Director Quentin Tarantino has recently been involved in controversy after he made remarks about police violence at a New York rally on Oct. 24. According to the Associated Press, Tarantino claimed to regard some police shootings as murder, saying “I’m a human being with a conscience. I’m here to say I’m on the side of the murdered.”

After these remarks, the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) organized a boycott of Tarantino’s upcoming film “The Hateful Eight” NAPO’s boycott gathered the support of police organizations in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and elsewhere.  

The organization’s offense was heightened by the timing of Tarantino’s remarks which came shortly after the death of Randolph Holder, a New York officer who was shot to death following a chase in East Harlem.

NAPO, which represents more than 240,000 law officers posted their objection to Tarantino’s “anti-police rhetoric” on their website and asked all supporters to boycott the director’s films and refuse to provide services for any of his future projects.

In response to these accusations, Tarantino told the Los Angeles Times that “all cops are not murderers. I never said that. I never even implied that.”

Tarantino continued by calling out his critics for using him as a smokescreen to mask the more serious issue of police brutality, saying, “Their message is very clear. It’s to shut me down. It’s to discredit me. It is to shut my mouth.”

Recently, political commentator Bill Maher as well as actor Viggo Mortensen have come out in defense of Tarantino’s comments. According to Business Insider, filmmaker Michael Moore has also backed Tarantino and he wonders why more people in Hollywood haven’t rushed to the director’s defense.

It will be interesting to see how this controversy continues to unfold and whether more prominent figures will follow in Tarantino’s footsteps and speak out against unnecessary police violence.

The verdict is also still out as to whether this controversy will affect Tarantino’s newest film “The Hateful Eight,” which arrives in theaters Christmas Day.