"Django Unchained" star Daniele Watts has accused Los Angeles police of racism after they briefly detained the African American actress and her white husband on suspicion of engaging in prostitution.
Watts and her husband said they were handcuffed, detained and questioned after the pair showed affection in public on Thursday. They say Watts's wrist was cut while being handcuffed.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Sunday it had responded to a radio call from a concerned citizen about "indecent exposure" inside a silver Mercedes with the door open.
Following the pair's arrest, "upon further investigation it was determined that no crime had been committed" and they were released, the LAPD said.
The incident took place in Studio City, an upscale neighborhood of north Los Angeles.
"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," Watts wrote on her Facebook page on Thursday.
"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!!!!!!! "
Photos of the "Weeds" and "How I Met Your Mother" television series actress posted a photograph of the encounter in which Watts, dressed in a white T-shirt, colorful shorts and sneakers, could be seen crying, her hands behind her back, while standing next to a police officer.
"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)," her husband Brian James Lucas said.
"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."