Writer of the ‘The Bear’ handcuffed on train suggests arrest was racially motivated
Topics: Connecticut, News, Celebrity
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Topics: Connecticut, News, Celebrity
Alex O'Keefe says he was arrested on a train because an 'old white woman' complained about him.
O'Keefe is known for being a writer on TV shows The Bear and Shrill and boasts nearly 12,000 followers on Instagram.
He's used the platform to share a recent experience he had on a train in Connecticut. The ordeal happened on Thursday (September 18).
"I was arrested on the @MTA train to Connecticut today, pulled off, handcuffed, and detained," O'Keefe wrote. "An old white woman got on the train and immediately pointed at me and told me to correct how I was sitting.
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"I refused so she went to the conductor and complained. The conductor called the police and stopped the train."
Police proceeded to board the train and told the TV writer to exit the locomotive, but he refused and asked what he was doing that was illegal.
He continued: "They said I was disturbing the peace by not leaving the train. They pulled me off the train and arrested me without even talking to the Karen who reported the one Black person on the train. On the platform, the police detained me and interrogated me.
"Only Black folks stayed nearby and recorded the arrest. 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?"
Metropolitan Transportation Authority [MTA] police has since addressed the ordeal and confirmed to ABC News that officers responded to the complaint around 10:25am and told the passenger to question to depart the train and get the next one.
The statement went on: "When he continued to refuse to exit, delaying service for several hundred other riders for six minutes, the passenger involved was handcuffed and removed from the train, where he was issued a summons for disorderly conduct, a violation, without further incident at approximately 1048 hours, and allowed to board the next train to complete his trip."
As to what O'Keefe allegedly did wrong, he was said to have been occupying two seats and had his feet up.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber has addressed the incident as well.
“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," Lieber said, per PEOPLE.
He added: "The police have to get involved because somebody won’t take his feet off the seat? Just take your feet off the seat. It’s that simple. And respect other passengers."
Lieber went on to say that they will 'look at the video' taken on the day in question and 'deal with all the dramas that seem to come out of these simple interactions these days'.