Late-night HBO talk show host Bill Maher spoke with Quentin Tarantino on Friday, defending statements the Hollywood director recently made about police brutality.
Mr. Tarantino has become the subject of harsh criticism from police organizations after telling demonstrators at a New York City protest against police brutality last month, “When I see murders, I do not stand by. I have to call a murder a murder, and I have to call the murderers the murderers.”
Mr. Maher defended Mr. Tarantino on his show, “Real Time,” by saying, “You have to call murder murder, even if it’s from the cops,” Mediaite reported.
Mr. Tarantino called it “slander” for police unions to accuse him of being a cop hater, saying he never claimed all police were murderers.
“The thing that’s really sad about it is we actually do need to talk to the cops about this,” Mr. Tarantino said, Mediaite reported. “We need to get to the problem. We need to bring this to the table.”
Mr. Maher applauded Mr. Tarantino for speaking out before showing a disturbing video of a police officer who tasered a man and then shot him twice while he was on the ground.
“There was no reason to shoot this person,” Mr. Maher said. “We’re not saying all cops are murderers, of course not, but this one is. This is murder.”
Mr. Tarantino said police brutality was not as common years ago and that people wouldn’t expect an officer to react to a punch with a gunshot.
Mr. Maher said police need to do a better job weeding out troublesome personality types during the hiring process and need to be “more loyal to right than to cops.”
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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