Quentin Tarantino Defends Anti-Police Rally Comments

Following police forces across the country announcing their intention to boycott Quentin Tarantino‘s films, the director is speaking out about his involvement in a New York anti-police rally. The director joined 300 protestors who took to the streets on Oct. 24 seeking to call attention to the recent dramatic increase in fatal police shootings.

Quentin Tarantino Defends Anti-Police Rally Comments

“I’m a human being with a conscience,” Tarantino said at the rally. “And when I see murder I cannot stand by. And I have to call the murdered the murdered and I have to call the murderers the murderers.”

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, he wanted to clarify his position in the wake of an onslaught of criticism following the comments. “All cops are not murderers,” Tarantino said in his first public response since news of the boycott emerged. “I never said that. I never even implied that.”

“What they’re doing is pretty obvious,” he said of those behind the boycott. “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. And their message is very clear. It’s to shut me down. It’s to discredit me. It is to intimidate me. It is to shut my mouth, and even more important than that, it is to send a message out to any other prominent person that might feel the need to join that side of the argument.”

“Mr. Tarantino lives in a fantasy world. That’s how he makes his living,” LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said of the director on Tuesday. “His movies are extremely violent, but he doesn’t understand violence.… Unfortunately, he mistakes lawful use of force for murder, and it’s not.”