Actor Denzel Washington made clear his support for America’s law enforcement officers, saying he doesn’t “care for people” who put them down.
“I have the utmost respect for what they do, for what our soldiers do, [people] that sacrifice their lives,” Washington said. “I just don’t care for people who put those kind of people down. If it weren’t for them, we would not have the freedom to complain about what they do.”
Washington’s comments come at a time when U.S. police officers are under increased criticism over heavy-handed tactics, especially when it comes to alleged discrimination against minority suspects.
A summer of unrest over multiple high-profile law enforcement incidents sparked a movement to defund the police, most notably in Minneapolis, where George Floyd died while in police custody.
In the actor’s latest movie, The Little Things, Washington plays a disgraced former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detective who hunts down a suspected serial killer from earlier in his career, believing the suspect is on another murder spree.
The new role will mark the 13th time in his career that Washington has portrayed someone in law enforcement, which he said has led to experiences that make him appreciate the work police do.
“I went out on call with a sergeant,” Washington said of one such experience while preparing for his role as a police officer in the film Ricochet. “We got a call of a man outside his house with a rifle that was distraught. We pulled up and did a U-turn past the house and came up short of the house. He told me to sit in the car, which I was gonna do. I wasn’t getting out. He got out. As he got out, another car came screaming up and two young people jumped out screaming. As it turned out, it was their grandfather. This policeman defused the entire situation by just remaining calm.”
Washington said the experience made him realize how officers have to live in a “second to second” world.
“But it showed me in an instant how they can lose their life. … He didn’t overreact,” Washington said. “He could’ve pulled his gun out and shot the people that came up driving real fast. He could’ve shot the old man that was distraught and a bit confused, I think he was suffering a little bit from dementia. But in an instant, it taught me, and I never forgot it, what our law enforcement people have to deal with moment to moment, second to second.”
