NYPD Union Calls For New Yorkers to Boycott Quentin Tarantino’s Films (VIDEO)

The president of a union representing New York City police officers has called for a boycott on Quentin Tarantino’s films followings remarks the director made Saturday at a rally against police brutality.

The Oscar-winning director flew in from California to join the protesters who marched along the city’s streets in support of those who have been killed by police across the US, as part of the three-day Rise Up October action. He addressed the large crowd in a speech, accompanied by imagery including that of Justin Smith, who died in police custody in 1999 after spitting on police officers.

“I’m a human being with a conscience,” said Tarantino to his fellow protesters, according to the New York Post. “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. When I see murders, I do not stand by … I have to call a murder a murder and I have to call the murderers the murderers.”

In a statement Sunday, Patrick Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, denounced Tarantino. “It’s no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too, he said. “The police officers that Quentin Tarantino calls ‘murderers’ aren’t living in one of his depraved big screen fantasies—they’re risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect communities from real crime and mayhem.”

“New Yorkers need to send a message to this purveyor of degeneracy that he has no business coming to our city to peddle his slanderous ‘Cop Fiction,’” he added. “It’s time for a boycott of Quentin Tarantino’s films.”

This video from Democracy Now has footage of Tarantino’s speech on Saturday’s rally, where he shared a stage with academic Cornel West and other activists.

—Posted by Roisin Davis

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