Director Quentin Tarantino stated, “I actually don’t think it’s an issue of individuals, good cops versus bad cops. I think it’s inside of the institution itself” while discussing problems with policing on Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time.”
Tarantino said that his critics are misrepresenting his remarks, stating, “they’re saying that I am a cop hater, which is slander, because I didn’t say that. And they’re saying — they’re implying that I meant that all cops are murderers and I wasn’t.”
Tarantino later said that “of course” all police officers are not murderers, and criticized the actions of officer Lisa Mearkle in the shooting of David Kassick.
He added, “back in the 1970’s or something, if you got into an altercation with a cop, and I’m not encouraging any kind of altercation with cops, obviously not, you could get killed doing that, and we — it’s not about that. But just use it as a crazy example, say you got into a scuffle with a cop and you ended up punching them, all right? In today’s world you would just be shot for that, I mean, absolutely shot. If you grabbed their baton, you’d be shot. You would actually be shot for that. Now, when we were kids in the 70’s and we watched ‘Adam-12,’ they got into fights all the time and they didn’t just take out the guns and shoot people. When you watched ‘The Rookies,’ they got into fights all the time. But if they just actually took out a gun and shot the hippie, we would have said, ‘Whoa, what’s going on?’ Alright? But now, it actually has become the new norm.”
After Maher brought up codes of silence among police, Tarantino argued, “I actually think you’re hitting right on exactly what the problem is. I mean this is a — it’s a hydra, it’s a snake with many heads, but I actually think the biggest head that needs to be chopped off first is this blue wall idea, the fact that they would protect their own as opposed to put themselves at the betterment of citizenry. And, I mean, if it is just — I actually don’t think it’s an issue of individuals, good cops versus bad cops. I think it’s inside of the institution itself. And if they were really really serious about this, they wouldn’t close rank on what I’m obviously talking about, which is bad cops, and I’m obviously talking about specific cases, where it is murder, as far as I’m concerned. Walter Scott was murdered.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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