Quentin Tarantino Continues to Piss Off Cops, Believes We 'Should Be Able to Talk About Abuses of Power’

Quentin Tarantino responds to the police's anger.

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Complex Original

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With Christmas just around the corner, Quentin Tarantino and the Weinstein Company are preparing to release the auteur's latest project, The Hateful Eight. At a recent press conference for the film, which looks at a group of characters in a post-Civil War landscape, Tarantino drew comparisons to our own political climate, particularly highlighting the racially-charged violence that continues to plague our country today. It's not the first time he's been vocal about today's injustices.

Back in October, Tarantino provoked police officers all across the country when he attended the Rise Up rally in New York. The rally was meant to bring attention to the deaths of Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice—all who were killed by police officers. At the event Tarantino said, "I'm a human being with a conscience, and when I see murder I cannot stand by. I have to call the murdered the murdered and I have to call the murderers the murderers." 

His statement aroused the anger of the Fraternal Order of Police (a real name), whose executive director Jim Paso told the Hollywood Reporter, "Something could happen anytime between now and [the premiere]. And a lot of it is going to be driven by Tarantino, who is nothing if not predictable." 

At the conference for The Hateful Eight on Saturday, Tarantino claimed he was unfazed by the threat, admitting he was surprised that a civil servant would make such threats against anyone. He also went on to speak about his respect for the police in his own Los Angeles neighborhood, but also asserting that, "You're not going to have the police force representing the black and brown community if they've spent the last 30 years busting every son and daughter and father and mother for every piddling drug offensive that they've ever done, thus creating mistrust in the community."

Considering that his films have long been deemed controversial, it's not too surprising how Tarantino feels about speaking up.

"You should be able to talk about abuses of power. You should be able to talk about police brutality and what, in some cases as far as I'm concerned, is outright murder and outright loss of justice, without the police organization targeting you in the way that they have done me." 

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