A friend of the US actor and film director Mel Gibson said the latter but had tried to goad a police officer into drawing his weapon and shoot by hurling anti-Semitic slurs at him after he stopped Gibson for drink driving. The incident in 2007 led to the steady decline of Gibson's once glittering Hollywood career and public shaming. Hollywood author Peter Biskind now claimed Gibson wasn't anti-Jewish but on a mission to die because he felt he had failed after his wife Robyn had left him. Death by cop is a popular way of suicide in the US where people deliberately provoke police offices into using their weapons.
Gibson, 55, was said to be distraught at the break-up of his marriage when he returned to his Los Angeles home from filming and discovered his wife and seven children had moved out. Soon after, he was stopped and arrested by a police officer and ranted that "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world".
"Mel was trying to invite death by cop. I don't think this was being anti-Semitic. I think he was trying to rile that guy into pulling out a gun and shooting him," Biskind said. According to the friend, Gibson had said goodbye to everyone in the restaurant before getting in his car. "I believe what was going on that night was a farewell," the friend said. The actor later apologized for his anti-Jewish rant in a series of TV interviews and described his behavior as "deplorable."
However, in December, Jewish actress Winona Ryder said that in the 1990s Gibson had insulted her as an “oven dodger”, referring to the crematoria in the Nazi death camps.
