When I actually got into the police department, I knew where I was going already.

I told them transit, they did me the favor. They put me in transit. Transit crime in the last two years is up a significant percent.

The brutal things that you see in the train are the people getting pushed in front of the train.

Or people getting hit by a train. Slashings, forcible tussings, robbery.

Old lady going to church on a Sunday, violently pushed down the stairs. In the NYPD, we're taught not to fight fair. If you're one, we're two. If you're three, we're four. If you're five, we're ten. That's the way it goes. Biggest gang in New York City, you don't lose. Tony Hernandez grew up surrounded by the mafia in Queens, New York.

In fact, his uncle was one of the leaders of the French connection, the largest heroin

distribution network in American history.

As a kid, Tony would hang out in the bars and social clubs that his uncle ran for the

other wise guys.

But for some reason, Tony went the other way.

He became a New York City cop where he worked for 10 years down in the subway system.

Tony tells us what it's like being a cop in the grimyest place in the world with some of the

grimyest criminals in the world. His stories are wild. He's got a great YouTube channel called Corruption

Connection, which you should go check out. And for more content, we have a very special Patreon

episode this week with the one and only Ed Calderon. Go over to patreon.com slash the Connect show.

Without further ado, this was one for the ages. You're going to love it. Tony Hernandez

right here on The Connect with Johnny Mitchell. I was born in a neighborhood called The Hill.

Like many other Italian-American neighborhoods at the time, you know, the mafia was very present.

Like every young guy, don't you want to be in the street? You'll hear this story over and over again

from the inner city kids in the ghetto all the way to the white kids in the suburbs. The cars, the clothes, the jewelry, the girls,

like it all intertwines, you know, and when you're a young, impressionable kid, especially

growing up in a fast place like New York City, you want to be in the mix. My father met so many

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