48-467: New Jack City is a 1991 American crime action film directed by Mario Van Peebles (in his feature film directorial debut) and written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper , based on a story by Wright. The film stars Wesley Snipes , Ice-T , Allen Payne , Chris Rock , Judd Nelson , Bill Cobbs , Bill Nunn , and Van Peebles. Its plot follows Nino Brown, a drug lord in New York City during
96-512: A minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years in federal prison. On the other hand, possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same sentence. In 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act cut the sentencing disparity to 18:1. In 2012, 88% of imprisonments from crack cocaine were African American. Further, the data shows the discrepancy between lengths of sentences of crack cocaine and heroin. The majority of crack imprisonments are placed in
144-458: A crack index was calculated using information on cocaine-related arrests, deaths, and drug raids, along with low birth rates and media coverage in the United States. The crack index aimed to create a proxy for the percentage of cocaine related incidents that involved crack. Crack was an almost unknown drug until 1985. This abrupt introductory date allows for the estimation and use of the index with
192-424: A result of the low-skill levels and minimal initial resource outlay required to sell crack, systemic violence flourished as a growing army of young, enthusiastic inner-city crack sellers attempt to defend their economic investment." Once the drug became embedded in the particular communities, the economic environment that was best suited for its survival caused further social disintegration within that city. In 1986,
240-710: A series of albums titled Tha Carter after The Carter Complex, and Lil Wayne and Tyga have referred to themselves as Young Nino. In 2019, Deadline announced that Warner Bros are rebooting the film with Malcolm Mays writing. In September 2022, film producer Je'Caryous Johnson announced the launching of the stage production adaptation of New Jack City: Live on Stage after his successful adaptation of another film, Set It Off: Live on Stage . The stage play stars Allen Payne , who reprises his role as "Gee Money", Treach as Nino Brown, Flex Alexander as "Pookie", Big Daddy Kane as Stone and Gary Dourdan as Scotty. The stage production's first preview ran October 29–30, 2022 at
288-699: A small part of the prison population, and non-violent drug offenders an even smaller portion; that people convicted of violent crimes make up the majority of prisoners; that county and state justice systems account for the large majority of American prisoners and not the federal system that handles most drug cases; and, subsequently, "national" statistics tell a distorted story when differences in enforcement, conviction, and sentencing are widely disparate between states and counties. San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb sparked national controversy with his 1996 Dark Alliance series which alleged that Nicaraguan dealers with Contra ties started and significantly fueled
336-521: A sting operation to nab Nino. Kareem, aware of Appleton and Pookie's connection, exposes the former, and a shootout ensues. Peretti saves Appleton by killing the Duh Duh Duh Man, and Nino escapes. That night, Nino confronts and regretfully kills Gee Money. After the gang's collapse, Nino holes up in an apartment and continues his criminal empire solo. Appleton, Peretti, and the police assault the complex, where Appleton brutally beats Nino, revealing that it
384-404: A story editor at The Walt Disney Company and Columbia Pictures before moving to creative executive at Paramount Pictures . According to Carl Hart , who corresponded with Wright following Hart's criticism of New Jack City , the screenplay was originally written as The Godfather: Part III , and featured a protagonist who sold heroin rather than cocaine. Wright wrote a treatment for Paramount on
432-571: A thousand press stories were published. Initially, crack had higher purity than street powder. Around 1984, powder cocaine was available on the street at an average of 55 percent purity for $ 100 per gram (equivalent to $ 293 in 2023), and crack was sold at average purity levels of 80-plus percent for the same price. In some major cities, such as New York , Chicago , Los Angeles , San Francisco , Philadelphia , Baltimore , Houston and Detroit , one dose of crack could be obtained for as little as $ 2.50 (equivalent to $ 7 in 2023). According to
480-541: A whole) on the failures of the criminal justice system, it obscures African-American support for tougher crime laws and downplays the role of violent crime in the story of incarceration. John Pfaff , in his book Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform , criticizes Alexander's assertion that the Drug War, including sentencing disparities for crack, is responsible for mass incarceration. Among his findings are that drug offenders make up only
528-508: Is dissolved in a solution of water and baking soda and then dried out into "crack rocks". As the rocks are heated, it makes a crackling sound and this is how the substance got its name. It was not until 1985 after an article in The New York Times describing crack use in the Bronx , New York titled "A new, purified form of cocaine causes alarm as abuse increases" that within a year, more than
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#1732858525255576-415: Is partnered with loose-cannon Nick Peretti. Elsewhere, mobster and tax collector Frankie Needles attempts to get protection money from Nino, who refuses to pay. While Appleton and Peretti observe Nino and his gang handing out Thanksgiving turkeys to the poor, Appleton spots Pookie, now a crack addict, and soon gets him into rehab. Later, Pookie offers to help bring down Nino. Against his better judgment and
624-521: Is produced with special set design arrangements by Warner Bros. Theater Ventures. Crime action film Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 759553452 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 05:35:25 GMT Crack epidemic The crack epidemic
672-613: The Gas South Theater in Atlanta , Georgia and then opened a nationwide tour from November 2022 and extended until the summer of 2023. The play returned back by popular demand in January 2024 running in Houston , Texas with a final announced date set for Memphis, Tennessee June 2024. Omar Gooding was cast as Stone, while the latter three actors reprises their role from the tour. The stage play
720-546: The crack epidemic , and Scotty Appleton, an NYPD detective who vows to end Nino's rise to power by going undercover to work for Nino's gang. New Jack City premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 1991, and was released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on March 8, 1991. In the New York City neighborhood of Harlem , Nino Brown and his gang, the Cash Money Brothers (CMB), become
768-553: The 10–20 year range, while the imprisonments related to heroin use or possession range from 5–10 years. A number of authors have discussed race and the crack epidemic, including Memphis Black writer Demico Boothe, who spent 12 years in federal prison after being arrested for the first-time offense of selling crack cocaine at the age of 18, published the book, "Why Are So Many Black Men in Prison?" in 2007. Writer and lawyer Michelle Alexander 's book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
816-622: The 1980s crack epidemic. Investigating the lives and connections of Los Angeles crack dealers Ricky Ross , Oscar Danilo Blandón , and Norwin Meneses, Webb alleged that profits from these crack sales were funneled to the CIA-supported Contras. The United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General rejected Webb's claim that there was a "systematic effort by the CIA to protect
864-513: The 1985–1986 National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee Report, crack was available in Atlanta , Boston , Detroit , Kansas City , Miami , New York City , Newark , San Francisco , Seattle , St. Louis , Dallas , Denver , Minneapolis and Phoenix . In 1985, cocaine -related hospital emergencies rose by 12 percent, from 23,500 to 26,300. In 1986, these incidents increased 110 percent, from 26,300 to 55,200. Between 1984 and 1987, cocaine incidents increased to 94,000. By 1987, crack
912-564: The 20th anniversary of the 1967 riots in Detroit , and in its wake, the rise of crack cocaine gangs in the late 1980s, such as Young Boys Inc. , and the Chambers Brothers . The original story received notice from Quincy Jones , who sought a meeting with Cooper. He was then tasked with re-writes on a screenplay that had been done about the life of Nicky Barnes. Filming occurred in New York City between April 16 and June 6, 1990. New Jack City
960-790: The Age of Colorblindness (2010) argues that punitive laws against drugs like crack cocaine adopted under the Reagan administration's war on drugs resulted in harsh social consequences, including large numbers of young Black men imprisoned for long sentences, the exacerbation of drug crime despite a decrease in illegal drug use in the United States, and increased police brutality against the Black community resulting in injury and death for many black men, women, and children. According to Alexander, society turned to racist criminal justice policies to avoid exhibiting obvious racism. She writes that, since African Americans were
1008-482: The Black community also experienced a 20–100% increase in fetal death rates, low birth-weight babies, weapons arrests, and the number of children in foster care. A 2018 study found that the crack epidemic had long term consequences for crime, contributing to the doubling of the murder rate of young Black males soon after the start of the epidemic, and that the murder rate was still 70 percent higher 17 years after crack's arrival. The paper estimated that eight percent of
SECTION 20
#17328585252551056-470: The CMB attend a wedding, Peretti sneaks into Nino's mansion to collect evidence. Don Armeteo, Frankie's boss, sends mobsters to kill Nino, and a massive shootout erupts. When Nino uses a child as a shield, Appleton attempts to shoot Nino in the back; Keisha is killed. Later, Nino throws Selina out when she condemns his nature, before killing Don Armeteo and his crew single-handedly. Stone, Appleton and Peretti arrange
1104-623: The CMB forces out the tenants and landlord. Meanwhile, Scotty Appleton, an undercover police detective working with the NYPD , attempts to make a deal with stick-up kid Pookie, who absconds with the money. Appleton chases and shoots Pookie in the leg, but released on bail. As the years pass, Nino's gang successfully run the streets of Harlem with absolute power. When Stone, the leader of the CMB police operation, comes under pressure from NYPD Commissioner Fred R. Price, Appleton, currently on suspension for shooting Pookie, volunteers to infiltrate Nino's gang and
1152-495: The CMB, partly due to Gee Money's increasing ambition and drug use. Though Nino distrusts them, he agrees to do business. After relating an anecdote about his own violent initiation into a gang in 1974, Nino warns that he will kill both Appleton and Gee Money if any problems occur. Appleton gains Nino's trust when he reveals information about Gee Money's side deal and saves him from a gun-toting "Old Man" who had earlier appealed to police for help against Nino. While Nino, Appleton, and
1200-468: The U.S. Congress passed laws that created a 100 to 1 sentencing disparity for the possession or trafficking of crack when compared to penalties for powder cocaine , widely criticized as discriminatory against African-Americans and other racial minorities, who were more likely to use crack than powder cocaine. This 100:1 ratio was mandated by federal law in 1986. Persons convicted in federal court of possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine received
1248-520: The United States on August 23, 2005, and Region 2 in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2006. Special Edition DVD features: The film was released on Blu-ray in the United States by Warner Home Video on August 14, 2012. Cooper suggested Teddy Riley name his new genre new jack swing , after the movie. The New Orleans –based hip hop record label Cash Money Records is named after the Cash Money Brothers gang. Cash Money Records rapper Lil Wayne has
1296-539: The United States was landing in Miami , and originated in Colombia , trafficked through The Bahamas . Soon there was a huge glut of cocaine powder in these islands, which caused the price to drop by as much as 80 percent. Faced with dropping prices for their illegal product, drug dealers made a decision to convert the powder to "crack", a solid smokable form of cocaine, that could be sold in smaller quantities, to more people. It
1344-448: The United States. In cities with populations over 350,000 the instances of crack cocaine were twice as high as those in cities with a population less than 350,000. These indicators show that the use of crack cocaine was much higher in urban areas. States and regions with concentrated urban populations were affected at a much higher rate, while states with primarily rural populations were least affected. Maryland, New York and New Mexico had
1392-409: The chest, causing Nino to fall over a balcony to his death. Appleton and Peretti leave satisfied as onlookers look down at Nino's dead body. In the closing moments, an epilogue states that the crack epidemic is still ongoing and decisive action must be taken to stop real-life Nino Brown analogs. The film is based upon an original story and screenplay written by Thomas Lee Wright , who had worked as
1440-543: The disapproval of Stone and Peretti, Appleton recruits Pookie as an informant. When Pookie relapses, Gee Money realizes that he is wired and orders the Carter destroyed. The cops find Pookie's booby-trapped corpse; Peretti defuses the explosives seconds before it explodes. Nino angrily warns Gee Money against repeating such a costly mistake. After Pookie's funeral, Appleton and Peretti, no longer needed by Stone, go undercover as drug dealers. After bribing Frankie, Appleton infiltrates
1488-426: The dominant drug ring once crack cocaine is introduced to the streets. His gang consists of Gerald "Gee Money" Wells, his best friend since childhood; enforcer and personal bodyguard Duh Duh Duh Man; gun moll Keisha; Nino's girlfriend, Selina Thomas; and her tech-savvy cousin, ex-bank teller Kareem Akbar. Nino converts the Carter apartment complex into a crack house . Gee Money and Keisha kill rival Fat Smitty, and
New Jack City - Misplaced Pages Continue
1536-506: The drug trafficking activities of the Contras". The DOJ/OIG reported: "We found that Blandon and Meneses were plainly major drug traffickers who enriched themselves at the expense of countless drug users and the communities in which these drug users lived, just like other drug dealers of their magnitude. They also contributed some money to the Contra cause. But we did not find that their activities were
1584-486: The fall of addicts destroyed by the drug". The article said that freebase made its "strongest inroads" in the music industry of Los Angeles and at this time, in 1980, the similar crack form had just been starting (and in a few years would become predominant and also move to the East Coast and elsewhere). The article describes both the earlier free base method of purifying cocaine to make it smokable which started in 1974 and
1632-503: The film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". American Film Institute Lists The film was released on DVD in Region 1 in the United States on August 25, 1998, and Region 2 in the United Kingdom on July 26, 1999, distributed by Warner Home Video . The film was re-released on DVD as a Two-Disc Special Edition in Region 1 in
1680-487: The highest instances of crack cocaine use, while Idaho, Minnesota and Vermont had the lowest instances of crack cocaine use. African American families were largely located in low-income inner city neighborhoods. This led to crack impacting African American communities far more than others. Between 1984 and 1989, the homicide rate for Black males aged 14 to 17 more than doubled, and the homicide rate for Black males aged 18 to 24 increased nearly as much. During this period,
1728-400: The highest-grossing independent film of 1991, grossing a total of $ 47,624,253 domestically. The film holds an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "Stylishly directed by Mario Van Peebles, New Jack City offsets its melodramatic streak with electrifying action and a cavalcade of effective performances." On Metacritic
1776-664: The idea, which they liked enough to have him try to do a first draft. Wright based his script to interviews he had with people from Little Italy in New York along with the story of Nicky Barnes , the black kingpin that had modeled his criminal organization in Harlem after the Mafia. Wright later wrote, directed and produced Eight Tray Gangster: The Making of a Crip, a documentary of gang life in South Central Los Angeles. The screenplay
1824-483: The knowledge that values prior to 1985 are essentially zero. This index showed that the Northeast U.S. was most affected by the crack epidemic. The U.S. cities with the highest crack index were New York (especially the city's Washington Heights neighborhood), Newark and Philadelphia . The same index used by Fryer, Levitt and Murphy was then implemented in a study that investigated the effects of crack cocaine across
1872-580: The lifestyle and money of the drug dealers looks like fun, at least until they're killed. This movie pulls off that tricky achievement. Nino, who looks at the dead body of Scarface and laughs, does not get the last laugh. Time Out London described the film as "a superior example of what used to be called blaxploitation ." The film initially premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 1991, before being released nationally on March 8, 1991. The film, produced with an estimated $ 8,000,000 budget, grossed $ 7,039,622 during its opening weekend. It became
1920-606: The majority users of crack cocaine, it provided a platform for the government to create laws that were specific to crack. She claims that this was an effective way to imprison Black people without having to do the same to white Americans. Alexander writes that felony drug convictions for crack cocaine fell disproportionately on young Black men, who then lost access to voting, housing, and employment opportunities, which then led to increased violent crime in poor Black communities. Legal Scholar James Forman Jr. argues that though Alexander's book has value in focusing scholars (and society as
1968-503: The murders in 2000 are due to the long-run effects of the emergence of crack markets, and that the elevated murder rates for young Black males can explain a significant part of the gap in life expectancy between black and white males. Crack cocaine use and distribution became popular in cities that were in a state of social and economic chaos such as New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, and particularly in their low-income inner city neighborhoods with high African American concentrations. "As
New Jack City - Misplaced Pages Continue
2016-420: The newer but similar crack making process. Freebase was made by users who would combine cocaine with baking soda and water and then extract the base salt, "freeing it" with ammonia . This achieves a lower melting point and when heated with a lighter, the vapors are inhaled (but the substance was dangerously flammable). A less volatile but similar process was developed by dealers around 1980 where street cocaine
2064-489: Was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States throughout the entirety of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in a number of social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in American inner city neighborhoods, a resulting backlash in the form of tough on crime policies, and a massive spike in incarceration rates . In the early 1980s, the majority of cocaine being shipped to
2112-547: Was cheap, simple to produce, ready to use, and highly profitable for dealers to develop. As early as 1981, reports of crack were appearing in Los Angeles , Oakland , Chicago , New York , Miami , Houston , and in the Caribbean . The word "crack" may have first appeared in a media publication in the sub-headline of a Rolling Stone article on May 1, 1980, titled "Freebase: A Treacherous Obsession: The rise of crack cocaine and
2160-542: Was co-written by Barry Michael Cooper , a former investigative reporter with the Village Voice who would later write the screenplays for the 1994 dramatic films Above the Rim and Sugar Hill , the latter of which also starred Snipes. Cooper's rewrite was adapted from his December 1987 Village Voice cover story entitled "Kids Killing Kids: New Jack City Eats Its Young," about the drug war in Detroit. The account referred to
2208-479: Was favorably received by film critics for its cast, storyline, and soundtrack. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing: Truffaut once said it was impossible to make an anti-war movie, because the war sequences would inevitably be exciting and get the audience involved on one side or the other. It is almost as difficult to make an anti-drug movie, since
2256-471: Was his mother whom Nino killed in his gang initiation. Peretti dissuades Appleton from killing Nino, who is taken into custody. At his trial, Nino pleads guilty to a lesser charge, claims to have been forced to help the gang due to threats, and identifies Kareem as the leader. He is sentenced to only a year in jail. As Nino speaks with reporters outside the courtroom, the Old Man confronts and fatally shoots him in
2304-499: Was reported to be available in the District of Columbia and all but four states in the United States. Some scholars have cited the crack "epidemic" as an example of a moral panic , noting that the explosion in use and trafficking of the drug actually occurred after the media coverage of the drug as an "epidemic". In a study done by Roland Fryer , Steven Levitt , and Kevin Murphy ,
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