Django actress backs down over police squabble
Published: 8:46AM Tuesday September 16, 2014 Source: AP
Police said they followed proper protocol when they demanded identification from an actress and her boyfriend while investigating an emergency call alleging lewd conduct in a parked car.
Actress Daniele Watts, who appeared in Django Unchained, says she was unjustly handcuffed and detained after refusing to provide identification and walking away from officers responding to a report of lewd conduct in a car.
Watts said in an interview that she and her boyfriend, Brian Lucas, were kissing in the car and fully clothed, with nothing improper going on.
She and Lucas wrote about the incident on Facebook and posted photos of a crying Watts in handcuffs.
Lucas said he suspects that onlookers assumed Watts to be a prostitute and him a client because she is black and he is white.
Los Angeles police Lt. Andrew Neiman said citizens are required to identify themselves if requested to do so by an officer who has reasonable suspicion to believe an offence may have been committed.
In this case, he said, reasonable suspicion was created by the police call, and Watts and Lucas fit the description and location described by the caller.
Watts said the officer's demeanor was an emotional trigger for her.
'He was not abusive,' she said. 'He was not overtly racist.'
But she did feel as though she was singled out even though she hadn't done anything wrong. She said she is speaking out about the incident in hopes of furthering a discussion about 'questions that give us clarity about the nature of our being in this society.'
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