This film follows a prison, the seven five prison. Which is notorious for being in one of the best-divested and scandalous parts of New York City. During the late 80’s and early 90’s there were a lot of crimes, a lot of drug activity, and a lot of violence. In that time cops were known for being quit dirty in that part of New York. Michael Dowd, a former New York police officer was the main character. The documentary tells us about how he was probably known as one of the dirtiest, corrupt cop known. In the documentary, it starts at the time when he left the police academy, in 1982, up until 1993, were he got arrested for selling drugs, and taking bribes, working with drug lords, and giving them protection. The documentary follows in chronicle order, from the beginning till the end of his police career. In the beginning at first he takes money from an eighteen-year-old girl that was driving above normal speed. He told her to give him 100 dollars and she would be off the hook. Suddenly, it got worse and worse. He just wanted to make money and think of his family. He was also thinking about himself and all the good things he would buy. After, he got himself to the drug activities. Were he worked along side with drug lords and offering protection. He convinced his partner at that time, that he should get into it, the police officer; Michael’s partner ended up getting into it. As the documentary continues, it starts to get pretty bad, and both got into some deep trouble with authorities. They ended up getting caught. Michael Dowd goes for a jail for a very long time, 12 years to be precise. I think in todays society were seeing all these stuff, like kids getting shot, more murder rates. We all witness cops that get out of control and I think what happens is the power they have on being a cop, that they forget how to use it well. Because of these I think cops could get a little bit crazy. You got nobody checking on that power. We should not tolerate lies or cover-ups under any circumstances, and we certainly should expect that those who are charged with enforcing the laws will them be the models of obeying the law. And we should expect that if they do not, they will be penalized at least as severely as any criminal they caught doing the same thing.
In today’s society I don’t think what Michael Dowd did, would ever happen to the NYPD. It makes me think what actually happens in the police force. I really liked this documentary it opened up my eyes to see how police corruption was actually happening.
