Daniele Watts: actress detained by LAPD 'for kissing white partner'

The Django Unchained star was 'accosted' by police after they 'mistook her for a prostitute'

140915-watts.jpg

Daniele Watts says she was "accosted and forced into handcuffs" by police officers in Los Angeles last week.

The African American actress, who played a slave in Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed film Django Unchained, said it was because she had been "showing affection" to her white boyfriend, "while fully clothed, in a public place."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Lukas accused the police of displaying racial bias and says that officers mistook Watts for a prostitute. He also revealed that the police threatened to call an ambulance and have Watts drugged because she was acting "psychologically unstable".

"The tears I cry [are] 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," she wrote in an emotional Facebook post following the incident.

Los Angeles police said they were responding to a 911 call about "indecent exposure" in a car, the Washington Post reports.

"Upon further investigation it was determined that no crime had been committed. Ms. Watts and her companion were subsequently released." The department has said it has launched an independent investigation into the incident.

Explore More