(Reuters) - A black U.S. actress who appeared in hit movie "Django Unchained" has accused Los Angeles police officers of handcuffing and briefly detaining her for "showing affection" in public.
The city's police force said on Sunday it was investigating a complaint from Daniele Watts, who posted a picture on Facebook, showing her crying next to an officer with her hands behind her back.
Los Angeles police said in a statement its officers had responded to reports from a passerby that a couple were indecently exposed inside a silver Mercedes on Thursday afternoon.
The officers detained Watts and her boyfriend but soon determined the two had not broken any laws and released them, police said.
"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.
"I remembered the countless times my father came home frustrated or humiliated by the cops when he had done nothing wrong," she added.
Watts' boyfriend Brian James Lucas, a Los Angeles chef, wrote on his Facebook page that the police had thought she was a prostitute because of the couple's attire and their differing skin color, the New York Times reported. Lucas is white.
Studio City is about 6 miles (9.7 kilometers) northwest of Hollywood.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco)