'Kindergarten Cop' Pulled From Portland Film Festival After Anti-Police Critics Complain

Those hoping to see Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1990 comedy "Kindergarten Cop" at Cinema Unbound, an upcoming drive-in film festival in Portland, will likely be disappointed. After anti-police critics complained about the film's placement in the lineup, it was subsequently removed and replaced.

Prior to the Aug. 6 event, NW Film Center had planned to kick off the series by showing the action-comedy as a way to both celebrate the state's history due to the fact that it had been filmed in Astoria, Oregon and acknowledge the movie's 30th anniversary.

The Arnold Schwarzenegger-led film is centered around a police detective who goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher in order to bust a drug dealer, but the recent national conversations surrounding the perception of police resulted in an online campaign advocating for its removal.

After announcing the cancellation, NWFC stated that they had come to the decision after holding discussions with both staff and community members. As a result, they decided that it would be wiser to withdraw the movie from the festival due to the current political climate and replace it with a second screening of "John Lewis: Good Trouble," the 2020 documentary centered around the late Civil Rights icon.

The decision also prompted Portland author Lois Leveen to elaborate on the decision in an email titled "Kindergarten Cop-Out: Why Does NW Film Center Think There's Anything Fun About Cops Traumatizing Schoolchildren" that she sent to Willamette Week.

"It's true 'Kindergarten Cop' is only a movie. So are 'Birth of a Nation' and 'Gone With the Wind,' but we recognize films like those are not 'good family fun,'" she wrote, adding, "They are relics of how pop culture feeds racist assumptions."

Continuing, she said, "Because despite what the movie shows, in reality, schools don't transform cops. Cops transform schools, and in an extremely detrimental way."

This is not the only instance that police-centered TV shows and movies have been pulled following George Floyd's May 25 death in Minneapolis. Previously, "Live PD" was also canceled. However, conflicting opinions have subsequently emerged about what the future could hold for the Dan Abrams-hosted show what changes could be made to prompt such a return.