is

vetted and you can fact check everything. brian: what is the question you are asked all the time? mr. pegues: how did i become a police officer selling crack cocaine? brian: you say in the book, but you never miss a day of school. getting drugs, never used them. mr. pegues: never did. smoke, that i me did not read i do not smoke marijuana. that was a big thing. i rarely, we used to drink 40 beer, i really-- did that. i was so money hungry i just wanted to make some money, be able to take care of myself, did not want to waste my money. how my girlfriend. i do not mess with any of that. i never smoked a cigarette in my

life. brian: still haven't? mr. pegues: still haven't. smoked a good -- cigar. had one last night. brian: what you want to do for the rest of your life? mr. pegues: i just want to go out and spread my message. i believe i have a transformational story that can touch the lives of some of these kids and i want to start a nonprofit and open a computer have financial literacy classes for these kids. they are hurting out there. me, they see somebody that looks like them. community, get on the campuses and talk to these kids. a lot of kids are going through things. i'm here to tell them, you can make it. brian: is there a website people can go to? mr. pegues: yes.

pegues.com i'm all over the internet. google my name. everything pops up. brian: we will show you the cover of the book so people can see the spelling of your name. thank you very much for joining us. mr. pegues: thank you for having me. i appreciate it. ♪ >> for free transfers or to give us your comments, visit us at queuing day.org. -- q&a.org. programs are also available as

podcasts. if you enjoyed this week's interview, here are some other programs you might like. bookmark police commissioner discusses the challenges of policing in that community. and district of columbia metropolitan police chief talks 23 years as an-- officer in the changes she has had. an author and former washington post reporter nathan mccall talks about his life, his work, and race relations. watch these anytime or search our entire video library at c-span.org. >> washington journal is in cleveland for the republican national convention. morning, staff attorney for the aclu of ohio who the rights of protesters at the rnc and the lawsuit the aclu

filed on behalf of pro-and anti-trump protesters ahead of the convention. full of by rnc rules committee members. chrissie thompson, politics reporter for the cincinnati inquirer will preview previous mondays convention speakers and events. join us for washington journal live from cleveland beginning at 7:00 a.m. eastern on monday. >> the hard-fought 2016 primary season is over with historic conventions to follow this summer. >> colorado, florida, texas ohio. >> watch c-span at the delegates consider the nomination of the first woman ever to head a major political party. and the first non-politician in several decades. watch live on c-span. listen on the c-span radio at or get the on demand at c-span.org. you have a front row seat to every minute of both conventions