April 11, 2024 • 21 mins
In this episode, Karol interviews John Cardillo, a conservative commentator and former NYPD officer, about his move to Florida and the changes he has observed in the state. They discuss the impact of the pandemic on New York City and the cultural problems that have arisen. Cardillo highlights the importance of enforcing the law and prosecuting criminals to maintain public safety. He also shares his weekend activities, such as clay shooting and horseback riding. Cardillo emphasizes the significance of happiness and pursuing opportunities that feel right. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Marcowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Have you heard of this concept of girl dinner? The
basic premise that if a woman is eating alone, she's
having something random, like a bowl of cereal or tortilla
chips for dinner. I just spent ten days in Michigan
living alone without my family, and I can tell you
(00:27):
that the image of the single life drinking martinis in
ball gowns at nice restaurants, I mean that's not even close.
I ate really badly alone on a couch. What's interesting
about this is it's the man who is the stabilizing
force here.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Right.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
We always think of women as being the good societal
influence on a man, But here's the case of men
doing it for women. Something about being in a relationship
causes you to have the real meals for dinner instead
of like half an apple and a bag of ches.
Apparently the original poster about girl dinners was eating grapes, cornishans,
(01:07):
bread and cheese, which actually all sounds amazing to me.
As fast as girl dinner became a trend, of course,
there was the inevitable backlash. It was racist. Who knows
why it promoted stereotypes and gender roles. Blah blah. It's
somehow opposed body positivity because I guess the girls are
(01:27):
eating enough.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
The thing is obviously, men left to their own devices
probably don't do that great food wise either. I know
my husband loves to get taco bell with the kids
when I'm away, because I just wouldn't do that right.
I've talked a lot about all the positives of being
in a relationship and the way it benefits you in
(01:49):
so many different ways. The way we eat is a
part of that. We all understand that girl dinners or
boy taco bell nights are not.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Good in the long term.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
And yes, of course, there are plenty of single people
eating very healthy. I'm not taking anything away from them
on that. And I'm sure there are some coupled people
eating popcorn and a cucumber for dinner. But being in
a couple elevates you. It makes you strive to be better.
You're not eating your grilled chicken on a fork over
the sink, and yes, I've done that. None of us
(02:24):
are perfect, but we're all trying.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
To be better.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Coming up next and interview with John Cardillo. Join us
after the break.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My
guest today is my good friend John Cardillo, conservative commentator
and former NYPD.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Hi John, Hey, Carol, good to finally be with you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So nice to have you on.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
So a running joke in our group of friends is
nobody that knows what you do.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
So it was great when I was like, Cas, should
I introduce you? You're like, you know, conservative commentator, whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I'm a boring private equity guy these days. That's that's it.
I'm you know, and I cause trouble on Twitter. But yeah,
I love that. I love how you guys bust my
chops on that. It makes my day every time with you.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
We were at an event one time and we were
going around the table and everybody was introducing themselves and
I was sitting next to Dave Rubin and so as
we're like going around the table and everyone's you know,
I'm whatever, and I this is my job. I wrote
to Ruben like, I can't wait to find out what
John cardemod remember that, And then when it got to you,
(03:37):
we still didn't really know.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Oh do I kept it as cryptic as possible.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yeah, right, you were like you know, Yeah, it was definitely.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I would say CIA, but it's not Cia. It's something
way beyond that. It's masade, like, let's be real.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
So you're also known in our group of friends as
like the og Floridian. A lot of us, our crew,
we moved here in the last you know, two years,
well Rubin and I last two years. Lisa Booth a
little bit before that, Josh Hammer, Dave Ree Boy a
little bit before that. But you have been here, and
Jordan Shaffille also around that same time. But you've been
(04:14):
here the longest, and you know your genius.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
How did you know? How did you know to come
to Florida? What was the draw?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, it was it was really a combination of things. Right.
So February twenty third, a few weeks ago, right, was
my twentieth year in Florida, and I had been in
Miami in Brickll area for about eleven years and up
in Fort Lauderdale for about the last nine. I love
it up here. By the way, I'm on the east
side as well, which is a lot more red. Everybody
thinks Broward County so blue, and it is right mathematically,
(04:42):
But on the east side, when you're east of federal
it's it's pretty red. I mean, you've got Trump and
the Santa's flags on pretty much every boat on the
intra coastal over here. For me, it was a combination
of things, you know, after leaving the NYPD for the
private sector, just wanting to leave New York after nine
to eleven. Candidly right, I left three years after nine
to eleven, And Florida was a place that I didn't
(05:05):
only come on vacation when I was a kid. My
dad was essentially a national sales manager for an industrial
company and Florida was one of his lucrative territories. And
I was down here all the time. Is A and
then some cousins that I was very close to, and
at and uncle. My aunt uncle at the time had
worked for Motorola, which had a big presence in South Florida.
(05:26):
They moved down and so we would come down and
visit them quite a bit. And I always loved it,
you know. I always had really good memories, really good
times in Florida as a kid. So it was a
place I would vacation and college and then as an adult.
And for me, it was just a pretty logical choice.
I was comfortable with it. I knew it. The Brickell
area of Miami was vertical, right, so a lot of
high rises. So when we got in New York City,
(05:48):
it was a really comfortable transition. Yeah, couple of friends
had made the move and so that was that was
my reasoning and the catalyst from you move in download interesting.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
So it's funny because we looked at Brickle but I
found it's just like not that walkable. And I guess
we have kids, so it wasn't, you know, quite as
the picture I had in my head.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
But yeah, the vertical thing, it's true. It really does.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Remind me of New York and so much of it
feels very New york Ish. But so it's funny because
again you pre date the whole mad rush to Florida
that happens in the last four years. We're really at
the anniversary basically right now of pandemic lockdowns and it's
(06:32):
changed a lot.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
How do you feel about that?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
I mean, are there pluses and minuses or is it
one way or another?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Ye know, I wish some people carol at a time
machine to see what Brickle look like. If you go
to brickl now, it's a world class city. Right. I mean,
it's new, and it's hot, and it's upscale, and you've
got every shop you have in Manhattan and Midtown there.
Right when I got to Brickle in two thousand and four,
there were maybe three real high rises. The Four Seasons
Tower that we've all been new right together or separately,
(07:02):
was up in that. I believe at the time that
was the tallest building on the East coast of the
United States outside of New York. It's like eight hundred
and something feet. So there was that, and there was
the condo building I lived in and the one I
was moving into that was being built. Everything else Downtown
had a couple of tall buildings, but the skyline of
Miami Downtown Miami was maybe maybe six or seven notable buildings.
(07:25):
Now there are just dozens, and so they literally built
a city around me. I mean, one of the reasons
I left Brickle.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Was John is here, Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Let's do it. You know. One of the reasons I
left was because the traffic got so insane from all
the construction, and when they started to put up that
mall in Brickall, it would take me some days, thirty
forty five minutes just to get the publics at the
grocery store, its way with traffic. So I was ready.
You know, I had grown up in a city my
whole life. I grew up in New York City, grew
up in Queens, than lived in Manhattan. Was now in
(07:55):
another city, and I was getting more into the old
Florida kind of sleepy Florida, right, and where I live
in Fort Lauderdale, now there's a lot, a lot of
boating and fishing.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
And I think if you as like a cowboy, you're
like living the text lifestyle in Florida.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah. Hey, people don't realize. You go to like the
Baby right fifteen minutes west of here, and there's rodeos.
It's it's horse country.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Right, So what about the people like, has the like
culture of Florida.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Changed or the Well, yeah, I think it's that neutral, right,
It depends what you like. When I moved down, if
you didn't speak Spanish in brickl in Miami really anywhere,
I still.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Feel like that.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, let me tell you it was a lot worse.
I mean there were days I'd walk into Walgreens where
there wasn't one English speaking employee.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I feel like my high school Spanish has not served
me well in Florida at all, Like, I have no
idea what's going on. It's not like nobody's asking me
the directions to the library.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, it was really different. So culturally that was it.
Now I found Miami to be a lot like New York.
It's not. It's a little bit transient in many respects,
and people keep to themselves. So I always tell a story.
I've told our group and our text chain of story.
You know, when I lived in Miami, I didn't even
know my neighbors. When I lived in Brickle, I had
a nice group of people I do happy hour with,
(09:14):
but we were like acquaintances more than friends. But I
didn't really know my neighbors when I moved to Fort
very hard to believe.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
You are like the world's most social guy.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I'm a social guy, but you'd be surprised, right. So
I knew the bartenders, and I knew that the Happy Aircraft.
But when I got to Fort Lauderdale. I moved to
Fort Lauderdale in July of twenty fifteen, I did Thanksgiving
dinner with we at a restaurant with a bunch of
my neighbors that November, like a few months later. So
it's really it depends where you go. But some of
the nicest, friendliest people I've ever met in my life
(09:45):
I've met down here in Florida.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Do you miss New York ever?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
You know? No? No, In fact, the last time I
was thinking about the the other day. The last time
I was in New York was Buck's engagement party, and
that was.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Sex and I we got to mention him in our cha.
So we moved down in the last two years.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, yeah, So Buck Sexton's engagement party was the last
time I was in New York. With that, I was
in New York with you guys, or I was in
New York at all.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Wow, that's what's a while?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, no, no, I'm sorry. And then I popped, I'm sorry,
my mistake and wait, no, that was that was twenty two. Yeah,
and then May of last year I came in for
a day. My mistake. May of last year, I came
in for a day for my nephew's high school graduation.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
But you don't miss anything about it.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
No, No, that's why I've been there twice in two
years and I forgot one of them right exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
So we're recording this a few days after the funeral
for a fallen police officer in New York. What do
you think when you see stuff like that or the
way that everything happened. He was killed by somebody who
had been released from prison. Many times, this is not
a political show, but I feel like that is such
a cultural touch point, especially right now, where people don't
(11:02):
feel safe, and that's you know, that could be political,
but it's very much societal. So what do you say,
what do you think about that? Can New York come back?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
You know, not not at the rate they're going, right, So,
you know, having been to too many police funerals, having
responded one of my first month maybe on the job
to the murder of a copper graduated the academy at
we Academy with me Sean McDonald. He was shot in
the head responding to an alarm burglary alarm that turned
out to be an actual alarm robbery. Another police officer
(11:33):
shot in our command on the Grand Concourse, shot and killed.
You know, I went to too many funerals and addressed uniform,
but this one of appeal. Jonathan Dillar now detective first grade.
Jonathan Dillar. I don't know if your viewers know this,
but when New York City police officers are killed in
the line of duty, the custom is at the funeral
they're then promoted to detective first grade, the highest rank
(11:53):
of detective, so that their families can receive a better benefit,
much much higher pension payout for the wife and in
this case, the young child.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
But you know, Carol, even in those situations and every
depth is tragic. You didn't see the perps. The murderers
were not arrested twenty one times in release, right. I
don't think you can analyze that issue without being somewhat political.
And the problem in New York City is this, and
I'll try to condense it. It's when the District Attorney's office
(12:24):
won't prosecute, and they've been very clear. The das in
each borough have been very clear they're going to take
this radical, far left approach and not prosecute certain crimes.
Bad guys are emboldened, but worse worse for public safety,
the NYPD stops making arrests because they can't incur the
overtime the cops will get in trouble. The commanders will
(12:47):
get in trouble for incurring the overtime when they know
the DA's office is going to keay the case. This
is such a public safety crisis at which more people
were talking about this, but they're not not enough. People
are talking about the whys. They're talking about the what happened,
but not why it's happening.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
What would you say is our largest cultural problem or like,
do you think that this plays into that?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Well, I think it's I think it's you know, there're
several right. I think we saw this with the antifen
in Black Lives Matter riots. There's this insanely permissive attitude
towards crime. It's just permissive when you see videos every
day people walking into Macy's and Walgreens and Publics and
every other store out there, no matter where you were
(13:29):
in the country, just loading up backpacks and garbage bags
full of merchandise and nobody's stopping them. And then you
hear the story of the employee that tried to stop them,
being the wire or the police officer being reprimanded for
using too much force to put on handcuffs. When you
start to tell bad guys that what they're doing is
not going to be punished. They're going to do more
of it. I mean, this doesn't take the greatest sociologists
(13:51):
in the history of mankind of figure out right. And
when you combine that with prosecutors, wo won't prosecute? What
do they think is going to happen?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Do you think it's solvable? Is there anything that we
can do?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, I mean I think the blueprint is there that
I think. You know, that's a great question, because not
only is it solvable, you think a guy like me
that came out of the police Academy was in the
police Academy under David Dinkins, come out under really Julian
Rudy Giuliani, Carol, When when we implemented broken windows, when
we implemented Rudy's policing strategies and Bill Bratton's at the
(14:22):
time policing strategies, we saw we noticed the difference on
the street in about two weeks. Really, it wasn't six months.
You lived in New York, you were up there, yell
on top of it.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, I was teens though, Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
We noticed it in weeks. As cops, the bad guys
weren't as brave anymore. When we drove by, they weren't
just sitting at the cars. They weren't throwing washing machines.
True story. I had a washing machine and a refriguer
and to throw off broof tops at me. They weren't
doing that because now they knew that were we held accountable.
It wasn't realized it was that best used to call it.
We used to call it airmail.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
It meant that.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I didn't realize you could see the change then. I
thought it was like a year's long process.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Well, statistically right, trickle down statistically took about a year.
But I can tell you having been on patrol at
four to twelve every night in the South Bronx, the
busiest times you started to see I'm not saying it
was a sweeping change right within a couple of weeks,
those bad guys on the corner, Yeah, they were a
lot less bold. You started to see it very quickly.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Wow, that's very interesting. I wonder you know.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
The thing about having a strategy that worked is the
insanity that you need to be living under to not
go back to it. It's like, hey, I know you've
got called in the National Guard into the New York
City subway.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
But what if what if you did.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
This other thing that totally worked, you know, not that
long ago, and tried that instead, But no, they go
for National Guarden.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
That's somehow the better option.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
You can't do anything. Who aren't empowered or allowed to
do anything. And to your point, that other thing that
works is the incredibly radically a novel idea of forcing
the law and prosecuting them. There's no you know, that's
why all jokes aside. That's why it's so frustrating me
(16:19):
and Bernie Carrick, the former commissioner, a friend of mine,
and I talked to countless guys and girls who are
either still on the job or retired, and you bang
your head against the wall because you're like, they know
exactly what they need to do. It doesn't cost a
penny more than anything they're doing, and they refuse to
do it right.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
But you know, for us, we get to live in
Florida and we see action.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Taken all the time. I didn't even know this was possible.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
I didn't know things like this were possible, like the
recent thing that our you know, Governor DeSantis did where
there was a lot of conversation around squatters and he
was like, Okay, well here we go. I'm not going
to have squatters in the States. It's illegal.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Now, Like, oh, it's that simple. People could just fix problems.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
I was unaware until this, until now, until I came
to Florida, I didn't know that people can just fix
problems and make bad things go away. I didn't realize
politicians and government officials can actually do that.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Was it always like that in Florida?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Or really?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Is he different?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
No? I think it was because in Florida you don't
have to the degree that you have it in the
Blue states. Is even your Democrat voters down here are
law and order voters? You know? I would always say
when the Democrats would do defund the police, and they
would try to act like that would also creep into Florida.
I it wouldn't, because you take areas in West Broward
County and these are nice areas and you know, up scale,
(17:41):
upper middle class, staffluent areas. Yeah, maybe they vote blue,
but you know what else they vote for. They also
vote for their hoa dollars to pay for that off
duty police officer in the marked car to patrol their
hoa at night. So there's a much different mindset down
here with regards to law and order. I think it
also has a bit to do with I don't know
how much shout a bit to do with the fact
(18:01):
that this has always been a haven for a tired
cops from around the country. There's no state income tax
and all that fun stuff, and so uh, I think culturally,
what we see in places like New York and Chicago
and Detroit and Baltimore, you just wouldn't see here, even
in your blue cities.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Right, So what do you do on weekends? What's what's
a John Cardillo weekend?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Like? Oh, oh, you guys, not right, A clay I
do know, a lot of clay shooting, a lot of
regular shooting. I'm so proud that I got you guys
into guns. I'm one of my greatest accomplishments.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
You really, you were such an inspiration getting us armed.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
You you played a giant role in that.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
You introduced us to your guy who's you know now
our guy? Yeah, Manny at Palm Beach Tacticals. We haven't
we haven't come to the polo with you yet. That's
that's something that's what.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I do on Sunday. You know what's so crazy? Everybody
whenever I say that, I get beat up. Oh it's
so pretentious. Take your horself somewhat. If I put up
a picture of a polo match on Twitter, right now,
take your horse golf somewhere else, horse scof you weren't
a regular guy. I'm like, I just I have horses.
I like to go to watch the horses. You know, yeah,
horse golf, So I do a lot of that. Or
(19:19):
I go to the beach club and you know, I
have a couple of kasotas. But that's the cool thing
about Florida, right There's so much to do and the scene.
You know, you you could be in my neighborhood, go
out and fish, and within fifteen minutes you're in horse country.
Within an hour you've got some of the best out
there shooting ranges in America. It's just it's such a
cool place to live. If you're into anything like that
(19:40):
and doing stuff outdoors on the weekend, do.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
You feel like you've made it?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah? I mean, you know, I felt like I was
a Floridian after five years, after fifteen, I knew I
was never leaving. I was like hard for life to
get a little better than this.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
You know, right, But as a like have you made it?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Like? Is that?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Is that all that it takes to have a happy
flow already in life?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I think you find none of us know what you do.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
I mean that that's got to be a goal.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I think I think you find the stuff. Look, you know,
I did media for a long time. I still love it.
I do heads like this a few times a week
and and stay abreast of the industry. But I was
fortunate in that I had an expertise in the firearms space,
tactical gear space. An opportunity presented itself to start pushing
(20:28):
those products out in large scale, and I grabbed it
and it turned out to be a very good decision.
But yeah, I mean, I can't really think of anything
I would change about my life right now. So I
guess I equate have you made it with more being
happy about where you are than how many how many zeros?
I mean? Yeah, I mean, I look, you always want
(20:50):
more business, right, everybody wants to do always do better.
But I don't if I wake up in the morning
and say uh and and regret anything, I'm pretty energy.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
And here with your best tip for my listeners on
how they can live a John Cardillo life and improve their.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Lives start by moving to Florida. And all kidding aside.
Somebody once said to me, and it was the greatest
piece of advice I've ever gotten. You can't steal second
with your foot on first. And there really is no
conventional path when something I'm a big believer in the
sixth sense, and I've gut feeling, Carol, and when something too,
when something starts to feel wrong and something else starts
to feel right, explore it and if it starts to
(21:26):
feel really right, pursuit love it.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Thank you so much for coming on, John, love talking
to you. I have to come to Horset Golf sometime.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Absolutely, talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Thank you so much for joining us on the Carol
Marcowitz Show. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Marcowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
Have you heard of this concept of girl dinner? The
basic premise that if a woman is eating alone, she's
having something random, like a bowl of cereal or tortilla
chips for dinner. I just spent ten days in Michigan
living alone without my family, and I can tell you
(00:27):
that the image of the single life drinking martinis in
ball gowns at nice restaurants, I mean that's not even close.
I ate really badly alone on a couch. What's interesting
about this is it's the man who is the stabilizing
force here.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Right.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
We always think of women as being the good societal
influence on a man, But here's the case of men
doing it for women. Something about being in a relationship
causes you to have the real meals for dinner instead
of like half an apple and a bag of ches.
Apparently the original poster about girl dinners was eating grapes, cornishans,
(01:07):
bread and cheese, which actually all sounds amazing to me.
As fast as girl dinner became a trend, of course,
there was the inevitable backlash. It was racist. Who knows
why it promoted stereotypes and gender roles. Blah blah. It's
somehow opposed body positivity because I guess the girls are
(01:27):
eating enough.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
The thing is obviously, men left to their own devices
probably don't do that great food wise either. I know
my husband loves to get taco bell with the kids
when I'm away, because I just wouldn't do that right.
I've talked a lot about all the positives of being
in a relationship and the way it benefits you in
(01:49):
so many different ways. The way we eat is a
part of that. We all understand that girl dinners or
boy taco bell nights are not.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Good in the long term.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
And yes, of course, there are plenty of single people
eating very healthy. I'm not taking anything away from them
on that. And I'm sure there are some coupled people
eating popcorn and a cucumber for dinner. But being in
a couple elevates you. It makes you strive to be better.
You're not eating your grilled chicken on a fork over
the sink, and yes, I've done that. None of us
(02:24):
are perfect, but we're all trying.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
To be better.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Coming up next and interview with John Cardillo. Join us
after the break.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My
guest today is my good friend John Cardillo, conservative commentator
and former NYPD.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Hi John, Hey, Carol, good to finally be with you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So nice to have you on.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
So a running joke in our group of friends is
nobody that knows what you do.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
So it was great when I was like, Cas, should
I introduce you? You're like, you know, conservative commentator, whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I'm a boring private equity guy these days. That's that's it.
I'm you know, and I cause trouble on Twitter. But yeah,
I love that. I love how you guys bust my
chops on that. It makes my day every time with you.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
We were at an event one time and we were
going around the table and everybody was introducing themselves and
I was sitting next to Dave Rubin and so as
we're like going around the table and everyone's you know,
I'm whatever, and I this is my job. I wrote
to Ruben like, I can't wait to find out what
John cardemod remember that, And then when it got to you,
(03:37):
we still didn't really know.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Oh do I kept it as cryptic as possible.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yeah, right, you were like you know, Yeah, it was definitely.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I would say CIA, but it's not Cia. It's something
way beyond that. It's masade, like, let's be real.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
So you're also known in our group of friends as
like the og Floridian. A lot of us, our crew,
we moved here in the last you know, two years,
well Rubin and I last two years. Lisa Booth a
little bit before that, Josh Hammer, Dave Ree Boy a
little bit before that. But you have been here, and
Jordan Shaffille also around that same time. But you've been
(04:14):
here the longest, and you know your genius.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
How did you know? How did you know to come
to Florida? What was the draw?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, it was it was really a combination of things. Right.
So February twenty third, a few weeks ago, right, was
my twentieth year in Florida, and I had been in
Miami in Brickll area for about eleven years and up
in Fort Lauderdale for about the last nine. I love
it up here. By the way, I'm on the east
side as well, which is a lot more red. Everybody
thinks Broward County so blue, and it is right mathematically,
(04:42):
But on the east side, when you're east of federal
it's it's pretty red. I mean, you've got Trump and
the Santa's flags on pretty much every boat on the
intra coastal over here. For me, it was a combination
of things, you know, after leaving the NYPD for the
private sector, just wanting to leave New York after nine
to eleven. Candidly right, I left three years after nine
to eleven, And Florida was a place that I didn't
(05:05):
only come on vacation when I was a kid. My
dad was essentially a national sales manager for an industrial
company and Florida was one of his lucrative territories. And
I was down here all the time. Is A and
then some cousins that I was very close to, and
at and uncle. My aunt uncle at the time had
worked for Motorola, which had a big presence in South Florida.
(05:26):
They moved down and so we would come down and
visit them quite a bit. And I always loved it,
you know. I always had really good memories, really good
times in Florida as a kid. So it was a
place I would vacation and college and then as an adult.
And for me, it was just a pretty logical choice.
I was comfortable with it. I knew it. The Brickell
area of Miami was vertical, right, so a lot of
high rises. So when we got in New York City,
(05:48):
it was a really comfortable transition. Yeah, couple of friends
had made the move and so that was that was
my reasoning and the catalyst from you move in download interesting.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
So it's funny because we looked at Brickle but I
found it's just like not that walkable. And I guess
we have kids, so it wasn't, you know, quite as
the picture I had in my head.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
But yeah, the vertical thing, it's true. It really does.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Remind me of New York and so much of it
feels very New york Ish. But so it's funny because
again you pre date the whole mad rush to Florida
that happens in the last four years. We're really at
the anniversary basically right now of pandemic lockdowns and it's
(06:32):
changed a lot.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
How do you feel about that?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
I mean, are there pluses and minuses or is it
one way or another?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Ye know, I wish some people carol at a time
machine to see what Brickle look like. If you go
to brickl now, it's a world class city. Right. I mean,
it's new, and it's hot, and it's upscale, and you've
got every shop you have in Manhattan and Midtown there.
Right when I got to Brickle in two thousand and four,
there were maybe three real high rises. The Four Seasons
Tower that we've all been new right together or separately,
(07:02):
was up in that. I believe at the time that
was the tallest building on the East coast of the
United States outside of New York. It's like eight hundred
and something feet. So there was that, and there was
the condo building I lived in and the one I
was moving into that was being built. Everything else Downtown
had a couple of tall buildings, but the skyline of
Miami Downtown Miami was maybe maybe six or seven notable buildings.
(07:25):
Now there are just dozens, and so they literally built
a city around me. I mean, one of the reasons
I left Brickle.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Was John is here, Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Let's do it. You know. One of the reasons I
left was because the traffic got so insane from all
the construction, and when they started to put up that
mall in Brickall, it would take me some days, thirty
forty five minutes just to get the publics at the
grocery store, its way with traffic. So I was ready.
You know, I had grown up in a city my
whole life. I grew up in New York City, grew
up in Queens, than lived in Manhattan. Was now in
(07:55):
another city, and I was getting more into the old
Florida kind of sleepy Florida, right, and where I live
in Fort Lauderdale, now there's a lot, a lot of
boating and fishing.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
And I think if you as like a cowboy, you're
like living the text lifestyle in Florida.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah. Hey, people don't realize. You go to like the
Baby right fifteen minutes west of here, and there's rodeos.
It's it's horse country.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Right, So what about the people like, has the like
culture of Florida.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Changed or the Well, yeah, I think it's that neutral, right,
It depends what you like. When I moved down, if
you didn't speak Spanish in brickl in Miami really anywhere,
I still.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Feel like that.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, let me tell you it was a lot worse.
I mean there were days I'd walk into Walgreens where
there wasn't one English speaking employee.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I feel like my high school Spanish has not served
me well in Florida at all, Like, I have no
idea what's going on. It's not like nobody's asking me
the directions to the library.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, it was really different. So culturally that was it.
Now I found Miami to be a lot like New York.
It's not. It's a little bit transient in many respects,
and people keep to themselves. So I always tell a story.
I've told our group and our text chain of story.
You know, when I lived in Miami, I didn't even
know my neighbors. When I lived in Brickle, I had
a nice group of people I do happy hour with,
(09:14):
but we were like acquaintances more than friends. But I
didn't really know my neighbors when I moved to Fort
very hard to believe.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
You are like the world's most social guy.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I'm a social guy, but you'd be surprised, right. So
I knew the bartenders, and I knew that the Happy Aircraft.
But when I got to Fort Lauderdale. I moved to
Fort Lauderdale in July of twenty fifteen, I did Thanksgiving
dinner with we at a restaurant with a bunch of
my neighbors that November, like a few months later. So
it's really it depends where you go. But some of
the nicest, friendliest people I've ever met in my life
(09:45):
I've met down here in Florida.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Do you miss New York ever?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
You know? No? No, In fact, the last time I
was thinking about the the other day. The last time
I was in New York was Buck's engagement party, and
that was.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Sex and I we got to mention him in our cha.
So we moved down in the last two years.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, yeah, So Buck Sexton's engagement party was the last
time I was in New York. With that, I was
in New York with you guys, or I was in
New York at all.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Wow, that's what's a while?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, no, no, I'm sorry. And then I popped, I'm sorry,
my mistake and wait, no, that was that was twenty two. Yeah,
and then May of last year I came in for
a day. My mistake. May of last year, I came
in for a day for my nephew's high school graduation.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
But you don't miss anything about it.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
No, No, that's why I've been there twice in two
years and I forgot one of them right exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
So we're recording this a few days after the funeral
for a fallen police officer in New York. What do
you think when you see stuff like that or the
way that everything happened. He was killed by somebody who
had been released from prison. Many times, this is not
a political show, but I feel like that is such
a cultural touch point, especially right now, where people don't
(11:02):
feel safe, and that's you know, that could be political,
but it's very much societal. So what do you say,
what do you think about that? Can New York come back?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
You know, not not at the rate they're going, right, So,
you know, having been to too many police funerals, having
responded one of my first month maybe on the job
to the murder of a copper graduated the academy at
we Academy with me Sean McDonald. He was shot in
the head responding to an alarm burglary alarm that turned
out to be an actual alarm robbery. Another police officer
(11:33):
shot in our command on the Grand Concourse, shot and killed.
You know, I went to too many funerals and addressed uniform,
but this one of appeal. Jonathan Dillar now detective first grade.
Jonathan Dillar. I don't know if your viewers know this,
but when New York City police officers are killed in
the line of duty, the custom is at the funeral
they're then promoted to detective first grade, the highest rank
(11:53):
of detective, so that their families can receive a better benefit,
much much higher pension payout for the wife and in
this case, the young child.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
But you know, Carol, even in those situations and every
depth is tragic. You didn't see the perps. The murderers
were not arrested twenty one times in release, right. I
don't think you can analyze that issue without being somewhat political.
And the problem in New York City is this, and
I'll try to condense it. It's when the District Attorney's office
(12:24):
won't prosecute, and they've been very clear. The das in
each borough have been very clear they're going to take
this radical, far left approach and not prosecute certain crimes.
Bad guys are emboldened, but worse worse for public safety,
the NYPD stops making arrests because they can't incur the
overtime the cops will get in trouble. The commanders will
(12:47):
get in trouble for incurring the overtime when they know
the DA's office is going to keay the case. This
is such a public safety crisis at which more people
were talking about this, but they're not not enough. People
are talking about the whys. They're talking about the what happened,
but not why it's happening.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
What would you say is our largest cultural problem or like,
do you think that this plays into that?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Well, I think it's I think it's you know, there're
several right. I think we saw this with the antifen
in Black Lives Matter riots. There's this insanely permissive attitude
towards crime. It's just permissive when you see videos every
day people walking into Macy's and Walgreens and Publics and
every other store out there, no matter where you were
(13:29):
in the country, just loading up backpacks and garbage bags
full of merchandise and nobody's stopping them. And then you
hear the story of the employee that tried to stop them,
being the wire or the police officer being reprimanded for
using too much force to put on handcuffs. When you
start to tell bad guys that what they're doing is
not going to be punished. They're going to do more
of it. I mean, this doesn't take the greatest sociologists
(13:51):
in the history of mankind of figure out right. And
when you combine that with prosecutors, wo won't prosecute? What
do they think is going to happen?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Do you think it's solvable? Is there anything that we
can do?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, I mean I think the blueprint is there that
I think. You know, that's a great question, because not
only is it solvable, you think a guy like me
that came out of the police Academy was in the
police Academy under David Dinkins, come out under really Julian
Rudy Giuliani, Carol, When when we implemented broken windows, when
we implemented Rudy's policing strategies and Bill Bratton's at the
(14:22):
time policing strategies, we saw we noticed the difference on
the street in about two weeks. Really, it wasn't six months.
You lived in New York, you were up there, yell
on top of it.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, I was teens though, Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
We noticed it in weeks. As cops, the bad guys
weren't as brave anymore. When we drove by, they weren't
just sitting at the cars. They weren't throwing washing machines.
True story. I had a washing machine and a refriguer
and to throw off broof tops at me. They weren't
doing that because now they knew that were we held accountable.
It wasn't realized it was that best used to call it.
We used to call it airmail.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
It meant that.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I didn't realize you could see the change then. I
thought it was like a year's long process.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Well, statistically right, trickle down statistically took about a year.
But I can tell you having been on patrol at
four to twelve every night in the South Bronx, the
busiest times you started to see I'm not saying it
was a sweeping change right within a couple of weeks,
those bad guys on the corner, Yeah, they were a
lot less bold. You started to see it very quickly.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Wow, that's very interesting. I wonder you know.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
The thing about having a strategy that worked is the
insanity that you need to be living under to not
go back to it. It's like, hey, I know you've
got called in the National Guard into the New York
City subway.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
But what if what if you did.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
This other thing that totally worked, you know, not that
long ago, and tried that instead, But no, they go
for National Guarden.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
That's somehow the better option.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
You can't do anything. Who aren't empowered or allowed to
do anything. And to your point, that other thing that
works is the incredibly radically a novel idea of forcing
the law and prosecuting them. There's no you know, that's
why all jokes aside. That's why it's so frustrating me
(16:19):
and Bernie Carrick, the former commissioner, a friend of mine,
and I talked to countless guys and girls who are
either still on the job or retired, and you bang
your head against the wall because you're like, they know
exactly what they need to do. It doesn't cost a
penny more than anything they're doing, and they refuse to
do it right.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
But you know, for us, we get to live in
Florida and we see action.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Taken all the time. I didn't even know this was possible.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
I didn't know things like this were possible, like the
recent thing that our you know, Governor DeSantis did where
there was a lot of conversation around squatters and he
was like, Okay, well here we go. I'm not going
to have squatters in the States. It's illegal.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Now, Like, oh, it's that simple. People could just fix problems.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
I was unaware until this, until now, until I came
to Florida, I didn't know that people can just fix
problems and make bad things go away. I didn't realize
politicians and government officials can actually do that.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Was it always like that in Florida?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Or really?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Is he different?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
No? I think it was because in Florida you don't
have to the degree that you have it in the
Blue states. Is even your Democrat voters down here are
law and order voters? You know? I would always say
when the Democrats would do defund the police, and they
would try to act like that would also creep into Florida.
I it wouldn't, because you take areas in West Broward
County and these are nice areas and you know, up scale,
(17:41):
upper middle class, staffluent areas. Yeah, maybe they vote blue,
but you know what else they vote for. They also
vote for their hoa dollars to pay for that off
duty police officer in the marked car to patrol their
hoa at night. So there's a much different mindset down
here with regards to law and order. I think it
also has a bit to do with I don't know
how much shout a bit to do with the fact
(18:01):
that this has always been a haven for a tired
cops from around the country. There's no state income tax
and all that fun stuff, and so uh, I think culturally,
what we see in places like New York and Chicago
and Detroit and Baltimore, you just wouldn't see here, even
in your blue cities.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Right, So what do you do on weekends? What's what's
a John Cardillo weekend?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Like? Oh, oh, you guys, not right, A clay I
do know, a lot of clay shooting, a lot of
regular shooting. I'm so proud that I got you guys
into guns. I'm one of my greatest accomplishments.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
You really, you were such an inspiration getting us armed.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
You you played a giant role in that.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
You introduced us to your guy who's you know now
our guy? Yeah, Manny at Palm Beach Tacticals. We haven't
we haven't come to the polo with you yet. That's
that's something that's what.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I do on Sunday. You know what's so crazy? Everybody
whenever I say that, I get beat up. Oh it's
so pretentious. Take your horself somewhat. If I put up
a picture of a polo match on Twitter, right now,
take your horse golf somewhere else, horse scof you weren't
a regular guy. I'm like, I just I have horses.
I like to go to watch the horses. You know, yeah,
horse golf, So I do a lot of that. Or
(19:19):
I go to the beach club and you know, I
have a couple of kasotas. But that's the cool thing
about Florida, right There's so much to do and the scene.
You know, you you could be in my neighborhood, go
out and fish, and within fifteen minutes you're in horse country.
Within an hour you've got some of the best out
there shooting ranges in America. It's just it's such a
cool place to live. If you're into anything like that
(19:40):
and doing stuff outdoors on the weekend, do.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
You feel like you've made it?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah? I mean, you know, I felt like I was
a Floridian after five years, after fifteen, I knew I
was never leaving. I was like hard for life to
get a little better than this.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
You know, right, But as a like have you made it?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Like? Is that?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Is that all that it takes to have a happy
flow already in life?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I think you find none of us know what you do.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
I mean that that's got to be a goal.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I think I think you find the stuff. Look, you know,
I did media for a long time. I still love it.
I do heads like this a few times a week
and and stay abreast of the industry. But I was
fortunate in that I had an expertise in the firearms space,
tactical gear space. An opportunity presented itself to start pushing
(20:28):
those products out in large scale, and I grabbed it
and it turned out to be a very good decision.
But yeah, I mean, I can't really think of anything
I would change about my life right now. So I
guess I equate have you made it with more being
happy about where you are than how many how many zeros?
I mean? Yeah, I mean, I look, you always want
(20:50):
more business, right, everybody wants to do always do better.
But I don't if I wake up in the morning
and say uh and and regret anything, I'm pretty energy.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
And here with your best tip for my listeners on
how they can live a John Cardillo life and improve their.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Lives start by moving to Florida. And all kidding aside.
Somebody once said to me, and it was the greatest
piece of advice I've ever gotten. You can't steal second
with your foot on first. And there really is no
conventional path when something I'm a big believer in the
sixth sense, and I've gut feeling, Carol, and when something too,
when something starts to feel wrong and something else starts
to feel right, explore it and if it starts to
(21:26):
feel really right, pursuit love it.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Thank you so much for coming on, John, love talking
to you. I have to come to Horset Golf sometime.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Absolutely, talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Thank you so much for joining us on the Carol
Marcowitz Show. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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