The News Minute | September 15, 2014 | 11.54 am IST
Actor who appeared in Django Unchained, Daniele Watts, was detained by the California police on suspicion of being a prostitute, after she and her husband, kissed in public.
Daniele’s husband Brian James Lucas, a chef, later posted photographs of the incident on his Facebook page, saying he suspected that the police had detained her because they were an inter-racial couple. Daniele too wrote about the episode on her Facebook page.
She said: “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.
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. 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!!!!!!!
I was sitting in that back of this cop car, filled with adrenaline, my wrist bleeding in pain, and it occurred to me, that even there, I STILL HAD POWER OVER MY OWN SPIRIT.”
She said the cops “could not force me to feel bad about myself” and added: “I will continue to look any “authority figure” in the eye without fear. NO POLICE OFFICER OR GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL IS MORE POWERFUL THAN ME. WE ARE EQUALS. I KNOW THAT I WILL ALWAYS BE FREE BECAUSE THAT IS THE NATURE OF MY SPIRIT.”
“The tears I cry for a country that calls itself "the land of the free and the home of the brave" and yet detains people for claiming that very right.
Lucas was more direct. He said: “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).”
The word ho or hoe, is short for whore, and is a derogatory term for black women dating back to days of slavery. It means that a woman is promiscuous.
He continued: “Our freedom isn't freedom folks, when people can abuse others with no reason or evidence at all just because they "think" they have been given the power by people that are ONLY equal to us.”
Daniele’s Facebook wall had a dozens of messages expressing solidarity and support. However, her photograph showing her crying as she stands handcuffed, attracted both supportive and well as critical comments.