Black actress Daniele Watts, star of “Django Unchained” was handcuffed and detained by two Studio City officers, after being observed kissing her white boyfriend in a car. According to police, the actress was mistaken for a prostitute. Watts was further detained after refusing to show the officers her ID.
Watts addressed the incident on her Facebook page stating “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”.
Watt’s boyfriend, celebrity chef Brian Lucas aired his views on Facebook adding “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).”
It’s not surprising that the LAPD has stated they have no record of the incident. Their explanation that this is in fact typical, when no real arrest has been made, is as absurd as it is laughable. I suppose this would serve the boys in blue well as they harass and occasionally brutalize minorities with wild abandon. No arrest, no record just a poor broken bastard left with physical and in Watt’s case emotional scars. Ms. Watts is a perfect example that money, success and fame will not keep racism from knocking at your door. How far have we really come since the days of “Django Unchained”? Apparently not far enough.
