Once a cop

Corey Pegues knows the justice system from both sides. As a teenager in the 1980s, he sold crack on a street corner for the Supreme Team, one of New York City's most feared gangs, while the drug swept through his working-class Queens neighborhood with astonishing speed. After a failed attempt on a rival gang member's life, he felt he had no choice but to leave. He was the only one in his family to finish high school, and at barely eighteen, with two children by two different women, he slipped away in the night to join the US Army.

Following several years of military service, Pegues entered the police academy, and his path through the ranks of the NYPD took him back into some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods. He describes what daily life is like for young people in those communities and identifies a problem within law enforcement that he considers even more dangerous than open racism.

As tensions between police and communities of color have grown across the country, Pegues speaks frankly about the discrimination he encountered inside the department and about the mistrust that divides officers from the people they serve. He insists he is not against the police. He is devoted to the badge, and he argues that it is his responsibility to confront the racism, silence, and arrogance he sees in the NYPD today. Over time he became a community leader.