LAPD union joins NYPD in call to boycott Quentin Tarantino films
The Los Angeles Police Department’s largest union has thrown its support behind the NYPD’s call for a boycott of Quentin Tarantino’s films after the “Pulp Fiction” director referred to some police officers as murderers during a rally in New York City over the weekend.
Los Angeles Police Protective League President Craig Lally said comments like Tarantino’s encourage attacks on officers and said the union would support the call for a boycott of his films.
Tarantino flew from California to New York City to take part in a protest against police brutality on Saturday, and comments he made during the march quickly drew the ire of the New York Police Department’s Patrolmen’s Benevolent Assn.
“I’m a human being with a conscience,” Tarantino said, according to the Associated Press. “And if you believe there’s murder going on then you need to rise up and stand up against it. I’m here to say I’m on the side of the murdered.”
The comments, which came just days after New York police Officer Randolph Holder was shot and killed while chasing a suspect in East Harlem, prompted furious reactions from NYPD union President Pat Lynch and Police Commissioner William Bratton.
“We fully support constructive dialogue about how police interact with citizens. But there is no place for inflammatory rhetoric that makes police officers even bigger targets than we already are,” Lally said in a statement this week. “Film director Quentin Tarantino took irresponsibility to a new and completely unacceptable level this past weekend by referring to police as murderers during an anti-police march in New York.”
Tarantino’s films are notoriously violent, something critics were quick to harp on. While one of the director’s most iconic scenes involved the torture and eventual murder of a police officer in “Reservoir Dogs,” scores of gangsters, soldiers and other characters have found themselves decapitated or otherwise killed in gruesome fashion in a Tarantino film.
“The Hateful Eight,” a western directed by Tarantino, is set to premiere on Christmas Day.
Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for breaking news.
ALSO
Two bodies found in Montecito Heights park, police say
Student slams principal to floor during cafeteria melee caught on video
Authorities offer clues in the case of bicyclist crushed by shipping container
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
