A writer for the Emmy-award winning show “The Bear” was hauled off an MTA train in handcuffs for manspreading — and he claims he was arrested because an “old white lady” complained about the way he was sitting.
Alex O’Keefe, a black screenwriter, was on a Connecticut-bound MetroNorth train last week when he was confronted by MTA officers who asked him to step out of the car, according to an Instagram reel he shared on Monday.
“You’re gonna 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 could be heard saying as an officer handcuffed him.
As he was being pulled out of the train, O’Keefe said a person who was with “the Karen” that had complained about him told him, “You’re not the minority anymore.”
A Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman said officers responded to a report of a disorderly person on a New Haven-bound train at the Fordham Metro-North station in The Bronx around 10:25 a.m. Thursday.
“The train was en route from Grand Central Terminal to New Haven, when a conductor reported a passenger occupying two seats had refused to remove his feet from one of the seats,” the rep said.
“Investigation, enhanced by body-worn cameras and on-board security camera video, revealed that a 31 year-old male was observed with both legs stretched across an adjacent seat.”
O’Keefe said that when he boarded the morning train at Grand Central Terminal, a woman with a face mask told him to take his feet off of the chair.
When O’Keefe ignored her, the woman complained to a conductor, who then stopped and delayed the train’s departure to call MTA police, he said.
The MTA spokesman said O’Keefe refused officers’ orders to exit the train even after he was told that he would be able to board the next ride out to Connecticut.
“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,” the statement said.
The MTA spokesman stressed that O’Keefe was “not placed under arrest at any time.” He was given a court summons for a disorderly conduct violation and caught the next train at 10:48 a.m.
O’Keefe maintained that there were clear racial elements at play in the incident.
“They pulled me off the train and arrested me without even talking to the Karen who reported the one black person on the train,” O’Keefe wrote on social media.
“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,” he said.
“This country is growing more psycho by the day.”
Video of the incident has since gone viral on TikTok and other social media, with users expressing outrage over the writer’s treatment.
Along with his work on “The Bear,” O’Keefe is also known for writing speeches for prominent Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey.
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