Alex O’Keefe, who previously worked as a writer on Hulu’s The Bear, was handcuffed and removed from a New York City Metro-North train on September 18 after a woman allegedly complained about the way he was sitting.
O’Keefe took to Instagram on September 18 to share multiple videos and photos from the altercation. “I am the one Black dude on the train,” he told the police in the first clip. “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 also added that he didn’t do “anything illegal” while on the train.
O’Keefe continued to maintain his innocence as an officer said he was resisting arrest. As he was being handcuffed, O’Keefe asked what he was being arrested for and the officer said “disorderly conduct.”
Additionally, he shared a photo of the woman he claimed made the complaint and a snapshot of another nearby passenger. The post concluded with a video that showed O’Keefe facing a wall while handcuffed on a Bronx train platform as four officers wrote up the incident.
While O’Keefe wrote in the post’s caption that he was “arrested,” an MTA representative told People he was not arrested. The spokesperson went on to state that the way O’Keefe was sitting was breaking an MTA rule as he stretched out both of his legs on an adjacent seat. The way he was sitting was documented by on-board security camera video, according to the MTA statement.
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The incident took place around 10:30 a.m. on September 18, per the MTA statement. The MTA police officers responded to a report that there was a “disorderly passenger” on a train that was traveling from New York City’s Grand Central Terminal to New Haven, Connecticut.
“A conductor reported a passenger occupying two seats had refused to remove his feet from one of the seats,” the MTA 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.”
O’Keefe “continued to refuse to exit” the train, which delayed the train for an additional six minutes. The statement added that O’Keefe was issued a summons for disorderly conduct, a violation, without further incident around 10:50 a.m. Following the incident, he was allowed to board the next train.
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MTA Chairman Janno Lieber addressed the incident during a news conference on Monday, September 22. “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.
After noting he had not seen the video, Lieber said that “the bottom line is, he shouldn’t have delayed the train by arguing with everybody for a long time.”
“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 continued. “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.”
