BY Dana Difilippo
Philadelphia Daily News
PHILADELPHIA — Police union leaders jumped on the boycott bandwagon of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, a few days after the New York and Los Angeles police unions announced a similar boycott, because Tarantino attended a rally against police brutality last weekend.
“Mr. Tarantino has made a good living through his films, projecting into society at large violence and respect for criminals; he, it turns out, also hates cops,” read a statement from Philly’s Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, which represents about 6,500 officers.
The FOP’s board of directors met Tuesday and voted unanimously to boycott the screenwriter and director of popular but violent movies “Pulp Fiction,” “Kill Bill,” “Reservoir Dogs” and “Inglourious Basterds.”
“Tarantino has shown through his actions that he is anti-police,” the Philly union said in its statement.
Meanwhile, the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association yesterday also announced a boycott of Tarantino’s movies. The union has more than 30,000 members.
“It is hard not to see the anti-police rhetoric that has been stirred up in the nation over the past year,” said NJSPBA president Pat Colligan. “We don’t know if this irresponsible speech led directly to the recent murder of officers around the nation, but Mr. Tarantino should be mindful of the potential dangers that can result from the dangerous rhetoric once it is ingrained in the mind of a person who is willing to harm an officer.
“Quentin Tarantino needs to understand that as a public figure his voice is one that people listen to. He has an obligation to be more responsible. This is not a movie, this is real life where police officers’ lives are impacted by his words.”
During the rally against police brutality Saturday in New York’s Washington Square Park, according to the New York Post, Tarantino said, “When I see murders, I do not stand by . . . I have to call the murderers the murderers.” He added that cops are too often “murderers.”
The rally came less than a week after NYPD Officer Randolph Holder was killed in East Harlem.
NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch and Los Angeles Police Protective League President Craig Lally earlier this week demanded a boycott.
Tarantino’s latest movie, “The Hateful Eight,” is due out Christmas Day.
His agent, Mike Simpson, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Tarantino is no stranger to controversy: Critics have called him racially insensitive for his characters’ frequent racial slurs and have decried the intense, graphic violence in his movies.
Copyright 2015 the Philadelphia Daily News