Daniele Watts, LAPD and Racism: 'Django Unchained' Actress Mistaken for Prostitute After Kissing White Boyfriend
Daniele Watts, an actress in "Django Unchained," was in the news recently for accusing the Los Angeles Police Department of racism. Based on reports, she was mistaken for a prostitute and was handcuffed and detained last week. According to Huffington Post, two Studio City officers made the mistake when they saw her inside a car kissing her celebrity chef boyfriend, Brian Lucas.
Watts took to social media site Facebook to detail her situation. According to her file, she refused to show her ID to the police officers. She said the officers came up to them after they were seen showing affection in public. Because she refused to show her ID, she was handcuffed and made to sit in the back of the car. She said the act by the officer was unjust and conforms to the racial profiling done by the police.
She said that while she sat there at the back of the police car, she remembered the times when her father came home humiliated or frustrated by the police even when he did nothing.
However, TMZ got hold of an audiotape of the altercation that went on between Watts and the police. If the tape was genuine, then it seems that there was more to the story than what has surfaced in the news so far. Based on the audiotape, Sergeant Parker was explaining to Lucas that he was only answering complaints they received from the public about a couple that was doing some lewd acts inside a car.
It was because of that complaint that the officer, as heard on the audiotape, had the right to be there and to ask for her ID. Then the female voice (supposedly that of Watts') was asking the officer if he knew how many times they had police called because they were black and asked if the officer was there because of her skin color. The police officer said race had nothing to do with it when he was only asking for her ID.
She became agitated, saying that the officer can take her to court where she'd make a scene, claiming that she's an actress and has a publicist. The officer continued to ask for her ID, and she continued to refuse and called her father. The spokesperson for the actress did not make any comment when contacted.
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