--- description: Tarantino was called out by police unions after attending an anti-police brutality rally. title: Quentin Tarantino to Cops: Stop Shielding Your Own image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69450376ff300b57/69886f77cf40a8c5b5c407bb/gettyimages-494107800.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [celebrities](/tag/celebrities/) ## celebrities Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Quentin Tarantino to Cops: Stop Shielding Your Own by [Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 7, 2015 6:13 PM CUT  Director Quentin Tarantino attends a march to denounce police brutality in Washington Square Park October 24, 2015 in New York City. (Kena Betancur--Getty Images) Director Quentin Tarantino attends a march to denounce police brutality in Washington Square Park October 24, 2015 in New York City. (Kena Betancur--Getty Images)Kena Betancur—Getty Images by [Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 7, 2015 6:13 PM CUT As police unions around the country continue to call out Quentin Tarantino, the director himself is hitting back. [Following an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/04/quentin-tarantino-chris-hayes "undefined"), Tarantino appeared on Friday’s episode of _Real Time with Bill Maher_, and told host Bill Maher that police officials are taking the focus away from the issue of police brutality by focusing on him. “If they were saying what I said and they had a problem with that, well then now we’re actually talking about the problem,” Tarantino said. “But they’re not dealing in a fair issue. They’re saying I’m a cop-hater, which is slander, because I didn’t say that. And they’re implying that I meant all cops are murderers. The thing that’s sad about it is that we actually do need to talk to the cops about this. We need to get to the problem. We need to bring this to the table.” Last month, Tarantino appeared at a rally against police brutality in New York, and said, “I’m a human being with a conscience. And when I see murder I cannot stand by. And I have to call the murdered the murdered and I have to call the murderers the murderers.” Those comments were slammed by police unions around the country, who have pushed for a boycott of Tarantino’s next film, _The Hateful Eight_. New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Patrick J. Lynch called Tarantino a “cop-hater,” while Fraternal Order of Police executive director Jim Pasco said his group, [the largest organization of police officers in the world](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/06/fraternal-order-police-quentin-tarantino-surprise "undefined"), had a “surprise” planned for Tarantino. Speaking about the police response on Friday, Tarantino likened it to a “hydra.” “It’s a snake with many heads,” Tarantino said. “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. I don’t think it’s an issue of individuals, good cops versus bad cops, I think it’s inside the institution itself. If they were really serious about this, they wouldn’t close rank on what I’m obviously talking about on this, which is bad cops. I’m obviously talking about specific cases, where it is murder, as far as I’m concerned.” _The Hateful Eight_ is out on Christmas Day. Watch Tarantino discuss his comments with Maher below. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/07/quentin-tarantino-bill-maher "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://ew.com "undefined")_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4103868/quentin-tarantino-police-brutality-cops/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4103868/quentin-tarantino-police-brutality-cops/"},"headline":"Quentin Tarantino to Cops: Stop Shielding Your Own","datePublished":"2015-11-07T18:13:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:25:54.137Z","description":"He says police are trying to \"slander\" him","url":"https://time.com/4103868/quentin-tarantino-police-brutality-cops/","keywords":["celebrities","politics","movies","quentin tarantino","Police Brutality","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69450376ff300b57/69886f77cf40a8c5b5c407bb/gettyimages-494107800.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69450376ff300b57/69886f77cf40a8c5b5c407bb/gettyimages-494107800.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Activists Demonstrate Against Police Brutality","caption":"Activists Demonstrate Against Police Brutality","creditText":"Kena Betancur—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4103868/quentin-tarantino-police-brutality-cops/","name":"Quentin Tarantino to Cops: Stop Shielding Your Own"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: Police Groups Boycott Tarantino Films","description":"LA and Philly police groups joined their NY counterpart in boycotting Quentin Tarantino films","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Ht1WCnld/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-10-30T16:54:59.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Ht1WCnld.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4103868/quentin-tarantino-police-brutality-cops/","duration":"PT1M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4103868/quentin-tarantino-police-brutality-cops/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```