Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is facing backlash over his comments at a police-brutality protest over the weekend. New York City’s police union is calling on New Yorkers to boycott the Academy Award-winning director’s movies, the New York Daily News reports.
“It’s no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too,” Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said Sunday, according to the Daily News.
The Associated Press reports that Tarantino flew to New York from California to attend the last of three demonstrations on Saturday, organized by the group #RiseUpOctober. He marched with Cornel West and hundreds of other protesters through Manhattan. Some of the demonstrators, walking past police lines, demanded justice as they shouted the names and stories of mostly young black men who were victims of police brutality.
“I’m a human being with a conscience. 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,” Tarantino told the protesters, according to AP.
The event came as the New York City Police Department and the city mourned the death of an officer whom many hail as a hero. Just days earlier, Officer Randolph Holder was fatally shot in the head while chasing a suspect.
An outraged Lynch said that cops are “risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect communities from real crime and mayhem.” He urged New Yorkers to “send a message” to Tarantino.
Read more at the New York Daily News and ABC 7.