In his first public response to controversy over remarks he made about police abuse, Quentin Tarantino has told the Los Angeles Times that his words have been misrepresented to "demonize" him.
"All cops are not murderers," Tarantino told the LA Times. "I never said that. I never even implied that."
The "Django Unchained" director was widely expected to apologize for comments he made at a rally against police brutality last week in New York City. At the rally, the New York Post reported that Tarantino told the crowd that "[w]hen 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."
Instead, Tarantino has defended his remarks and says that "mouthpieces" of the police are misconstruing him as a cop-hater.
"What they’re doing is pretty obvious," he said. "Instead of dealing with the incidents of police brutality that those people were bringing up, instead of examining the problem of police brutality in this country, better they single me out. And their message is very clear. It’s to shut me down. It’s to discredit me. It is to intimidate me. It is to shut my mouth, and even more important than that, it is to send a message out to any other prominent person that might feel the need to join that side of the argument."
Several police groups across the country had called for boycotts of Tarantino's upcoming film "The Hateful Eight" (out December 25) because of his comments.
Tarantino will appear on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" this Friday.
SEE ALSO: Jamie Foxx defends Quentin Tarantino's controversial police comments
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