The nation's two largest police departments call for a boycott of all Quentin Tarantino movies because he protests excessive force and murder by cops.

October 31, 2015

If you hold law enforcement accountable for using excessive and often lethal force, you are automatically labeled 'anti-cop' and it is assumed that you encourage revenge attacks against the police. This is especially true for those in the public eye, who express sympathy for families who have suffered tragedy at the hand of some overzealous, violent law enforcement officers (LEOs). This time, the police departments in New York, Los Angeles and also Philadelphia have encouraged a boycott of Quentin Tarantino films of any sort for his participation in an anti-police protest (October 24) , four days after one of New York's Finest was murdered by a suspect he was pursuing.

From the perspective of those protesting, there have been far too many cases of brutality, where minorities have suffered disproportionately at the hand of LEOs.

"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 group gathered in Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood at Washington Square Park before marching about 2 miles along Sixth Avenue. The protesters walked past lines of police officers who had cordoned off a lane of traffic for them. As they moved, those with megaphones shouted stories of the slain as others waved signs with photos of the dead, mostly young black men, and the dates and places of their deaths.

The event was the last of three demonstrations the group RiseUpOctober organized in New York this week. Speakers at the protest said they want to bring justice for people killed by police.

Fox and Friends' Brian Kilmeade was joined by Craig Lally, the president of the Los Angeles Police Protective Leage (LAPPL) to address the outrage towards a Hollywood Director, by the LAPD who believes that Tarantino

'encourages attacks on cops and they are not going to stand for it anymore.'

Lally told Fox 411,

"Film director Quentin Tarantino took irresponsibility to a new and completely unacceptable level this past weekend by referring to police as murderers during an anti-police march in New York. He made this statement just four days after a New York police officer was gunned down in the line of duty."

Brian Kilmeade asked Lally why it matters if someone like Tarantino spoke out against 'murderers' in law enforcement. Lally stammered,

"Well, uh, I think it does, and I'll tell ya why. You know what he, uh, he marched in a parade that was surrounded, uh, in a march of, that was surrounded by New York City police officers, and at the end when he turns around and he shouts at them that 'you're murderers,' uh, basically, uh, he has the right to do that, but the only reason he's got the right to do that was because the officers at that scene, even though in mourning, showed up to work that day, protected his First Amendment rights and that's the only way it could happen, nowhere in America could that happen."

I guess he meant nowhere on earth could that happen, except in countries that do permit public protests, like dozens of European nations, whose police are far less militarized. Kilmeade encourages Lally to say that he's never seen it worse than it is today.

When police officers lose their lives in the line of duty, it is always tragic. But contrary to their cries of 'open season' on law enforcement, this year has been no more deadly than others.

But the raw numbers -- at least, in terms of officers being gunned down -- tell a different story.

Nationally, police shooting deaths are down 16% this year, compared with the same period last year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. There have been 26 firearms-related deaths this year, including two in training accidents, and 31 in 2014. Traffic accidents -- followed by shootings -- are the leading cause of police deaths.

Here's the bottom line: if one police officer is killed in the line of duty at around the same time as demonstrations against police brutality and murders, it is falsely assumed that said protest is directly responsible for the demise of that LEO. Members of the law enforcement community are utilizing reactionary techniques to falsely link peaceful protests to violence against police officers. As expected, their misdirected paranoia is shared by most of the right-wing media, and Fox 'News' is happy to lead the brigade against those damned (famous) liberals who demand accountability from the police.

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