The documentary “The Seven Five” (2014), by Tiller Russell, tells
the story of the most corrupt policeman in NYPD history, Michael Dowd, who
turned to drug dealing in the 1980s while patrolling Brooklyn. “In 1980s
Brooklyn the most dangerous gangsters were New York City cops.”
The film is often framed in 4:3 TV aspect-ratio
Congressional hearings held in late 1993, an then re-enacts the story of how
Dowd and others turned to crime, often starting out small, inviting others whom
they stopped for payoffs. There are
interviews, and then some simulated police scenes on the streets. Dowd would
finally get busted in Suffolk County.
New York City actually started booming in the Reagan years,
to everyone’s surprise, despite the financial crises of the 1970s under
Ford (the "drop dead" headlines). But many neighborhoods stayed in
tatters because of corruption, including Bed Stuy, which now is enjoying a renaissance.
In the 1990s, Mayor Giuliani’s “broken
windows” policy would lead to reduction in crime, but would also exacerbate the
problem of police racial profiling and inappropriate use of force against
African Americans, as is now a national controversy. Yet police misbehavior in
the 70s and 80s (going back to the time of Mafia payoffs, which actually had
kept the gay bars going in the 60s) helped set all this up.
The official site is here. (Sundance
Selects).
The DVD can be rented from Netflix. Picture: Mine from Redhook area, early 2013.
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