Daniele Watts in tears while being detained by LA police (Photo Credit: Brian Lucas/Facebook)
Daniele Watts, an African-American actress that starred in Django Unchained was detained by police for kissing her white husband Brian James Lucas in public, Dish Nation reports.
Two police officers from Studio City Police Department in Los Angeles approached the pair, asking for Watts identity card as they thought she was a prostitute. When she refused she was handcuffed and put in their police car, after which her identity card was checked and she was released.
Watts who starred as CoCo in Quetin Tarantino’s Dhango Unchained wrote on her facebook page:
‘Today I was handcuffed… after refusing to agree that I had done something wrong by showing affection, fully clothed, in a public place.
‘As I was sitting in the back of the police car, I remembered the countless times my father came home frustrated or humiliated by the cops when he had done nothing wrong. I felt his shame, his anger.
‘I allowed myself to be honest about my anger, frustration, and rage as tears flowed from my eyes. The tears I cry for a country that calls itself “the land of the free and the home of the brave” and yet detains people for claiming that very right.’
Watts husband, Brian James Lucas, a chef, also took to Facebook to recount the experience his wife had at the hands of the police.
He wrote on his Facebook page: “From the questions that he asked me as D was already on her phone with her dad, I could tell that whoever called on us (including the officers), saw a tatted RAWKer white boy and a hot bootie shorted black girl and thought we were a HO (prostitute) & a TRICK (client).
“They handcuffed her and threw her roughly into the back of the cop car until they could figure out who she was. In the process of handcuffing her, they cut her wrist, which was truly NOT COOL!!!”
A public information officer for the Los Angeles police Department refused to comment on the matter, when contacted by Metro, saying there was no record of the incident as Watts was not brought to the station for questioning.
Updated September 15, 2014 at 8:10 Nigerian Time:
A video just under half-a-minute has emerged of the incident, showing Watts telling a police officer at the scene, “You pushed me against the wall. I put my hands behind my back and I just stood there.”
