Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino's commentary during an anti-police brutality demonstration in New York last weekend has riled up law enforcement groups across the country.
And now they're banding together for a common cause: calling for a boycott of his work.
Tarantino flew in from California to join hundreds who marched in Manhattan as part of the "Rise Up October to Stop Police Terror" movement. The three-day rally came on the heels of the Oct. 20 shooting of NYPD Officer Randolph Holder, who was killed while pursuing a suspect in an East Harlem neighborhood.
"I'm a human being with a conscience," Tarantino said Saturday, according to The Associated Press. "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."
Tarantino's implication that the officers are the murderers struck a nerve with police agencies. Patrick Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association of the City of New York, was first to condemn the "Pulp Fiction" filmmaker's comments as "Cop Fiction."
"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" Lynch said in a statement.
He also called Tarantino a "purveyor of degeneracy" through his ultra-violent films, and said "it's time" to boycott his movies.
Tarantino's latest flick, the blood-splattered Western "The Hateful Eight," is expected to be released on Christmas Day.
The PBA is the largest police union in New York City, with about 50,000 active and retired officer members.
The group released another statement Friday from Tarantino's father, Tony Tarantino, who said his son's remarks were "dead wrong," according to NBC New York.
"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," the elder Tarantino said. "I believe that is what happened when he joined in those anti-cop protests."
The younger Tarantino has said in past interviews that he's estranged from his father, who is also an actor, and that his dad has only been trying to capitalize on his success.
Police organizations in Los Angeles, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Houston have added to the PBA-led backlash against Tarantino.
The Virginia-based National Association of Police Organizations said in a statement Thursday that Tarantino's language was "utterly irresponsible, particularly at a time when the nation is seeing increasing and persistent calls for the killing of officers."
The group also asked officers not to take special assignments or off-duty jobs that are linked to Tarantino projects.
Tarantino has not publicly commented about the police groups' pledge to boycott.
