Last week, Quentin Tarantino fell under controversy after attending a “Rise Up October to Stop Police Terror” rally in New York. Speaking at the rally, Tarantino said to the crowd, “I’m a human being with a conscience 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 next day, the NYPD called for a boycott of Tarantino’s films.
In the last week, several police departments across the nation have joined the NYPD in its boycott of Tarantino’s work and many county lieutenants and chiefs have weighed in on the issue. Their tone can be summed up rather holistically in a statement made by the National Association of Police Organizations last Friday. “As a high-profile figure, Tarantino’s language is utterly irresponsible, particularly at a time when the nation is seeing increasing and persistent calls for the killing of officers,” the statement read. “Anti-police rhetoric like Tarantino’s threatens the safety of police and citizens alike.”
Now I want to be clear. I’m not trying to make any claims about the validity of Tarantino or the Rise Up October rally’s message. On the other hand, I acknowledge that, unfortunately, police violence does occur throughout the nation and that it is a highly controversial, tense, and touchy subject that citizens, both informed and misinformed. But I find it odd that police departments have taken such a stand against Tarantino. Has he said anything more harmful than many protesters that discuss police brutality? Why is it that he deserves such reproach from them?
A NYPD officer was shot to death four days prior to the rally, which accounts marginally for the NYPD’s disgusts at Tarantino’s remarks made at the rally. The NYPD felt that Tarantino’s remarks and, generally, the rally itself were insensitively timed considering the police officer’s death a few days prior. Tarantino acknowledged this point at the rally, saying to a New York Post reporter, “It’s unfortunate timing, but we’ve flown in all these families to go and tell their stories … That cop that was killed, that’s a tragedy, too.”
Tarantino’s tone may sound a bit dismissive of the tragedy, but I think he was wrapped up in the cause he wanted to highlight that day or that, as he mentioned, the Rise Up October organization had put a lot of work into flying victims’ families to New York to speak at the event. Tarantino himself was probably disinterested in and annoyed at the publicity that he received during the rally and most likely wanted to get the media’s attention off of himself as quickly as possible. This is also Tarantino’s normal tone. He’s a quirky guy with a quirky voice. He doesn’t always sound the most profound or accessible on paper.
I sat around this weekend and Monday evening waiting for Tarantino to put out a statement. Fox News, alongside other news outlets, reported that Harvey Weinstein, Tarantino’s longtime producer, had asked Tarantino to issue an apology. I had really hoped that Tarantino wouldn’t. Like I said earlier, I don’t want to speak on the validity of Rise Up October’s message, but I trust in Tarantino to rationally approach any cause he would join ranks with. I’ve been a long time fan of his. I’ve watched inconceivable hours worth of interviews with him and I think the man’s a genius. I feel, at the least, Tarantino would’ve put a lot of thought into participating in that rally and saying what he said before doing either and I trust he felt that he was doing justice to a noble cause.
At last, Tarantino spoke with the Los Angeles Times Tuesday afternoon.
“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,” Tarantino said. “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.”
And I couldn’t agree more. The police departments’ boycott of Tarantino’s film is a waste of effort and a diversion from a discussion that a large portion of the nation wants to have with police departments and the rest of the country. Specifically, the NYPD is trying to pass Tarantino off as an uniformed rioter with a microphone. They look at his notably violent films as a discredit to his attendance at this rally and as a basis for him to be passed off as an illegitimate voice in a necessary and demanded conversation throughout the country. The man is not his art and his art does not condemn him to be the vehicle the nation’s police departments can funnel their anger through.
Featured Image By The Los Angeles Times
