Oscar-winning film-maker blasts ‘cover-ups that are about protecting the force as opposed to the citizens’ after US justice department launches probe into the 2014 death of black teenager Laquan McDonald

Quentin Tarantino has accused Chicago law enforcement of “institutional racism” in the Oscar-winning film-maker’s latest diatribe against alleged US police brutality.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly ahead of the release of his new western The Hateful Eight on Christmas Day in North America, Tarantino once again reiterated that he would continue to call out “extreme acts of abuse”, despite the criticism and threats of a boycott he has received from police unions.

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The US justice department launched a review of Chicago police department practices on 7 December after authorities released dashcam footage of the 2014 death of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager shot by a Chicago officer. The head of the city police department, Garry McCarthy, was fired after the video was released, and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel was forced to apologise for police misconduct amid calls for his resignation.

Tarantino cited the Chicago scandal as evidence to back his claims, made at a New York anti-violence protest on 24 October, that some police officers were guilty of “murder”.

“I stand by it,” the film-maker told Entertainment Weekly of his earlier claim. “[Though] I was completely misrepresented from what I said. I didn’t say all cops were murderers, or every single police shooting was a murder. We were talking about very specific instances.”

Tarantino said he “completely and utterly” rejected the “bad apples” argument relating to alleged police violence.

“Chicago just got caught with their pants down in a way that can’t be denied,” said the film-maker, who has won two best screenwriting Oscars for 1994’s Pulp Fiction and 2012’s Django Unchained. “But I completely and utterly reject the “few bad apples” argument. Yeah, the guy who shot [Laquan McDonald] is a bad apple. But so are the other eight or nine cops that were there that said nothing, did nothing, let a lie stand for an entire year.

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“And the chief of police, is he a bad apple? I think he is. Is [Chicago Mayor] Rahm Emanuel a bad apple? I think he is. They’re all bad apples. That just shows that that’s a bullshit argument. It’s about institutional racism. It’s about institutional cover-ups that are about protecting the force as opposed to the citizens.”

Tarantino’s initial comments drew fierce criticism from police unions and their supporters in the media, with calls for a boycott of the Pulp Fiction director’s films from the five largest law enforcement representative groups in the US. However, recent premieres of The Hateful Eight in Los Angeles and New York have passed without incident or, indeed, any sign of protest whatsoever.

Tarantino’s new film may yet suffer at the box office for entirely different reasons, however. Variety reports that The Hateful Eight is among a trio of Oscar-tipped movies – harrowing Leonardo DiCaprio frontier tale The Revenant and Rocky spin-off Creed are the others – which have leaked online before their US theatrical debuts after studios posted screener DVDs to awards season voters.

