The weekend we talked about Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino’s ill considered decision to march in protest of police and call them “murderers” in public comments. It turns out I wasn’t the only one who noticed and now the NYPD officer’s union has decided that the new Hollywood face of the Black Lives Matter movement is in need of a little free speech of his own. (Fox News)

The head of the New York Police Department’s union has called for a boycott of Quentin Tarantino’s films after the director took part in an anti-police protest Saturday, four days after one of New York’s Finest was murdered by a suspect he was pursuing…

“It’s no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too,” Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, said Sunday in response to Tarantino. “The police officers that Quentin Tarantino calls ‘murderers’ aren’t living in one of his depraved big-screen fantasies — they’re risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect communities from real crime and mayhem.”

Yeesh. Even I didn’t go that hard on the guy. But it’s not surprising that tempers are pitched just as they are burying one of their own, gunned down by yet another street criminal. Tarantino has a new film coming out next year so we’ll see if his box office numbers reflect public reaction to his anti-cop rhetoric.

In the meantime, however, there are at least a few signs of hope that the public is becoming better educated on the subject. I have to give a rare tip of the hat to the Washington Post for their recent study on the number of police being killed. They also spend a fair amount of ink acknowledging some numbers which never see the light of day on cable news shows. You’re always told the latest “body count” of how many people are killed during encounters with the police, but you rarely hear about the vast majority which are completely justified. They begin with the story of how Trooper Trevor Casper was killed by Steven Snyder while trying to arrest him on bank robbery and murder charges. Then they get to the little discussed reality of such shootings. (WaPo)

Snyder’s killing, as documented in interviews and police reports, is among the 800 fatal shootings by police so far this year. As the tally continues to grow, so does public debate and criticism over police use of deadly force.

But only a small number of the shootings — roughly 5 percent — occurred under the kind of circumstances that raise doubt and draw public outcry, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. The vast majority of individuals shot and killed by police officers were, like Snyder, armed with guns and killed after attacking police officers or civilians or making other direct threats.

They’ve collected plenty of good data in this study and, to their credit, they report it honestly. Their numbers match those from the Justice Department and the FBI, as well as the Fraternal Order of Police. In 74% of all police shootings, the suspect had already fired a gun or brandished a weapon at the cops or at bystanders. Another 16% involved suspects threatening with other weapons such as knives who refused to drop them. Of the roughly 800 fatal shootings by police, only about forty of them were even questionable, and many of those were just unfortunate accidents rather than “murderous” police hunting down innocent citizens for their own enjoyment, as Tarantino would have you believe.

Two thumbs down for Quentin Tarantino, but props to the Washington Post for publishing that study. The more the truth is put out there the less of this anti-cop rhetoric we should have to put up with.