0:00

Um, you know what? After

0:02

fucking 30-some-odd years,

0:05

you would think that, like, you gotta get over

0:07

it. But apparently

0:10

not.

0:12

I just... I'm not a bad

0:14

guy, man. I made a mistake

0:17

and I fucking went down the wrong

0:19

path and...

0:21

I'm not a bad guy.

0:24

But, Zach, I mean, the

0:26

story should be told. From

0:31

Odyssey Originals, I'm Zach

0:33

Leavitt, the creator of Root of Evil,

0:36

Gangster Capitalism, and Relative Unknown.

0:40

And this is a story about a time that

0:42

New York City would like to forget. Dangerous

0:45

times in New York City. The biggest city in

0:47

America is on the ropes. On the streets

0:49

of New York, it's called crack, and the

0:51

deals go down quickly. It

0:54

was the most violent year in the city's history,

0:57

the height of the crack era. There were

0:59

no opportunities. You

1:01

got into the game back then, yo, you had

1:03

no choice. But if you're moving

1:05

coke, you're making money hand over

1:07

foot, baby. Entire

1:09

neighborhoods had been transformed into

1:12

open-air drug markets. But

1:14

for some criminals brazen enough, even

1:16

the dealers became marks. Was

1:18

it a common practice to break

1:20

into apartments which were suspected drug locations?

1:24

Yes. Why did you break into these apartments?

1:27

For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Weren't

1:31

you afraid of getting caught doing this? No.

1:36

Who's going to catch us? We're

1:38

the police. We

1:41

Americans have an endless fascination with police stories. Well,

1:44

there's a police story being told here in New

1:46

York that is so shocking, you couldn't

1:48

make it up.

1:49

The New York City Police Department

1:52

was keeping a secret. Instead of locking

1:54

up drug dealers, some cops

1:57

were out on the streets competing with

1:58

them. I

2:01

would suit up in my uniform

2:05

and you're going out on fucking

2:07

patrol.

2:08

What are we going to do tonight? Well,

2:10

we're going to rob some drug dealers and

2:14

I know how to do it really

2:16

well. But

2:18

even worse, the NYPD knew

2:21

and allowed it to happen. They saw

2:23

their role as protecting

2:25

the department, not rooting

2:28

out corrupt cops. A

2:30

special commission was formed to investigate

2:33

the police department itself.

2:35

And what it uncovered would shake the city

2:37

to its foundation. It was a banana

2:40

republic precinct operating

2:42

in the city of New York.

2:44

It was unbelievable. In

2:47

New York City tonight, a major scandal for the nation's

2:49

largest police force. This is the inside

2:51

story of the biggest police corruption

2:53

scandal in NYPD history and

2:56

the investigation that uncovered it all.

3:00

We told them that we wanted them to wear a

3:02

wire. They only got them on a few things and

3:04

they get them on every time. And

3:07

he said, okay. All told for the first

3:09

time by the people who lived it. Did

3:11

you consider yourself a rat? A

3:14

hundred

3:14

percent. I saved my soul

3:16

just like everybody else does. I'm

3:19

not a bad guy, man, but I

3:23

can't explain it. And

3:25

I loved being that dirty motherfucker.