From Political Legacy to Real Power: Rev. Taharka Robinson Tells All

On this powerful episode of Corey’s Corner, NYPD executive Corey Pegues sits down with Rev. Taharka Robinson a political strategist, activist, and man of faith who has spent decades shaping power and fighting for justice in New York.

As the son of former Assemblywoman Annette Robinson, Taharka was raised in the heart of public service but he didn’t just inherit a legacy… he built one of his own.

From founding Urban Political Consulting Group and helping elect 21 judges, to leading movements that changed laws, challenged major corporations, and fought systemic injustice Rev. Robinson has proven that real power is about influence, strategy, and standing firm in your purpose.

In this episode, we dive into:

What it really means to grow up around political power

The pressure of legacy vs. carving your own path

How activism, faith, and strategy intersect

Behind-the-scenes moments that shaped real change

Why the next generation must understand how power actually works

This isn’t just a conversation it’s a masterclass in leadership, influence, and impact.

🎧 Tap in. This one is different.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Wants a cop, let it not give. I for one thing we just celebrate redemption instead of condemning it. Corey Pegiz. Stop talking shoot, bruh. Check it out.

SPEAKER_05 0:10

Wants a cop. Pull up a seat. You're now in Corey's Corner. Where right conversations matter. I'm your host, Corey Pegiz, and I always keep it right, not real. This episode of Corey's Corner is brought to you by Vaquila. Some of the smoothest liquor you'll ever taste. If you're on winding or having a family function or something at the job, make sure you include Vaquila. Go to Vaikila.net to find out more. Shout out to CorruptMob MC. It's more than a motorcycle club. It's a brotherhood. It's built on loyalty, respect, and community. Respect them all. Corey's Corner is powered by Story to Tell Productions. If you're looking to start a podcast and you don't know where you're at with it, how to do it, you need to hire Story to Tell Productions. They are new on the scene, but very vibrant, as you can see. The set is done by Story to Tell Productions. On this episode of Corey's Corner, we're joined by a powerful voice at the intersection of faith, politics, and community activism. Reverend Tahaka Robinson. The son of former New York State Assemblywoman Annette Robinson, Reverend Robinson was raised in the world of public service and has built a legacy of his own. As a founder of Urban Political Consulting Group, he has helped shape campaigns across New York State successfully, managing the election of over 21 judges to the Kings County Civil and Supreme Court. But his impact goes far beyond politics. From leading national advocacy efforts in the tragic case of Chanel Petro Nixon to organizing movements that changed consumer protection laws and pushed one of the largest banks in the country to recognize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Reverend Robinson has consistently turned pressure into progress. A man of faith, a community leader, and a champion for justice. He continues to fight for equity, accountability, and opportunity while mentoring the next generation and strengthening the role of the church in our communities. My brother.

SPEAKER_09 2:22

How are you, sir?

SPEAKER_05 2:23

Reverend Robinson, thanks for coming on.

SPEAKER_09 2:25

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_05 2:27

You know, when I did Corey's Corner and I transitioned from sitting in the house doing interviews, you was one of the first people I had, you know, I wrote down. What they call those when the women be writing down them vision boards. I had a whole list of names. You was on, but you're so busy, I can't even get to you, brother.

SPEAKER_09 2:44

I try to work a little bit, you know. I I gotta I gotta keep the lights on. My youngest daughter is uh studying her prerequisites for medical school right now. Oh nice. And so, you know, uh I told her I didn't want her to go to work while she was in school. So I told her, I said, listen, you go in and take care of your business so you can get into medical school. And then she has to uh take some prerequisites for some other courses that she didn't take an undergrad. She takes these prerequisites, and then she takes MCAT, and then she'll go and she'll get in medical school and she's gonna be a doctor. I love that. So I gotta stay working. I love that. I'm not one of those preachers who preach in a pulpit. You know, you know, we'll get to that though.

SPEAKER_05 3:23

Preaching's a big deal right now. I'm about ready to go to seminary college because I'm gonna get me a little storefront. I see all the preachers y'all pushing, happy out there.

SPEAKER_09 3:31

You gotta think about something. It's about the work that people do. And thank you for what you said, because I I've been working a long time trying to get things done in the community and to be substantive with getting those things done.

SPEAKER_05 3:45

Oh, we're gonna get into all of that. As a matter of fact, you're always moving. What's been keeping you active in the trenches lately?

SPEAKER_09 3:54

Well, you know, I look at the circumstances that are transpiring in our community, I look at the mindsets of the generation now. You know, I was telling somebody the other day that we've gone through uh that not the crack babies, but the crack generation. So I gave the crack generation from 1985 to 2005. And between 1985 and 2005, you've had hundreds of thousands of people become incarcerated because of the crack trade. You had people die because of the crack trade. You had a lot of people who did not have parents to take care of them because they were either uh substance abusers or they may have been incarcerated, and some people may have passed away. And so there was a generation of grandparents who were starting to raise their children, and once the generators and the grandparents started bringing the children, the grandparents get older, they couldn't manage the children, and so the children started managing themselves. And once the children started managing themselves, they started accepting certain things.

SPEAKER_05 5:00

The grandchildren.

SPEAKER_09 5:00

The grandchildren, yeah, sorry. The grandchildren started uh raising themselves, right? And so, uh, but in the process of them raising themselves, now you have the evolution of the internet coming in, right? And the internet has become so prevalent over the past 20 years now, it's gotten to limit where people are suing these uh companies for their children's overexposure to the internet, and a lot of these things that these children see on the internet, they're not understanding this is not real.

SPEAKER_05 5:32

Let me ask you a question. When people hear your name, what do you want them to think?

SPEAKER_09 5:37

I would want them to think that someone is trying to do something instructive and bring about a resolution to whatever uh crisis that avails them at that time.

SPEAKER_05 5:48

Would you consider yourself a hitman?

SPEAKER_09 5:50

No. Hitman for what?

SPEAKER_05 5:52

I don't mean literally go out and kill somebody, but when issues arise in the community, you're for hire. I've I've seen this.

SPEAKER_09 6:00

Well, I'm not for hire. No one has never given me a dollar anywhere to do anything. I spent my own money, thousands of dollars, up into the double digits to get legislation passed, to get a bank to close, to honor a document. Okay, I'm sorry, but we talk about these. I don't know what nobody else does. I don't get into nobody else's business.

SPEAKER_05 6:17

I didn't literally mean that you get paid. I just mean like when there's an issue, call to Haka Robinson.

SPEAKER_09 6:23

Yeah, but it has to be an issue, right? And I and I I everybody has these different problems, right? It has to be an issue that it's going to bring about some substantive change, right? I'll give you an example. Some years ago, when, and I'm gonna tell you this is important. Some years ago, when I first met you, right? Can I speak about this?

SPEAKER_05 6:43

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_09 6:44

When I first met you, you were the commanding officer of public service area number three. Two. Two, right? That was Browns Bay, C. York, right? Excuse me. Thank you for correcting me. And you want to know what happened. There was a rapist running around the community. Now I have daughters, we have daughters. We we're not into the rape stuff, we don't do none of that stuff. And anybody who rapes a woman or rapes a child or whatever the case may be, I really feel that they need to be dealt with accordingly.

SPEAKER_05 7:08

That's right.

SPEAKER_09 7:09

And y'all, and y'all uh took care of them. So that's the type of stuff that I'm talking about. Meaningful work to change uh a mindset in a community that has been broken over a period of time.

SPEAKER_05 7:24

You won many hats, consultant, activist, minister. What role feels most natural to you?

SPEAKER_09 7:31

The role that feels most natural to me is to actually be uh activist. Because, you know, the job of the activist is to focus on those who are being ignored. And when you see a situation like uh a young girl, uh Chanel Petrol Nixon, she was from the Bedford Stuyvesant community. She was the brightest and best that our community had to offer. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 7:57

I got some questions about her.

SPEAKER_09 7:59

And and thank you. And so, and so what happened was that when her mother went to the police department and said her daughter was missing, and she wanted to make a police report, she said that her daughter was a runaway. And she said, My daughter didn't run away. And these people had no form of recourse to go to the police department at the time. And this guy, I remember the guy's name, because I still have the police report, right? He he put her down as a runaway, and he didn't even look for them. And I became so enraged because maybe a few months earlier, there was a situation with a young lady who lived on the Up East Side. And she was out hanging out, partying one night, and she didn't come home that night, and she was 26 years old, and her roommate reported her not coming home. And the New York City Police Department at that time, that commissioner, I'm not even gonna mention him, but that commissioner at the time, they put out a whole citywide search for this woman, and they found her like the next morning, and they apprehended the killer the next day. And so, and so the activist part of me, I was very enraged. And so what I did was challenge everybody in the city from the mayor to the district attorney to the police commissioner to deal with this issue with this young lady because I really believe if they would have conducted a search, and this was with the New York City Police Department, I don't know if they changed it, but I think he changed it. But the rule was if a person is a senior citizen, a child, or has a mental disability, a search was supposed to be conducted immediately and it wasn't. And so I had a lot, I had a lot of frustration in dealing with that because there's a disparity in dealing with the different communities.

SPEAKER_05 9:49

Oh, we're gonna get into all of that. I love it. What's one lesson life taught you early that still guides you to that? And I know you are one of six, but you six of six.

SPEAKER_09 10:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:00

So you're the young boy.

SPEAKER_09 10:02

You know what lesson I gotta learn?

SPEAKER_05 10:04

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_09 10:04

Trust nobody. The people next to you will be the first ones to hurt you.

SPEAKER_05 10:09

That's right.

SPEAKER_09 10:10

That guides me every day.

SPEAKER_05 10:13

But do you keep your enemies close?

SPEAKER_09 10:15

I don't have any enemies that I know about. If I have any, I don't know. If my enemies had a vote, I wouldn't be here today.

SPEAKER_05 10:22

You're right about that. Let's go back to 2002. What inspired you to launch Urban Political Consulting Group? Well and what gap were you trying to fill?

SPEAKER_09 10:33

Well, at this time, um, let me go back a couple of years. I had wanted to do, I came up with a proposal uh back around 2000, and this is what happened. I wanted to do street teams for politicians.

SPEAKER_05 10:46

Oh, you was gonna you was tapping into the music industry. Exactly.

SPEAKER_09 10:50

Let me tell you what happened. Okay, I like that. Let me tell you what happened. I was trying to do street teams for politicians, and I gave the proposal to a couple of people who had the New York State Democratic uh committee. You know, uh, being that my mother was in the city council at that time, she's a very respected elected representative. She took me to the said, hey, uh, you know, my son has some ideas, he wants to do that because the Democratic Party at the time was talking about how could they reach the next generation.

SPEAKER_06 11:17

Right.

SPEAKER_09 11:17

And I said, you can reach them through the hip-hop generation. And so what motivated me was that at that time I got two people that I used to go and register people to vote with in the tunnel. Two of them. Right. One is from Queens and one is from the Bronx. And so uh two uh very uh successful men in the uh city and the state of New York.

SPEAKER_06 11:39

Right.

SPEAKER_09 11:40

And uh uh uh we used to go to the tunnel to get people to register to vote.

SPEAKER_05 11:45

So those viewers that don't know what the tunnel is, the tunnel is a legendary club in New York City, uh owned by Funk Flex, Chris Slighty, very influential club, could be very dangerous at times also.

SPEAKER_09 11:59

Yeah, and so we used to go there, uh, had some people that knew the people, and uh and they would let us in. And you know, my mother even went to the tunnel one night with us, and she was in there with her make coat on. She had, you know, they was up there, she wanted to see what the young people were doing. Right. And she said, this is an untapped market, and we need to reach out to these people. And so we would give people uh we would we would encourage people to register to vote. Right. So, and so that's what we were doing. We would register some people, and uh, I said, Well, this is what we need to do. We need to put a proposal to do outreach to these different genres, and so we would go to people like uh Flex and some other individuals and say, hey, we want to try to get the register. And so, of course, they think it's a good idea because you know, these clubs was a little bit something nervous, yeah, you know, and so they said, Hey man, we got the politicians come right here. We don't have the people in the neighborhood bothering us, trying to shut us down, close down, say, hey, we're with it.

SPEAKER_06 12:53

Right.

SPEAKER_09 12:54

And so after that, we talked to the people at the New York State Democratic Committee, and I gave the people my proposal. And I think it was the time it was Bill Bradley and Al Gore were supposed to be running for president at the time, and Senator, former Senator and uh what was the Secretary of State uh Clinton was also running, and she was running for senator at the time. And so they had this big ticket across the state. And so they said, Well, hey, we're gonna think about this, but I want you to do this. Can you get some outreach into these different communities, you know, to get the word out? So they started sending me, and this is how I transferred into this. They started sending me into all the communities that people were afraid to go to.

SPEAKER_06 13:34

Right.

SPEAKER_09 13:34

So being that I was in Brooklyn, Brooklyn has the largest concentration of Democrats anywhere in the country. And so what happened was they said, hey, will you go have to give some literature out at the pig houses?

SPEAKER_06 13:44

Right.

SPEAKER_09 13:45

I said, sure. Uh huh. They said, what about Cyprus? I said, sure. They said, what about Boulevard? I said, sure. What about Lyndon Plans? I said, sure. I said, she said, what about in Brownsville? Because everybody was scared to death to go to Brownsville. They still are. I know. Except for me. Except for me, too. We feel comfortable with it. And I was in Seflow last week. Uh-huh. And so, uh, because I worked with the tenant leaders still, I've built relationships with them, but that's another point. And so I would go to these developments, but these people didn't understand the dynamic.

SPEAKER_06 14:16

Right.

SPEAKER_09 14:17

They had tenant leaders in those buildings. And a tenant leader was always somebody's mama or grandmama.

SPEAKER_05 14:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 14:24

At least none of them young boys going diss no grandma or no mama in those developments. Everybody loved Miss Mary. Everybody loved Miss May. Everybody loved Miss Brown. Everybody loved mama this. Everybody loved mama Sadie. Anybody. And so what do you do? You go to the developments and you go to the tenant leaders and say, hey, I would like to go throughout the building distributing literature in the community about candidates, such and such and such and such. Is it possible we could create a partnership? And they would be like, okay. And I would build those partnerships with those tenant leaders, and then they'll call the next person because they're all part of a collective. If you remember, that's Brooklyn East Resident Association leaders. So that was your area where you patrolled. And that's what made me move towards starting a company. Because what happened was I started building up the numbers. I started generating the turnout, and people started saying I was effective. And so the leadership in the Democratic Party gave me a bigger role. But I'm going to tell you what really made me start the consulting firm. While they had me doing this, they gave my idea to a rapper. And the rapper was running around telling people about voting. Right. Bon said his name. He don't even know what happened. He came up with an idea talking about voting. And they completely, my whole process was gone. But I guess the consolation was give him a job doing something. He ain't going to think about this. Because they had bigger plans. Because another guy from the music industry, he wanted to get involved in it. So he took it because he had the resources, he had the influence. And you know, people in this in part of the political business always want to have resources. And this person, um, um, he had a lot of resources. They gave it to him, they put it together, they repackaged it, and it became something else. And I remember get out the vote. And so after they did that to me, I was very angry. And I said, I'm gonna get these people back with me.

SPEAKER_05 16:32

Then you went and started your own company. I did. I love it. And nobody wanted to hire me. Nobody wanted to give me a job. But you're a pit bull, so you made on pit bulls, they can clamp on and don't let go. But let's jump into this. You've helped this, I'm more impressed with you've helped elect over 21 judges. What does that level of influence and responsibility feel like? And I know a lot of the judges that you elected.

SPEAKER_09 16:57

Well, you know, my passion for the judiciary comes out of a situation that I was in many years ago when I was younger. And uh when I was in that situation, you had a lot of people saying they had problems and they got railroaded and they didn't have the means or the resources to avail themselves of those circumstances. And I said to myself, when I get out of this situation, I'm gonna work to change the process of how things are done in the judiciary.

SPEAKER_05 17:31

How many, how many judge campaigns have you lost? Three. Three. So you batting three out of 20, so that's 25. That's a good number, man. You're about 85%.

SPEAKER_06 17:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:44

If now you know somebody's gonna be on Corey's corner doing the math and say that I'm wrong. They're not wrong. Leave me alone. He's not wrong. He's not wrong. You do those numbers are good. What separates a successful political campaign from one that fails, especially in urban communities?

SPEAKER_09 18:01

Well, you know, it's all about communication. It's all about relating to the individuals. Your target base needs to understand who you are as a candidate. The thing about the judiciary is that candidates cannot put forth an agenda. They can only, they can only, they can't say I'm gonna do this, they can't say that, because they have to be fair and impartial because the scales of justice are allegedly. But do they have to now? With the president of the United States? Do they have to do that? I don't want to get in talk about that. I don't know nothing about that. I'm talking about, I'm just talking about the judges that I worked for and I got elected, I don't know nothing about nobody else's. You know, I won't get off anybody else, man.

SPEAKER_05 18:41

I just said let me ask you a question. Was there a moment in your career where you realize, like, I'm really shaping power in New York City? You want to know what I really want to tell you?

SPEAKER_09 18:52

Uh-huh. When the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct subpoenaed me and they tried to prosecute me, I was prosecuted wrongly for dealing with uh judicial campaigns.

SPEAKER_06 19:07

Right.

SPEAKER_09 19:08

And it was clearly evident, and I can show anybody because somebody's gonna see this. I do have the letter of dismissal when the judge dismissed my case.

SPEAKER_06 19:16

Right.

SPEAKER_09 19:17

I was actually talking about it in church on Palm Sunday, and I got up and I got up in church and started doing a dance. Because I said almost 20 years ago they dismissed my case. And I jumped and danced around the church because I'm so happy. Because a lot of people can't get a case dismissed.

SPEAKER_05 19:31

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_09 19:32

And that was back in 19, not 19, it was 2007. Case went on for 18 months. Do you know that's when I knew I was changing the game because I was getting so many African-American judges elected, and the system could not understand it because there was a network in place that we were supposed to stay back. So a guy like me from around the way, who did not go to college, I have no BA, I ain't got no BA or J D or MA, I have none of that. I ain't got no AA, and I didn't go to AA neither.

SPEAKER_05 20:04

I like that.

SPEAKER_09 20:05

I was able to come up with a way to communicate with people and relate to them what the need was to have judges of color from the community.

SPEAKER_05 20:13

And you know what? That leads right into 2008. So 2008, you took your call to ministry. How did that transition change your perspective?

SPEAKER_09 20:23

You know, through my activism uh and through much uh prayer and uh much spiritual direction, I really felt the call on my life to ministry because I wanted to minister to people who were like me, who didn't understand church in a way, and that there's so many different ways that you could be a minister in the community. When I became a minister, I was not a minister, I didn't become a minister to go to church and uh preach every week and talk to people at church and whatever. I became a minister to be outside because as a clergy member, there are different uh ways for you to communicate with people.

SPEAKER_06 21:07

Right.

SPEAKER_09 21:08

And the majority of our community is always in the church, and so to work with the churches, you become a member of the faith-based community. And I went to school, right? I had to go to school for that. And I had to study, yeah, I had to study, I had to learn. There's not no fly by night stuff here, and it's hard.

SPEAKER_05 21:24

How do you balance being a political strategist and a man of faith? You know what? I mean, hold on. Easter Sunday. Yes, the President of the United States says he's gonna demolish civilization in Iran, and he says, peace to Allah.

SPEAKER_09 21:40

I can't crazy I can't even speak on that. I it it it's so many different things going on there.

SPEAKER_05 21:47

So disrespect.

SPEAKER_09 21:48

I I I I had to let that go.

SPEAKER_05 21:49

So disrespect. I just had to let that go. So, how do you balance being a political strategist and a man of the people?

SPEAKER_09 21:56

There's some things that you see that you just gotta walk away from. Because if you stay there, you talk about everything, you jump on everything, you're not going to be able to be productive in what goal that you are pursuing. And so there's a thin line between politics and the faith-based community. And what a lot of people don't understand, you have to know how to navigate your way through circumstances. Because even in politics and people in the political arena and uh people in this field elected representatives, they're human beings. And there has to be a level of humanity in dealing with people. And I think by being a minister, being in politics, you would be surprised how many people are faith-based oriented. They can be African-American, they can be Hispanic, they can be white, they can be George, they can be Asian. I've ran across so many individuals across the spectrum, and everybody has a lot of people have a faith-based, and a lot of individuals don't even know that they're faith-based because when they're in that culture, when they're in that arena, they have to be whatever they have to be. What they're doing.

SPEAKER_05 23:09

Well, let's talk about Chanel Petro Nixon case. No, it was very powerful. Let the people know. You kind of let the people know who she was before she was missing. The police department didn't do whatever they were supposed to do. What drove you to take such a public stand? And how did that moment impact you personally?

SPEAKER_09 23:29

I had three daughters. And when I found out that something that heinous could transpire in my community, and not one man was trying to find out what happened except the child's father, I found that very, very, very.

SPEAKER_05 23:45

So let me just jump in on the police side of things. Because and I'm not protecting the police. I just, we gotta give the information out. There's so many missing people that come up every day, and a lot probably, I don't know, I hate doing numbers, but probably like 80% of missings, especially you, they end up being runaways. And I'm not offending the cops in this particular case because you were saying there was some exigent circumstances that they should have looked at. But I'm just letting you know. So sometimes the cops, they get because everybody, the kid don't come home after school, they calling. Alright, we take the report, it's a message. So that's always a little great, but if there's exigent circumstances, it should be a full-blown message. I totally agree with you.

SPEAKER_09 24:33

Well, well, think about that case, and I understand what you're saying, but if the police department wants to follow a little law sometimes, they need to follow a little law all the time.

SPEAKER_05 24:46

No, they should definitely follow all the time.

SPEAKER_09 24:48

And and and and I'm not saying anything bad about the police department, right, but that was an egregious and and and I really believe that the failure of the New York City Police Department at that time, I think that if they would have gone looking for that young lady, maybe something could have turned out differently. Where did they find her? They found her about, let me see, on maybe eight, nine blocks away from a house in a garbage bag on a 212 Kingston Avenue Crown Heights.

unknown 25:17

Right.

SPEAKER_05 25:18

When justice took so long in that case, how did you maintain faith and persistence?

SPEAKER_09 25:23

Well, you know, I promised parents, I said, I'm gonna be here for the duration with you and we're gonna fight.

SPEAKER_05 25:30

I'm sorry. They found her how many days after, or was it that four days, four days? Four days. So so the cops didn't do anything. They put her down as a runaway, so they didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_09 25:40

No, they didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_05 25:42

And so And where was she coming from?

SPEAKER_09 25:44

Well, hold on. She was going from her house to go get a job application at a business location. I'm not giving the business location. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they were given uh uh, she was looking for a job application and told her mother that she was going to fill out a job. She was going with this guy, this guy who was their friend. We went to Seventh-day Adventure School with him. She knew them all in life, whatever, because she was going to meet him. Well, he said she never met him. And they never they found her four days later. And uh comes out he's the guy who ended up getting indicted and arrested for murdering him.

unknown 26:18

Damn.

SPEAKER_05 26:18

That's weird to me that she tells him. So, you know, this is my police inspector, executive. You got the case, you get the call. She went to such and she just left at six o'clock to go fill out her application. Exactly. She's never ran away. We have no documented history of her running away at all. She never showed up. Sounds like a missing person to me. Exactly.

SPEAKER_09 26:42

And that's what happened. And so I took it and ran with it. I I came up, they told me what happened. I said, somebody give me the girl's picture. Uh one of the journalists at the time uh was working in the newspaper. He had to send me the picture. I went and got pictures posted. Posters, I've got posters made of the picture, right? And I put on the bottom, somebody knows something.

SPEAKER_06 27:02

Right.

SPEAKER_09 27:03

Right? 1-800-1577 tis, whatever the number was. Right. And I put them up all around the place. Parents and family didn't know me. The man started asking people in the neighborhood, who was this guy putting up posters on my daughter? And the man found me out. Somebody called me and said, This girl's father wants to talk to you. And when I got over there to talk to him, the mother started crying and telling me thank you and she appreciated. I said, You ain't got to tell you. I said, I'm a father. I got three daughters right here in Bed Postavis.

SPEAKER_06 27:29

That's right.

SPEAKER_09 27:29

I said, so I have to take care of my family. I said, Your daughter was my daughter. I'm gonna treat it as such.

SPEAKER_05 27:34

Well, I I totally applaud you for that. Now let's let's jump to this. You led a movement that changed rent to own laws in New York. Yes, it did. People don't understand this power that this guy had. What did that fight teach you about power and policy? Well, it's all about economics. Is this the rent of center? Yes. Is that what I'm talking about? Yes. Oh, we gotta back up on renter. I got my producer camp guy, and it's rent. I'm the commanding officer at the time in NYPD, the 6'7 precinct, and I'll never forget you calling me. You were protesting rena centers all over Brooklyn. City. The city. And you called me and you said, bruh, I'm just letting you know I ain't fucking with you. You're my brother. I'm not coming into your area.

SPEAKER_08 28:27

I fucking never forget that. I want to get renaissance so bad. I never might get emotional. I wanted it so bad. He said, Oh, it was prime time. I'm fucking wanted that so bad. That was the one I wanted.

SPEAKER_05 28:40

Because you were saying I couldn't do it, y'all. You see, this is the love. But this is the love. When you treat people with respect, this is how you get let me tell you. I was like, damn, please. I was like, Taca, don't fucking, I don't need no protest right now. Because you know, I'm dealing with bodies over there. I ain't had no men and women to send on no protest. So let's talk about that. Well, you know, what did that fight teach you about power and policy? Well, I mean, you was all over the news, all over the newspaper.

SPEAKER_09 29:09

You was everywhere. I was. You want to know why? For renaissance, because there was a draconian law in place in New York State. And the law was made by governor from back in the 80s, right? Uh, and uh the law had allowed the rent-to-owned companies, rental center stores, to set the price of the merchandise at their own discretion. And so this television or the computer over here, uh, if you go in the store, it can charge you whatever you want to charge, and you'll never probably end up paying for it. Right. The computer could cost maybe $300, $400 in another store, but then you go to a rental center store and it end up costing another seven, eight hundred dollars over time.

SPEAKER_06 29:50

Right.

SPEAKER_09 29:50

And then what they would do, if you did not pay your bill, they would send off-duty law enforcement individuals to people's homes to come collect the merchandise. And that was illegal. So they used intimidation and they used the fiscal insecurity of individuals to take advantage of keys of color all over the city. The city was all over in the minority communities. You know what? A lot of them closed since then.

SPEAKER_05 30:18

Oh, yeah, you can't.

SPEAKER_09 30:19

Yeah, a lot of them closed. And the stock and the stock value went down a lot. It was $26 a share back then, it went all the way down to $11, $12 a share. But that's another story. The point I'm making, we talk about power and influence. We had to create a movement to let people know that this was not right. And I went to the governor, the one who made the law back from the 80s, and I said, listen, we need to talk about changing this law. But, you know, a lot of people don't never want to go back and say they were wrong. And then you also got to understand in this business that, you know, people are able to profit off of certain things and certain businesses. And so it was uh it was it was profitable for individuals who were in the center to continue to perpetuate their business platform. We got together and said we were going to focus on legislation. And I'm going to say this because there was a young assembly member who I went to. I looked up the stuff, I did the research, and I went to the young assembly member at the time. This was back in 2008, it's almost 20 years ago, and I said, Assembly member, you have a Renaissance store in your district. You know, my mother was an assembly member in the 56th Assembly District, and she had one in her district, so I couldn't protest my mom. Right, right, of course. I couldn't protest my mother, and I did not want to get.

SPEAKER_05 31:39

So you your mother, your brother, Corey Pegiz, you couldn't protest, you couldn't protest those areas.

SPEAKER_09 31:44

So what happened was I didn't want my mother at the time, she was in the New York State Legislature. Right. I did not want to ask my mother to help me with this. I wanted to do this all on my own. And I start and I started showing, thank you. I started showing up. And the first protest I did, I went to the assembly member, and I got clergy members, I got community members, I had uh leaders, I had people off of Q because Venice Center was victimizing, brutally victimizing people. Man, they was doing some egregious stuff to folks, man. And people were upset, they were hurt, and it was in a lot of pain. Somebody had a bed, the bed cost $3,000. We actually were able, I took a piece of legislation, got a piece of legislation drafted by an assembly member at that time at the 57th Assembly District. And I and uh he was assembly member of the 57th Assembly District in 2008. This was going through nine, and we protested on what they call the Friday, Thanksgiving. It's Black Friday, bigby go shopping. We went right in front of that store on no string, and I don't start on Bedford and Fulton. Then we marched to the store in Gates Avenue. It was on uh Gates between Marcus Garvey and uh Troop. And uh went to the 79th precinct and I told them they didn't want to arrest us. I said, Man, y'all gonna have to arrest me today. So I said, because I said I'm going to jail and y'all mess with my credibility as a leader.

SPEAKER_08 33:04

I got to go to jail. I said, I know how they're gonna lock me up. I said, Redicenta said they wasn't gonna lock me up. The guy said, Well, they ain't gonna lock you up. You can stay here if you broke. I said, they ain't gonna lock me up.

SPEAKER_09 33:15

I said, Man, I gotta, I gotta, man, watch this. I went and sat down right in the middle of the street, uh-huh, crossed my legs. They're gonna have to lock me up now. Now I'm impeding, and now I'm impeding the buses.

SPEAKER_08 33:27

Right. I'm impeding traffic, and I'm impeding vehicular traffic. I remember, I remember that's how they wrote it up. Right. And and they and they and they finally said in the in the community affairs office and yeah, yo, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_05 33:40

That was true, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. TD Bank protests led to 14,000 branches. 1400. 1,400 branches closing for MLK Day from May. How did you pull that off? Well, let me explain something to you. Um So TD Bank wasn't, that's a national holiday. And TD Bank was like, fuck national holiday. Well, we're staying open.

SPEAKER_09 34:04

Well, I I um because I know we're on the podcast and people are gonna fact check this. Um let's go back to the Martin Luther King bill and the law being signed into a holiday. There was a senator from North Carolina, I'm not gonna say his name. They were trying to get everybody to vote so they could pass this day, Martin Luther King holiday. I think John, I ain't gonna say his name, the uh another member of Congress who introduced the bill back in '69 or '71 case may be. So I know I just want to get the names mixed up. There was a uh put into the bill that banks may, this senator, in order to get his vote for this bill, put it there, banks may remain open. So, but it's a national holiday. Right. And this one show you. This is where it comes to banks. This is what it comes to me. TD Bank was open on Martin Luther King's holiday. TD's Bank's name is Toronto Dominion Bank, but there used to be another bank. It was Commerce Bank. Started in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, maybe in 1985-86. And then after that, they were purchased by Toronto Dominion Bank. And so, according to the law, according to this, that's in the legislation that banks may remain open. TD Bank took it upon themselves to remain open on Marlborough. Kenny said they stay open seven days a week. They have this data open, that day they closed this whatever. And I said, why would you have a bank open on a national holiday? First of all, it's Dr. King's holiday. I said, the uh, I said the many killer house. Can't nothing go through it. No checks, no nothing, nobody is closed.

SPEAKER_06 35:36

Right.

SPEAKER_09 35:37

Um, the uh federal government is closed, uh, the state government is closed. Everything's closed. Everything is closed. Why would you not respect the legacy of Dr. King and be closed on Dr. King's holiday? Now, I started this in 2008 or nine with Commerce Bank. Right. But I let it go because I had some other things I had to do. I got all caught up in Rental Center. Right. So I had to let that go for a little while. I had to come back to this eight, seven, eight years later. So uh we got to the we got to that process. I looked at the revenue that was coming in and going out, and I said, listen, y'all gonna have to respect Dr. King on his holiday. And so what I did was I went to some individuals who I know, uh, some attorneys, some business people, uh, people who had substantial amounts of resources invested in TD Bank, and I got them to come along with me, and we told TD Bank clearly, if you don't close on Dr. King's holiday, we're gonna pull our resources.

SPEAKER_06 36:42

Right.

SPEAKER_09 36:43

After be protesting, I got arrested at that also, uh-huh, you know, because you know, I've said I'm gonna do what Dr. King did. I'm gonna offer myself a civil disobedience so y'all could know that I'm serious. See, people don't people don't understand. When you sit there, you can just protest, yeah, fine. But when you sit yourself down and get have to get arrested, uh-huh, and you're gonna have to go through some form of legal uh recourse, whatever it is, you're gonna go through some legal recourse. Because because at some point in time, you know, uh they got sick of me getting arrested around the city, and I paid for it a little bit.

SPEAKER_08 37:18

You know, I got roughed up. I got roughed up a couple times because the commissioner, you know, uh Corey wasn't around. I I just think he couldn't protect me, you know. I I never got arrested.

SPEAKER_05 37:28

But listen, but it doesn't even stop because in 2020 you fought workplace discrimination in the New York City court system.

SPEAKER_09 37:37

Yes, I did. That was during the height of COVID. There were members who were members of uh SSEU DC 37 local 371, right? Uh who uh president, I can say that proudly, is Anthony Wells. And he had come to me and said, uh, you know, Robinson, you know, you're down here in these courts and they mistreating my members in the court. And they were doing all types of crazy things to the members in the union and the courts. And he said, Man, we got to get this guy, man. He said, I'm gonna find out something first. And then we're gonna get back. I'm gonna get to you. He said, I want you to go down there since these court people know you, right? He said, I want you to go down there and you know, we're gonna put something together, man. I want you to organize something for me. And I said, sure. Now mind you, this is in the height of COVID.

SPEAKER_06 38:19

Right.

SPEAKER_09 38:19

And I said, Well, if the man from the union asked me to go down there, I'm going down there. You know, it's fun for me. You know, I didn't like the guy anyway myself.

SPEAKER_04 38:28

Right.

SPEAKER_09 38:29

Because he was mistreating people. And anytime you mistreat people in those workplace environments, because you gotta understand, people at that point in time during COVID weren't going to work.

SPEAKER_06 38:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 38:40

And then they make people come back to work, and people were under a lot of duress. There was a lot of uncertainty about the health conditions, about the employment, how they were gonna pay their bills and things of that nature. And so uh uh I was like, okay, let me go get them. And so I went, it was 21, as a matter of fact. It was 21. Because um, yeah, it was 21. We were still in COVID, and actually went down there and we put this demonstration against the guy, and uh I got fired. Wow. The guy got fired. The workplace discrimination wasn't with that in 2020, that was with a court officer. A court officer. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, it was the court officer. I said the courses. Yeah, yeah, but these two happened in the same building. A year apart. Uh oh, okay. So we were down there at the court. I I just got confused. I just thought about it in 2020. There was a court officer who put a post on the uh on the uh internet with Barack Obama in a noose, put me in the noose, uh, former secretary secretary of state, and carrying her of the gala saying, traitor, we would not yield. And so I actually called the president of that union at that time, and I said, Listen, man, this lady gotta go. She's just she she's crazy discriminatory behavior in an environment. She's unfit right to be an officer in a court system where you're interacting with so many black and brown people constantly, you are not going to be fair or impartial in dealing with them. Right. And so we went down there and we protested, and she got fired too.

SPEAKER_05 40:16

So if y'all want somebody to get fired, make sure y'all reach out to Reverend Tahgarab because he ain't playing no freaking game. Now listen, no, I'm on a more get them all, get a holiday asses now. We at the part in Corey's corner called Spitfire Round. Well, I'm asking you 10 rapid fire questions. You're gonna ask, answer yes, no. Try to give me one-word answer. Don't give me no explanations, just yes, no, or maybe both if you you feel that way. It's a fun game. It's a fun game. You ready? Yeah. Politics or ministry? You said yes or no. Or do I say politics or ministry? Yeah, politics or ministry. I gotta take ministry. Behind the scenes or frontline? Behind the scenes. One word to describe behind the scenes. You're on the front line. You're over here, you're protesting all over the place. That ain't behind the scenes or behind the scenes, you get people elected.

SPEAKER_09 41:14

I haven't protested anymore, you know?

SPEAKER_05 41:15

Yeah, you I retired, man. One word to describe your leadership style. Fearless. Biggest challenge facing urban communities right now. Faith or strategy? What leads first? Faith. Most powerful tool. Protest, policy, or the pulpit? Policy. A leader you admire most, not your mother. That's hard to say.

SPEAKER_09 41:45

Not my mother.

SPEAKER_05 41:47

Wow. Oh no, man. I just say uh my pastor. Okay. One word to describe New York politics. Interesting. Yes, it is right now. Change takes patience or pressure? Pressure. Legacy impact. Which matters most? Legacy. Okay. Thank you for participating in the Spitfire Rap. That was fun, right? That was cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

It's a Summy Woman Chantel Jackson. Check out Corey's Corner on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

SPEAKER_05 42:20

Before we move forward, let me take you somewhere for a second. Everything we talk about on this show, accountability, power, loyalty, and redemption. It's not just a conversation for me. I lived it, I survived it, I earned it. I've seen both sides of the system. I walked the streets, I won the badge, carried away the decision that changed people's lives. That's why I wrote Once a Cop. It's not just a book. It's the raw, unfiltered truth about the journey from the corners of Queens to the high offices and headquarters of the New York City Police Department. The pressure, the politics, the purpose, the course. And a documentary, a cops and robbers story, that pulls the curtain back even further. No headlines, no sound bites, just the human story behind a uniform. Because behind every badge is a man, behind every rank is a story, and behind every story is a choice. Now we're from our sponsors.

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SPEAKER_00 43:47

Hi, I'm Tara Wallace. Check out Corey's Corner on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

SPEAKER_05 43:54

Let's get back into it. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Being the son of a former assembly. Woman Annette Robinson. Hello, Ma. You grew up around power, policy, and public service. How did that shape your understanding of leadership? And when did you realize you wanted to carve your own path?

SPEAKER_09 44:14

Well, I saw what could be done. I saw how things could change when you open up your mouth. And I got a chance to learn how government worked and what happens when you can fact change within government. You gain another level of influence, another level of respect. And so when I started saying my mother and other individuals, she would take me to meetings. I would listen to what they would talk about in the meetings and what they were trying to get done. And I would think that, hey, can this stuff really get done? Because, you know, coming from the Beverford-Stabbinson community, I grew up, I'm 70s, 70s, 80s, I grew up in 70s. Um, you think about uh how Bedford-Stabbinson was then, and you see what it has evolved to now. And the people uh in the community stayed during the trial and tribulation of the uh drug epidemic, they stayed through the trial and tribulation of the crime epidemic, they stayed into the trial and the tribulation of abandoned home epidemic, and so the people in the community should not be continuing, should not continue to go through those changes as time goes on. And so what I saw the community change, but those same people who stayed in the community, those same people who invested in the community have gotten older. And some of their children did not want to have the responsibility to help sustain the community that they built.

SPEAKER_05 45:59

Did you feel like you had to step from the shadows of your mother, Annette Robinson, and define who Tahaka Robinson was? Because come on, let's just be real. Your mother's a star worth in Brooklyn politics, in politics in New York State. So everywhere you go, you growing up, and everybody's going, that's a similar woman Annette Robinson's son.

SPEAKER_09 46:19

Well, the problem I have with that is that there was a time when uh nobody wanted to say nothing to Annette Robins. Because you don't, you know, everybody knows, you know. Right. I I wasn't the son that they wanted to say something to at the time. And some people, if they did say something to me, they didn't know what they were gonna get from me. Right. And I I'm just being honest. Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, when I got into this business, I had to struggle from the ground up because it was clearly evident nobody wanted me to grow and be part of that. But I said, Oh, that's just Miss Robinson's son. I said, No, I'm Tahaka Robinson.

SPEAKER_05 46:56

And you look exactly like her too.

SPEAKER_09 46:58

I know, I know. And you know, and I said, My mother doesn't pay my bills. Right. My mother never got me a job, my mother never did nothing for me. I worked day and night, sometimes 20, 24-hour days, to build myself to be the individual that I am, because I would go where a lot of people would not go. A lot of people were afraid to take chances and to do things. And so I said that I had to work 10 times harder than my mother did because I'll never catch up with her. Never. Never catch up, but I can't even touch her legacy.

SPEAKER_05 47:34

No, you can't.

SPEAKER_09 47:35

I worked 10 times as hard to create my own legacy.

SPEAKER_05 47:38

So you caused out your own power. Yes, yes. And you've operated in politics, activism, and ministry. How do you define power today? And has that definition evolved over time?

SPEAKER_09 47:50

It has, because I think that individuals have gotten away from what real power is. Real power changes things. And if you are not changing something, if you're not bringing something substantive to help enhance the growth and development of the individuals in your community, or the growth and development of the community, you are powerless. And I think what happens is people start to go to the pod piper syndrome, right? They get somebody and they put them up and then they start blowing his little piper, pod piper, that's what they call the pod piper. And they start running around following, and this is the person. So everybody's now getting in line, chasing after the pod piper, trying to get something for them because the pod piper done sold them a bill of goods or sung a song or played a tune that they liked.

SPEAKER_05 48:45

Your mother left a legacy in public service. What does legacy mean to you, and how do you want your name to impact the next generation?

SPEAKER_09 48:54

Foundation. Legacy means foundation to me. Okay. Because if you're grounded, you can build off of what is grounded. You know, like right now, you know, we're in the studio, right? The studio, we're on the ground. Beautiful studio. Out here. Beautiful studio, yeah. Beautiful studio, right? We're on the ground, right? We're working. We're here on the ground and we're working. So we have some place to operate from. So the foundation is the most important thing to me about building a legacy because you can shift and pivot off a lot of things once you're on the ground, just like a boxer.

SPEAKER_06 49:30

Right.

SPEAKER_09 49:30

You know, you can go here, you can go left, you can switch up, you can go south for you're on the ball of your heels, your feet, you can back, you can backpedal. And so you gotta have that foundation to build a legacy, and you leave you leave that legacy intact. A lot of people end up getting involved in stuff, and I'm gonna say this here. And some people don't understand what they're getting involved in.

SPEAKER_06 49:52

Right.

SPEAKER_09 49:53

And what they do, they get themselves into a trick bag, and now they got to fight themselves out of it. And we have seen people come and go, getting themselves in trick bags, that's right, getting themselves in circumstances that they cannot avail themselves of, and then they go, you know. Don't talk about former mayor Eric Adams. I'm not talking, I don't talk about anybody. I don't talk about anybody, I don't talk about anybody.

SPEAKER_05 50:16

That's me, they know the audience knows.

SPEAKER_09 50:18

I don't talk about wasn't he on the show before?

SPEAKER_05 50:20

Yeah, he was on the show. He's the first guest on the show. That's my man. I love him, but I don't know nothing about it.

SPEAKER_09 50:26

I don't know nothing about it.

SPEAKER_05 50:26

Let's talk about you said that the church is the cornerstone of the community. What role should a faith institution play in today's societal and political world?

SPEAKER_09 50:38

I think that the faith-based community needs to change, change the mindset because they need to do more outreach. If you go to a lot of churches, churches are emptying out. And uh there are so many people out here that need direction on how to get someplace. And I think that if you teach somebody how to get someplace, then they can help somebody else. You need to come outside. You don't have to preach. Right. You ain't gotta sing, we ain't gotta dance. But maybe this person might need something to eat. Maybe the person might need a pair of shoes.

SPEAKER_06 51:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 51:13

Maybe a person might need a coat. Maybe a person might need a job.

SPEAKER_05 51:17

Well, bring that up. Like, do your clergy luncheons and mentoring work. Do you believe young men and women our communities need most right now?

SPEAKER_09 51:25

They need guidance. They need guidance because I was getting back from earlier. There's a generation of children who raised themselves and started listening to themselves, and then the children who they they those children that came after them, they ain't listening to nobody. Oh my God. They not listen to anybody. I've raised three children, and I thank God I was able to raise them, and all of them are being productive. So, you know, I'm just saying, these children are listening to nobody. There's sometimes all children don't listen to us.

SPEAKER_05 51:52

It's yeah, it's it's really sad right now. When it's all said and done, what legacy do you want Reverend Tahaka Robinson to leave behind?

SPEAKER_09 52:01

My legacy is wanting to be that I I just tried to help people. I tried to do something different. Um, you know, you go down through the years, you have all these great leaders, and everyone has done something to submit their legacy and what they're doing. And so uh my legacy, I just wanted to help somebody. I wanted to make things change. And and and uh I'm proud of that that um we even worked to foster better community police relations in the city of New York. And I wish that that process of those relationships can be uh reconstructed because you know young people have a mentality the the tragedy that transpired in Brooklyn last week with a seventh-month-old child being murdered. Yeah, this guy is 18 and the other guy is 21. And I try to tell people you cannot, the children, they they they they need direction. And and you go someplace and you're shooting with such reckless abandon.

SPEAKER_05 53:06

Yeah, it's different.

SPEAKER_09 53:08

Listen, and so I tried to help somebody. That's all I want to know is I tried to help people, and I tried to change things, and I tried to make something in this world a better place than when it was when I came in.

SPEAKER_05 53:17

Well, listen, my friend, my brother, Reverend, you have cemented your legacy now. You've done more in your young age than a lot of people have done in their lifetime. And I appreciate you and what you stand for. I appreciate your friendship and your honesty and clarity all the time. Is there anything that you want to bring up that we haven't covered today? We're wrapping down.

SPEAKER_09 53:46

What I would like to say is that people are suffering in the city of New York, and people need help in the city of New York. In every community in the city of New York. That's what I like to say.

SPEAKER_05 53:59

Okay. Well, can you let the people know where to go? Oh, he doesn't have any social media people, so we can't even, we can't. If you wanna, if you got an issue with and you need to go out, reach out to on Corey's Corner at gmail.com and we'll make sure we get to him. And by the way, one thing I I forgot to mention because you you always had me in tears over here talking about that that rapist. I'll never forget his name. His name was Thomas Boca. Thomas Boca. Fucking rapist. He was raping elderly women and young girls. And actually, I watched him rape somebody on camera in the van dyke. Yeah, I remember that. I remember that. But that's where we were. We were, that's what you gave us to the camera. We had the cameras. We had Van Dyke, yeah. Fucking cops telling me that they would sleep, and they would they job was to watch the cameras, and we're watching him rape this girl on camera. Needless to say, you know, I almost killed those cops, but it is he got caught, you know. Did what we had to do. Well, my brother, this was a powerful conversation. Um, your journey from shaping political outcomes to standing on the front line for justice to answering the call to ministry really speaks to what it means to lead with both purpose and conviction. You've shown us that real change doesn't just happen in boardrooms or pulpits. It happens when people are willing to stand up, speak out, stay committed, even when the fight is long. We appreciate the work you've done, the lives you impact, and the legacy you continue to build in the community.

SPEAKER_06 55:36

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 55:36

Thank you for pulling up a seat to Corey's Corner. Thank you. To our listeners, make sure you like, subscribe, and share. We've got more powerful conversations on the way. Thank you for having me. Thanks for coming on, brother. Thank you for having me. I love you, man. I'm so happy to be doing it. This is good, man.

SPEAKER_09 55:52

I'm grateful. I'm glad you're doing this, man.

SPEAKER_05 55:54

Thank you.

SPEAKER_09 55:54

Get the word out, get the message out.

SPEAKER_05 55:56

Yes. If you found value in today's show, again, please like, share, and subscribe. This has been another episode of Corey's Corner. Until next time, keep pushing, keep grinding, and always remember it's not about where you start, it's always about where you finish. I'm Corey Pegiz, and I always keep it right, not real.

SPEAKER_04 56:15

Peace. Special thanks to our executive producer, our engineers, and much respect to corrupt mob for making Corey's Corner possible.

SPEAKER_03 56:23

Wants a cop, let it knock. I for one thing we just celebrate redemption instead of condemning it. Stop talking to Bro. Wants a cop, the block.