A former writer for the HULU series “The Bear” was handcuffed on a New York City Metro-North train on Thursday.
While en route to Connecticut, Alex O’Keefe, 31, was detained by law enforcement after “one white woman” allegedly took issue with his presence on board.
“I was arrested on the @MTA train to Connecticut today, pulled off, handcuffed, and detained,” O’Keefe wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. “An old white woman got on the train and immediately pointed at me and told me to correct how I was sitting. I refused so she went to the conductor and complained.”
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O’Keefe explained that the train came to a halt, and police eventually arrived on the scene. In the video post, he can be heard saying that he was the “one Black dude on the train.” He later claimed the incident was racially motivated.
“While waiting for the police to arrive, the old Karen’s friend said, ‘You’re not the minority anymore.’ The police told me to leave the train, I refused and asked what was I doing illegally,” O’Keefe said.
Officers told O’Keefe he was being escorted off the train because he was “disturbing the peace.” He was subsequently detained and interrogated, and later released.
“Only black folks stayed nearby and recorded the arrest,” he wrote. “When I demanded a lawyer and reminded them they didn’t even take a statement from the woman who complained they eventually released me. This country is growing more psycho by the day. What will you do about it?”
The MTA addressed the incident in a statement obtained by People.
“A conductor reported a passenger occupying two seats had refused to remove his feet from one of the seats,” the statement read. “When MTAPD officers boarded, he refused police direction to exit. Officers told the passenger to depart the train onto the platform, where he would be able to board a following train.”
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber also spoke about the incident during a press conference on Monday, noting that he hasn’t “seen” the footage.
“If you’re putting your feet on the seats, you’re breaking the rules of our commuter railroad and of the subways of the whole MTA,” he stated.
He reiterated having not “seen the video,” but emphasized the agency’s policy.
“The bottom line is, he shouldn’t have delayed the train by arguing with everybody for a long time,” he said. “The police have to get involved because somebody won’t take his feet off the seat? That’s a situation that the person who did that ought to reconsider… Just take your feet off the seat. It’s that simple. And respect other passengers. But we’ll take a look at the video and deal with all the dramas that seem to come out of these simple interactions these days.”
