First Things RSS Feed - Lawrence Hogan https://www.firstthings.com/author/lawrence-hogan en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:57:16 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/lawrence-hogan 60 The Real First Citizen of Harlem https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2007/12/the-real-first-citizen-of-harl https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2007/12/the-real-first-citizen-of-harl Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0500 Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe are receiving the plaudits of critics for their bravura performances as Frank Lucas, glamorous Harlem gangster, and Richie Roberts, incorruptible New Jersey detective in the recently released American Gangster . Gangster is a hard movie to watch. Filled with violence that is depicted graphically, language that used to be termed gutter, and an anger that literally rips at those at whom it is directed, the film leaves one shuddering at the heroin-driven crime scene that physically and mentally corrupted and destroyed a generation of late-1960s and early-1970s inner-city and suburban youth caught in its “Blue Magic” addiction clutches. Corrupted too was a New York City police narcotics division that saw close to 50 percent of its members indicted and convicted for being on the take to the drug lords they were supposedly out to get.

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