African American Actress Detained for PDA | Teen Ink

African American Actress Detained for PDA

October 7, 2014
By Shea Cronin GOLD, Cincinnati, Ohio
Shea Cronin GOLD, Cincinnati, Ohio
10 articles 0 photos 0 comments

On the 11th of September in Los Angeles, California, "Django Unchained" actress Daniele Watts was detained by a police officer because she refused to give her ID. Reportedly, someone witnessed and called in a report to the police that Watts and her boyfriend, Brian James Lucas, were engaging in sexual acts in their car with the door open. Watts and her boyfriend claim that they were fully clothed and committing no crime. Watts believes that the officer was only approaching her due to racial profiling of her, a black woman, and of her white boyfriend.  When the officer arrived at the scene, he reportedly first asked Watts's boyfriend for her ID. Watts then heard this and refused to give the officer her ID due to the fact that she felt she didn't have to, and she felt she had done nothing wrong. She was on her phone with her father at the time and became quite worked up with the situation, once even telling the officer that her father would like to speak with him. Growing frustrated and still refusing to give up her ID, Watts walked away from the scene. Following this, the officer detained Watts with handcuffs. Eventually, Lucas ended up giving the officer Watts's ID and she was released.


This whole situation brings up the question of whether all this was necessary or not. Police racism is unfortunately still a problem in America today, but was race the issue in this case? Police would argue not, but Watts and her boyfriend would argue that it was. Lucas felt that the officer had made the assumption that Watts was a prostitute and he a client due to the manner in which the officer had spoken to him. The police, on the other hand, seemed to have just wanted to check on a report that was called in, and leave with ease. The officer told Watts, "You took something that would take five minutes and made it thirty." Do you think that Watts was right in refusing to give her ID?



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