Why did these cops have such a hard on for Frank? What the hell were they thinking? Why risk their jobs, pensions, and lives for someone who was literally doing their jobs for them? They weren't doing jack shit about King Tito, Arty Clay, and Larry Wong and the rest. Frank was getting rid of them for their crimes and putting the profits to good use. Frank was the only hero of this movie.
shareI didn't get that either. Frank was by far the least shitty of the gangsters. If anything, the streets were going to be far worse had the cops actually killed him.
shareI kind of agree. But up untill he had put it so eloquently, that he was just a business man, I understood why the cops wanted to stop him.
Plus the cops weren't necessarily privy to the fact he was the best of a worst situation. He was just a bad guy in their eyes.
Funny. I was just wondering this very same question and was about to make a post about it. I liked the movie but it just made no sense to me why the main group of cops were so obsessed & had such seething hatred for the recently released from prison Frank White to the point of going rogue & breaking the law themselves to take him down when he really wasn't doing anything other than taking out other drug dealers who were clearly much bigger scum than he was.
It's a borderline plot hole that suggests perhaps there was something in the original script/deleted scenes that got left on the cutting room floor that would have better explained why the cops were so obsessed with Frank & had such intense hatred for him & his crew.
There's something unseen going on between Frank White and those younger cops for sure. Some boiling issues that Argo's character doesn't seem to be a part of. Possibly Caruso and Snipes were dirty and had rackets that were being brought down because of White taking over. This would explain why they didn't put heat on Frank's rivals. Whatever the backstory truly was on the cops' motivation against Frank does seem to be cut out of the film. I'm curious if Abel Ferrara had a director's cut of this film floating around where the story is more fleshed out.
SPOILERS:
In the King Tito shootout one of the bodyguards survived and was going to testify against Frank, showing the cops exactly who was rising behind the Tito and El Zapa murders. Thus Tito's body in the trunk to get Frank's confession. Also, Caruso's character was definitely bent on seeing Frank go down after his partner was killed during the chase over the bridge. The older cop (Argo's character) just seemed to be doing his job to the letter and seemed to enjoy the long cat & mouse game with Frank. It's implied they knew each other for years..