Alex O’Keefe, a former writer for The Bear, was handcuffed and detained on a New York City Metro-North train on Thursday, September 18. A video of the altercation is now going viral, sparking debates among netizens about racial profiling.
The Bear writer’s video of getting handcuffed on train goes viral
A representative of MTA told People that the writer was handcuffed and removed from a Connecticut-bound train after a complaint from an old white woman about the way he was sitting. O’Keefe recorded the incident on his phone and shared the video on his Instagram.
During the altercation, O’Keefe told the MTA police, “I am the one Black dude on the train. This White woman said she didn’t like the way I was sitting on the train. So you called the police. So you called the police to arrest the one Black dude on the train.” He repeatedly asserted his innocence, saying, “I haven’t done anything illegal.”
As per an official statement from the MTA, O’Keefe broke the rules by sitting with both his legs stretched across another seat. “A conductor reported a passenger occupying two seats had refused to remove his feet from one of the seats,” the statement reads. “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,” the MTA added.
O’Keefe has shared his personal account of the incident on his Instagram. The writer also posted a picture of the woman who allegedly made the complaint against him. “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. The conductor called the police and stopped the train,” O’Keefe recalled…