NYPD Commissioner Bratton Slams Director Quentin Tarantino For Anti-Police Comments
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is slamming director Quentin Tarantino for making anti-police comments as the city mourned the loss of a NYPD officer killed in the line of duty last week.
"Shame on him, particularly at this time when we are grieving the murder of a New York City police officer," Bratton said Monday during an interview with John Gambling on WNYM-970 AM. "There are no words to describe the contempt I have for him and his comments."
On Saturday, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker joined hundreds of demonstrators at Washington Square Park before marching about 2 miles along Sixth Avenue to protest police brutality nationwide.
"I'm a human being with a conscience,'' said Tarantino, who flew in from California for the event. "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.''
The director's comments also drew the ire of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch, who called for a boycott of Tarantino films.
"It's no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too," Lynch said in a statement. "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.'"
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.
But the protest also was days after 33-year-old NYPD Officer Randolph Holder was shot to death while chasing a fleeing suspect in East Harlem.
The event was the last of three demonstrations the group RiseUpOctober organized in New York last week. Speakers at the protest said they want to bring justice for people killed by police.
Activist Carl Dix, who helped found RiseUpOctober with with academic and activist Cornel West, said that while he sympathized with Holder's family the officer's death did not affect the need to hold Saturday's rally as scheduled.
"That's not what this is about,'' Dix said. "This is about all the people who are murdered by the police.''
While police were present all along the protest route, the day was peaceful. No arrests were reported.
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