LAPD Union Joins Quentin Tarantino Boycott
The Los Angeles Police Department patrolmen’s union has joined the boycott of Quentin Tarantino‘s films after the filmmaker spoke at a rally against police brutality in New York City. Los Angeles Police Protective League president Craig Lally voiced his union’s support of the boycott initiated by the New York Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association after the filmmaker’s remarks slamming “murdering cops.”
“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 (via Variety). “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. He made this statement just four days after a New York police officer was gunned down in the line of duty.”
Bill O’Reilly similarly blasted the filmmaker Monday, accusing Tarantino of “spreading big lies.” “This Tarantino character. I think he destroyed his career, because anyone who’s hearing that is going to go, ‘You know what, maybe I’m not gonna see his movies,'” The O’Reilly Factor host said.
Following Tarantino’s speech at the RiseUpOctober event – which came four days after NYPD officer Randolph Holder was shot and killed in pursuit of a suspect in East Harlem – Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch called the director a “purveyor of degeneracy” and called for a boycott of Tarantino’s films; The Hateful Eight arrives Christmas day.
“We fully support this boycott of Quentin Tarantino films,” Lally added. “Hateful rhetoric dehumanizes police and encourages attacks on us. And questioning everything we do threatens public safety by discouraging officers from putting themselves in positions where their legitimate actions could be falsely portrayed as thuggery.”