For her part, Watts is unchastened by the experience. Indeed she has placed herself on a pedestal as some sort of civil rights heroine. Here is part of what she told CNN:

I feel that part of my role as a public figure is to raise awareness and be strong enough to say and do the things that maybe people who don’t have the advantages that I have, aren’t strong enough or don’t have the know-how or don’t have the awareness to do, so because I’m aware of the history of our country, I went to college, I’ve studied the law, I’ve studied, you know, these sort of situations, for me standing up for that constitutional right was a gift and a blessing that I have the opportunity to do that because now there’s some kid going through the same thing that doesn’t have the same opportunity to talk to the news the way that I do, and that kid can watch this and go, “You know what? I don’t have to be afraid of police officers anymore because I live in a country that says that we’re free.”

How moving. Yes, someday schoolchildren may learn of Miss Watts in history class. And perhaps a statue of her can be erected at the scene of her encounter with Sgt. Parker. “There she is, Daniele Watts,” passersby will say, “the Rosa Parks of public sex.”