The Seven Five (2014) Reviews

• Incredible story of police corruption

  Red-Barracuda2015-08-30

  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.

• Chilling Documentary on the most corrupt New York Cop ever

  t-dooley-69-3869162016-01-10

  Michael Dowd took the oath to uphold the law and protect the citizens of New York. He was assigned to precinct seven five and, at the time, it was the toughest the city had to offer. He soon found that his small pay check was far from adequate recompense for the life he was leading and so helped himself to some dirty money. After that there was no turning back. This film features archive footage of the trials and the scenes of the time through the 1980's up to 1993. We also have more recent interviews with the main players. This includes his erstwhile partner Kenny Eurell and even some of the gangsters who 'worked' with these dirty cops. It is disturbing to think that so many cops could be so blatant in their breaking of the laws they were supposed to uphold. It was also not an isolated incident or two but seemingly endemic with a culture of collaboration with other so called 'good' cops. Being 'good' meant not 'ratting' on your fellow cops and thereby allowing their criminal activities to flourish. There are some stunning black and white still photography of the time and some of these photos look like they belong in a gallery – absolutely stunning. This is a documentary that shows how powerful films can be and how fiction is often far behind where truth actually is – absolutely recommended.

• The true story of NYPD cops turned outlaw drug dealers.

  joebolton-394262015-03-06

  Ken Eurell is a young married NY police officer patrolling the streets of Brooklyn and living in the suburbs of Long Island. Hired in 1981 at the young age of 20 he is quickly introduced to a darker side of the NYPD. He manages to stave off temptation and stay true blue for six years until he meets Michael Dowd the dirtiest cop ever as coined by the NY Post. By the mid 1980s cocaine and crack are running rampant and Eurell falls to the temptations of the street. For six years Eurell and Dowd go unchecked protecting major drug organizations and eventually becoming drug dealers themselves until 1992 when the Suffolk county PD stumble onto a low level drug dealer that leads to Eurell and his former partner. Suffolk county in cooperation with the NYPD internal affairs unit arrested all of the officers involved and 49 civilians. The probe included undercover drug buys and electronic surveillance. Twenty-five vehicles were seized also seized was an undisclosed amount of cash and drugs. Eurells admitted involvement to the US Attorneys office Southern District (which he later cooperated along with the DEA and Internal Affairs Department in an ongoing undercover probe of his former partners and Colombian drug lords) were purchases of up to one kilo when he broke away and began dealing himself. Investigators are stunned when Eurell explains how they were protecting and assisting narcotics traffickers for weekly payoffs of $8,000.00. While out on bail Eurell needed to explain to the DEA that his former partner Dowd wanted to continue their crime spree with a kidnapping/murder scheme and then a Butch Cassidy style escape to Nicaragua. Eurell then becomes a CI for the DEA going back out on the streets wearing a wire to save the life of the intended victim. These true events spawned the Mollen commission and is the NYPDs biggest scandal since Serpico and the Knapp commission.

• Outstanding Documentary

  lozmillar2018-03-11

  I found this gripping from start to finish, an amazing insight into outrageous police corruption, I can't recommend enough, well worth a watch.

• Gave me goosebumps

  jim-anderson-238-6081842018-03-07

  Gave this documentary 10 stars but I would have to give the American Government and NYPD 0 after seeing this. If you want to be a gangster it is painfully obvious what step one should be. That being said, if you can get over the depressing reality of this documentary, this was an incredible watch and a very eye opening film. It was like The Departed but in real life.