Quentin Tarantino's father says his son is "dead wrong" in calling police officers "murderers," referencing his son's comments while attending a police brutality march in Manhattan last weekend.
"I'm a human being with a conscience," the Academy Award-winning filmmaker, who flew in from California for the event, said at the protest Saturday. "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."
On Friday, the NYPD's largest union, the Police Benevolent Association, released a statement from Tony Tarantino that suggested his son's comments were driven by blind passion.
"He is a passionate man and that comes out in his art but sometimes he lets his passion blind him to the facts and to reality," Tony Tarantino said. "I believe that is what happened when he joined in those anti-cop protests.”
"I wish he would take a hard, dispassionate look at the facts before jumping to conclusions and making these kinds of hurtful mistakes that dishonor an honorable profession," Tony Tarantino added. "We have many friends and relatives who have served honorably in the NYPD and the LAPD and clearly, they risk their lives to keep the rest of us safe. Cops are not murderers, they are heroes."
Quentin Tarantino's comments prompted immediate backlash from the Police Benevolent Association, the president of which called for a boycott of his movies and called him a "purveyor of degeneracy."
"It's no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too," Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said earlier this week.
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The event was the last of three demonstrations the group RiseUpOctober organized in New York this week. Speakers at the protest said they want to bring justice for people killed by police.
The protest came at a time of heightened awareness nationwide of the oft-contentious relationship between police officers and the people they serve. New York's mayor and police commissioner have said they're serious about enacting smart reforms to build trust between police and communities.
The protest also was days after NYPD officer Randolph Holder was shot to death while chasing a bicycle thief after a report of a gunfight in East Harlem.
