Review: White Boy

Quite astonishing 2017 documentary from director Christopher S. Rech offers up a disgusting and shameful display of clearly very dodgy police procedure. It’s the story of ‘White Boy Rick’, AKA Richard Wershe, Jr., a teenage drug dealer who has over the years become infamous due to references in Kid Rock songs and the like. However, I only vaguely knew the name ‘White Boy Rick’, nothing about his story. What I found in this ‘stranger than fiction’ documentary horrified me. Detroit teen Wershe Jr. was clearly no angel, he was indeed quite a successful drug dealer at a young age, with his father also a criminal of some note. In the mid-to-late 80s, 17 year-old Wershe Jr. was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison for a mere drug crime (carrying 8 kg of coke is nothing to sneeze at, however) due to a then mandatory life sentence law in Detroit that has since been dispensed with. Decades later, whilst every other of the offenders under this law had since been released, poor Rick was still wasting away in prison. Rick’s a granddad now (at age 50), and should’ve been released like all the others convicted under that life sentence law were. Something is fishy here. Very, very fishy.

The film, using interviews with Rick himself along with various other talking heads, tells a story of a cocky young man who started out as a teen FBI informant, before turning to selling drugs. He was eventually caught red-handed and convicted, sent to prison to apparently rot. He’s seemingly been kept there this whole time as a dirty little secret of the authorities that they don’t want to get out and the film unravels the shocking conspiracy during its course. Although one needs to realise that all documentaries contain an element of subjectivity, it seems pretty obvious to me that the city of Detroit was corrupt to its gills during the 80s and Wershe Jr. (at the time a nerdy-looking white kid who looked like an REO Speedwagon or Rush fan more than a hardened criminal) was made the scapegoat, because if he were to be released, it would uncover a whole lot of messy, multi-department corruption and cover-up that those in power did not wish to reveal to the general public.

There’s some interesting talking heads and personalities on show in the film, including the absolutely gobsmacking sight of convicted murderer/hit-man Nathaniel Craft’s hugely scarred torso from being shot the fuck up a bunch of times. That’s a sight that should be shown to every young wannabe thug who thinks the gang/criminal life is cool. Meanwhile, crim Johnny Curry barely seems to contain his pride when discussing his supposedly former life. We also have some celebrities of-sorts name-dropped in the film. I knew comedian Tim Allen (not actively featured in the film, but mentioned) had a dodgy past, but I had no idea he narrowly escaped the same life sentence policy that snared Rick. Wow, that career/life could’ve gone in a completely different direction with a click of the fingers. However the most interesting name dropped here, and one that seems to play an important part in Rick’s dilemma is former “Beverly Hills Cop” co-star, failed political candidate, and long-time Detroit cop Gil Hill. Yeah, Axel Foley’s angry, profane (and hilarious) boss back in Detroit was played by a real-life cop. I knew that part, but what I didn’t know was his supposed connection to the Rick Wershe Jr. case. And this is where the film really gets compelling, because the ambitious Hill’s name seems to pop up quite a bit in Wershe’s case…but never quite enough concrete evidence of his involvement in anything dodgy for him to actually get in trouble. Bear in mind that what we hear in this film sometimes comes from the lips of convicted criminals, but it does seem as though guys like Hill and then-Detroit Mayor Coleman Young were up to all kinds of no good, with Hill being just smart enough to narrowly keep his hands just clean enough to avoid any repercussions. It seems he was smart enough and lucky enough that only his Mayoral bid was damaged when shit started to come out about him (This film even suggests Hill tried to pay a hitman to whack Rick!). Rick was a well-paid informant as a teenager and was royally fucked over by the authorities and the court system, and years later the descendants of those corrupt authority figures were still standing by their brethren and keeping Rick in his place (prison), when if things were even remotely fair, he’d have been released well and truly before his eventual 2017 parole for the drug conviction. Instead, he’s still behind bars, albeit in a different prison for a different crime (for his role in a car theft ring he pled guilty to). I won’t be surprised if his release date for that particular crime doesn’t quite pan out, either ‘coz…reasons.

I loathe drugs and drug dealers, but this is a harrowing and gob-smacking story of corruption, cover-up, and a teenager given a life sentence for a yes, serious crime, but a non-violent one. This film needs to be seen. By everyone. Not because it’s a great film, but because it’s a shocking and very important story.

Rating: B-