Last October, "Django Unchained" director Quentin Tarantino participated in rally police brutality and made comments that led to the police calling for a boycott of his films. Finally, the director broke his silence about the issue.
According to ew.com [Entertainment Weekly], Tarantino said that he's not intimidated with the police's threat of boycotting his film. He said "Frankly, it feels lousy to have a bunch of police mouthpieces call me a cop hater. I'm not a cop hater. That is a misrepresentation. That is slanderous. That is not how I feel. But you know, that's their choice to do that to me. What can I do? I'm not taking back what I said. What I said was the truth."
All of the ruckus started when Tarantino made a remakrs about the death of civilians due to police brutality like the deaths of Tamir Rice and Eric Garner. He said that he will not "stand by" if he saw that it's murder. "I have to call a murder a murder and I have to call the murderers the murderers," he said. Different police organization and departments encouraged its members and the public to stop seeing the director's film. The pressure even rose when Tarantino's own father condemned his statements.
Despite of all the pressure and demands for an apology, Tarantino stood by his statements. He said "All cops are not murderers. I never said that. I never even implied that. What they're doing is pretty obvious. 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."
In a report by usatoday.com, not all are against Tarantino's statements during the rally. The Rise Up October Group, the organization that organized the rally, have already expressed their support to the director. Also, families of the killed civilians due to police brutality stood by Tarantino's remarks. Alicia Kirkman, mother of a 17- year old boy who got killed by a police officer last March 2007, said "Even though he is a famous person, he is on the front lines with us, saying he won't put up with murder by police either....It's not like he's too famous and can't be touched - no, he walked together with us and we feel good about it. More celebrities need to support us like he did."
What are your thoughts? Do you agree with Quentin Tarantino's statements? Why? Share it in the comments!
