Subscribe
The Daily Grind Video
CLOSE

Daniele Watts, the Django Unchained actress who was detained after Los Angeles police suspected she was a prostitute, has contacted the NAACP, accusing the police of racism and discrimination.

Watts, who is African-American, was handcuffed on September 11 after showing affection in public with her boyfriend, who is white. Police told CNN Sunday that Watts was detained after officers responded to a citizen complaint alleging the two were publicly engaged in a sexual act.

From CNN:

“There was an indication on the radio call that a male white and female black were involved in a sexual act inside a Mercedes with the vehicle door open,” Officer Sally Madera said.

“Two people were briefly detained, but it was revealed no crime had been committed,” Medera said.

In short, the complaint that the two were having sex is false. In audio obtained by TMZ, you can hear Watts crying:

“I don’t understand how we live in a free country and I’m in a parking lot making out with my boyfriend and I get arrested because somebody called the cops. I don’t understand.”

A cop can be heard saying:

“Be careful…little emotional.”

Later he asks “Who do you think put you in handcuffs?” before telling Watts she put herself in handcuffs, using her boyfriend as an example by saying, “So you see the gentleman here in handcuffs?”

Still, Watts was handcuffed so tightly she was injured. Her boyfriend, celebrity chef Brian James Lucas, was not detained but spoke out against the discrimination against his girlfriend.

Lucas said when an officer asked for their identifications, he showed his that but Watts refused “to give it because they had no right to do so.”

“So they handcuffed her and threw her roughly into the back of the cop car until they could figure out who she was,” he wrote. “In the process of handcuffing her, they cut her wrist, which was truly NOT COOL!!!”

She was released “quite quickly when they realized we were right outside CBS and that she was a celebrity and I was a celeb chef,” Lucas wrote. “Before they figured out who she was they were threatening calling an ambulance and drugging her for being psychologically unstable, SO NOT COOL WHATSOEVER! “

Lucas wrote in a Facebook post that police believed Watts was engaging in illegal activity when they “saw a tatted RAWKer white boy and a hot bootie shorted black girl and thought we were a HO (prostitute) & a TRICK (client).”

Watts also took to her Facebook to describe the demeaning experience:

Today I was handcuffed and detained by 2 police officers from the Studio City Police Department after refusing to agree that I had done something wrong by showing affection, fully clothed, in a public place.

When the officer arrived, I was standing on the sidewalk by a tree. I was talking to my father on my cell phone. I knew that I had done nothing wrong, that I wasn’t harming anyone, so I walked away.

A few minutes later, I was still talking to my dad when 2 different police officers accosted me and forced me into handcuffs.

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, and my own feelings of frustration for existing in a world where I have allowed myself to believe that “authority figures” could control my BEING… my ability to BE!!!!!!!

You can read her full post here.

Watts and Lucas initially decided to leave the incident alone, but realized it was important to speak up about the discrimination Watts faced. In addition to the NAACP, Watts and Lucas have also contacted lawyers and the ACLU.

“We still forgive, love and bless them … just not putting up with this for our own freedom and heart space,” Lucas wrote.

Watch the video of Watts’ arrest below:

SOURCE: CNN | VIDEO SOURCE: News Inc.