Last weekend Quentin Tarantino joined a march against police brutality in Manhattan. After the march he spoke openly about police brutality, saying his conscience demanded he show solidarity with protestors. Tarantino's remarks prompted the NYPD to call for a boycott of his films, but they're also causing some old-fashioned family drama (Tarantino has family in the NYPD), Newsweek reports.
During the march, Tarantino very publicly took issue with the police. "If you believe there's murder going on then you need to rise up and stand against it," he said. "I'm here to say I'm on the side of the murdered. This is not being dealt with in any way at all. That's why we're out here. If it was being dealt with, then these murdering cops would be in jail or at least facing charges."
His father, Tony Tarantino, heard about his son's remarks and is, ahem, displeased. On Friday the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA) released a statement from Tony Tarantino saying he loves his son, but he respectfully disagrees.
I love my son and have great respect for him as an artist, but he is dead wrong in calling police officers, particularly in New York City where I grew up, murderers. 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...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. 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.
PBA president Patrick J. Lynch praised the elder Tarantino for speaking out against his son, saying "It's not easy criticizing someone you care about, but his son...has insulted the very people who protect his freedom of speech and who protect the making of his films." We have to wonder: What does Quentin Tarantino's mother think about all this? Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the Tarantino household this holiday season.
