Police Unions Call for Boycott of Quentin Tarantino's New Movie

Police Unions Call for Boycott of Quentin Tarantino's New Movie
Agence France-Presse
04 November 15

Quentin Tarantino said Tuesday he does not feel intimidated by police union calls for a boycott of his films after he demonstrated against the killing of unarmed blacks by cops.

Police say Tarantino insulted them during a protest march in New York on October 24.

The Oscar-winning director complained that day of what he called the racial profiling of black and Latino men and the increasing militarization of the police.

"If it was being dealt with, then these murdering cops would be in jail, or at least be facing charges," Tarantino said at the New York rally.

"What they're doing is pretty obvious," Tarantino told the Los Angeles Times in remarks published Tuesday.

"Instead of dealing with the incidents of police brutality that those people were bringing up, instead of examining the problem of police brutality in this country, better they single me out," he said.

"And their message is very clear. It's to shut me down. It's to discredit me. It is to intimidate me," Tarantino added.

The boycott has been called by police unions in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, and mainly targets Tarantino's latest movie, "The Hateful Eight", which comes out on Christmas Day.

"It's no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too," Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said last week.

"I'm not being intimidated," Tarantino said.

"Frankly, it feels lousy to have a bunch of police mouthpieces call me a cop hater. I'm not a cop hater. That is a misrepresentation. That is slanderous. That is not how I feel," he added.

Tarantino, who won Oscars for "Pulp Fiction" and "Django Unchained", has been among the most strident of US celebrities who've denounced the high-profile killings of black men mostly by white police.

Tarantino also took part last month in New York in a reading of the names of 250 people shot dead by police over the past 20 years.