Django Unchained Actress Says She Was Mistaken As Prostitute by Police

Officier, Daniele Watts

Actress Daniele Watts, blames race for a recent incident with Los Angeles police. The actress, who is African American and appeared in “Django Unchained,” is complaining that she was handcuffed and briefly put in the back of a squad car after a public display of affection with her white husband, Brian Lucas.

Brian told KCBS-TV in a joint interview with Daniele that he suspects police mistook the black actress for a prostitute “because he was asking me questions like, ‘Who is she? How do you know her? Are you together?”

The Los Angeles Police Department said Sunday that officers detained the pair after a complaint that two people were “involved in indecent exposure” in a silver Mercedes. According to TMZ, witnesses say the couple was actually having sex in their car.

Daniele told the station that she and Brian were embracing in the car Thursday when police showed up. The station said the two have been dating for the past year, while others report they are married. She explained:

I knew that the clearest thing for me to do was to own my right as a free person and say, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong and I know I’m not required to give you my ID.’

Brian, Daniele

She says  she walked away and another officer put her in handcuffs and into the back of a patrol car. She was let go after police identified her. She later recounted her experience on Facebook, writing: