parkerrodney A Wake-up CallThe Seven Five is a documentary about corruption in the NYPD during the 1980s. A police precinct in the East New York Section of Brooklyn, the seven five is located in a notoriously dangerous section of the borough known for drug dealing and a gamut of other crimes. The film is a retrospective accounting by Police Officer Mike Dowd, and others, as they recount their corruption, criminal conduct and other out of control behaviors before getting caught and thrown in jail. What makes this film so riveting, is the candidness in which Dowd and other former officers talk about how they stole money from drug dealers, accepted bribes and established their own criminal enterprise within the NYPD. While the movie goer can appreciate gaining insight in the misconduct of NYPD police officers, we cannot help but feel violated by their conduct and betrayal of the public trust. The seven five is exhibit "A" as far as making the case against police recruitment trends - to recruit individuals from outside of the 5 boroughs to police the city dwellers. What we learn from the Seven Five is that people in power and authority can abuse it to such an extent as they exploit and feed off the troubles and social ills of poor neighborhoods, and neighborhoods where they have little investment, other than a paycheck. However, what truly makes this movie compelling is that it provides insight into the minds and psychology of corrupt officers as they justify their actions in furtherance of personal gain. This movie should leave you sick to your stomach as you come to terms with your own ignorance of the subject at hand and extrapolate the full extent of possible outcomes with every police interaction. Dowd may no longer be a police officer stalking the streets of NYC, but rest assured corruption exists in many police departments, and the potential for corruption exists in all.

Deborah Marie Nelson I loved this documentary it was made so well......Wow such an awesome production team......It was what it was. And I believe Michael Dowd didn't plan on his career going the way it did. It was just the times back then and it was what it was. My grandfather was a Dirty Police Officer and Long Shoreman on the West Coast in the late 1940's and 1950's.

jake_fantom If you enjoy watching unrepentant psychopathic "cops" have a giggle over the horrendous crimes they committed while working as uniformed NYC police officers, this documentary will be right up your alley. The main subject of the film, Michael Dowd, has a blast recounting his sordid adventures for the camera, and the interviewer never gets in the way of the fun by asking a probing question. The great documentarians manage to either confront their subjects, or coax them into revealing themselves. The director of this lame excuse for a film does neither. He just lets the idiots talk about their brilliant exploits — ripping off robbery victims and drug dealers alike, and eventually hiring out to drug kingpins to protect their territories. Ultimately, Dowd actually becomes a drug dealer and kidnapper, turning his victims over to the drug cartels. As superficial as it is, I have to say that this documentary is also watchable, and delivers a couple of unintentional insights: the first is that virtually all the cops interviewed in this film seem to abide by the same code as criminals do: never rat on a fellow cop. The other is the single bit of sorrow that Dowd evinces late in the film: it's over the fact that his longtime partner (a tattooed goofball with the brains of a bivalve) eventually "rolled over" on him and wore a wire for the internal affairs investigators who put Dowd away for 12 years. Dowd's tears at the recollection of this betrayal are hysterically funny, and worth the pain and suffering of sitting through this badly paced, badly shot, badly cut film.

Red-Barracuda Precinct Seven Five refers to the 75th precinct located in Brooklyn New York which was the location of extraordinary police corruption back in the 1980's. In this decade the streets of New York really were crime addled and the 75th precinct had a reputation as one of the very worst areas of this dangerous city. Cops from the NYPD felt it necessary to pragmatically back each other up in order to survive life on the front line of serious crime; this led to them turning a blind eye to certain practises. This film looks at the extreme end result of this culture. The New York streets at this time were awash with crack cocaine and well organised gangs protected their interests with violence. Entering into this maelstrom was rookie cop Ken Eurell, who was given a partner Michael Dowd, who was an experienced police officer with a reputation for shady practices. At first Eurell was extremely reticent about this partnership but before long he was joining Dowd in a downward spiral of corruption which began with taking bribes, moving on to actual thieving, then protecting the interests of a big league drug dealer, leading onto to dealing themselves and even winding up with the facilitation of murder. It's an incredible story of cops bowing to temptation in a pretty bad way and is an alarming example of the police acting like gangsters.Starting with footage of Dowd answering questions at a commission, the story intermittently returns to this as he gives very candid answers while we go back to the start of the story and work our way forward through the 80's and gradually learn about the increasing levels of corruption this group of cops let themselves become party to. It's a fascinating tale, very well told; including some disturbing crime photographs. The level of danger on the streets of Brooklyn really comes through in this, with a particularly incredible segment where the cops are actually chased by the criminals! Dowd himself is obviously an interesting character for the very fact that he got away with such significant levels of corruption for such a long while. His eventual downfall did ultimately lead the NYPD to significantly improve its internal affairs to more pro-actively try to prevent such wrong-doing; whether or not it has been successful in this I really have no idea. But whatever the case, this is a very good and eye opening documentary about a bad chapter in American law enforcement.