FILE – A train operator watches a train at the Fordham Metro North station Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
By Dave Collins
Associated Press
A onetime writer for FX’s hit show “The Bear” was taken off a New York City commuter train in handcuffs in a dispute over how he was sitting — an incident he recorded in a video shared widely on social media.
Alex O’Keefe, who is Black, said in an Instagram post that he was headed to Connecticut on a Metro-North train Thursday when he was removed by police after a white woman complained to a conductor about the way he was sitting.
Responding to questions about O’Keefe’s video, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said security video showed he had been sitting with both legs stretched across an adjacent seat — a violation of the rail line’s rules. The MTA said a conductor called police after the passenger refused to move his legs.
Police briefly held the train at a station in the Bronx around 10:30 a.m. The MTA said officers handcuffed O’Keefe after he refused to exit the train. O’Keefe recorded part of the interaction.
“You’re going to arrest the one Black dude on the train, because this white woman said she didn’t like the way I was sitting on the train,” O’Keefe told officers in the video as he points to the woman. He then says three times that he didn’t do anything illegal. An officer then begins to put handcuffs on O’Keefe and another tells him to stop resisting.
“Resisting what? Resisting what? What are you trying to arrest me for?” he says. The video ends shortly after.
O’Keefe posted another video taken by a bystander that shows him facing a wall in handcuffs on the train platform as officers question him.
The officers gave O’Keefe a summons accusing him of disorderly conduct, then allowed him to board another train to his destination, the MTA said.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber was asked about the incident during a news conference on a different subject Monday. He said it was a simple case of a passenger breaking the rules by putting his legs on a seat.
“The police have to get involved because somebody won’t take his feet off the seat?” Lieber said, later adding, “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.”
O’Keefe, 31, won a 2023 Writers Guild Award with other writers as “The Bear” was named best comedy series.
O’Keefe said in an email to The Associated Press on Monday that he was working and needed to run an interview request by his legal team. He added that he was “wary of being the center of a culture war in this political climate.”
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