Daniele Watts: actress detained by LAPD 'for kissing white partner'

Daniele Watts says she was "accosted and forced into handcuffs" by police officers in Los Angeles last week.

The African American actress, who played a slave in Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed film Django Unchained, said it was because she had been "showing affection" to her white boyfriend, "while fully clothed, in a public place."

Watts and her partner Brian Lucas, a celebrity chef, were approached by police following a call from a member of the public. The officers demanded that the pair produce identification, but Watts refused to do so. Police then detained her until her identity was revealed. She was subsequently released and no charges were filed.

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Lukas accused the police of displaying racial bias and says that officers mistook Watts for a prostitute. He also revealed that the police threatened to call an ambulance and have Watts drugged because she was acting "psychologically unstable".

"The tears I cry [are] 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," she wrote in an emotional Facebook post following the incident.

Los Angeles police said they were responding to a 911 call about "indecent exposure" in a car, the Washington Post reports.

"Upon further investigation it was determined that no crime had been committed. Ms. Watts and her companion were subsequently released." The department has said it has launched an independent investigation into the incident.