Director Quentin Tarantino joined hundreds of demonstrators in a a march against police brutality on Saturday in Washington Square Park in New York.
Dubbed “Rise Up October,” the rally reportedly drew roughly 300 protesters, who waved signs reading “Rise Up! Stop Police Terror!” and “Which side are you on?”
Tarantino addressed the crowd as he held up an enlarged photograph of Justin Smith, a man who was killed by police in 1999, according to the New York Post.
“When I see murders, I do not stand by,” Tarantino told the demonstrators. “I have to call a murder a murder and I have to call the murderers the murderers.”
The rally came just four days after NYPD officer Randolph Holder was shot in the head while chasing an armed suspect in East Harlem. Tarantino, who reportedly flew in from California for the event, called the timing of the rally “unfortunate.”
“It’s like this: it’s unfortunate timing, but we’ve flown in all these families to go and tell their stories,” the Oscar-winning Pulp Fiction director told the Post. “That cop that was killed, that’s a tragedy, too.”
Police reportedly arrested 11 protesters, mostly for minor violations like obstructing traffic and disorderly conduct. The Post reports that one person was charged with resisting arrest.
According to the Associated Press, Saturday’s march was the last of three events organized by RiseUpOctober, which was founded by activists Carl Dix and Cornel West. When Dix was asked about the timing of the rally just days after the murder of an NYPD officer, he told he AP: “That’s not what this is about. This is about all the people who are murdered by the police.”
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