Actress Danièle Watts took to social media last week to condemn the Los Angeles Police Department after she was allegedly mistaken for a prostitute after kissing her white husband, Identites.mic reports.
According to Facebook posts by Watts and her husband, Brian James Lucas, two police officers mistook the couple for a prostitute and client Thursday when they were seen showing affection in public, the report says.
Watts refused to produce a photo ID when questioned and was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser while the officers attempted to figure out who she was, the report says. She was released shortly afterward.
A public information officer with the LAPD told Variety that "there was no record of the incident as Watts wasn’t arrested or brought into the station for questioning."
Watts played CoCo in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained and currently co-stars with Martin Lawrence in Partners.
“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,” Watts posted on Facebook. “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!!!!!!!”
Lucas posted: “Today, Daniele Watts & I were accosted by police officers after showing our affection publicly. 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).
Read more at Identitites.com.