Award-winning Black screenwriter of 'The Bear,' pulled from a train & arrested after white woman objects to his presence

[bigtree]

Alex O'Keefe, an award-winning Black screenwriter known for his work on FX's 'The Bear,' was recently detained by police after being pulled from an MTA train heading to Connecticut. The incident occurred when a white woman on board complained about O'Keefe's posture, leading to his arrest without even being questioned by the woman who reported him. The incident has sparked discussions about racial bias and the treatment of Black individuals in law enforcement. O'Keefe's experience reflects a troubling pattern of white individuals weaponizing the police system, driven by racial bias and the assumption that Black people are inherently criminal, even when the targets are law-abiding citizens. Black Enterprise

__According to a video posted to O’Keefe’s official Instagram account on Sept. 18, “I was arrested on the MTA train to Connecticut today, pulled off, handcuffed, and detained. 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. While waiting for the police to arrive, the old Karen’s friend said, ‘You’re not the minority anymore.'” O’Keefe does not indicate where he was traveling from to get to Connecticut.

Vesla Mae Weaver, a Bloomberg Distinguished Associate Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Johns Hopkins University and co-author of several books on race and democracy, noted in a 2018 Vox op-ed that white individuals repeatedly use the police as a personal security force because the tactic continues to be effective, a pattern reflected in O’Keefe’s experience.

“The breezy deployment of police by whites at Yale, at Starbucks, Walmart, and in other social spaces vividly reveals how white people use law enforcement to exert control over their fellow Black Americans…The Yale student (a white student who called the police on a napping Black student at the university in 2018) was not, as far as we know, attempting to thwart police from discovering her own wrongdoing,” Weaver wrote. “But her enlistment of police was racially strategic, meant to marshal existing stereotypes of Blacks to reconfigure her space and dispense with a Black person. It fits a societal algorithm that blackness itself is suspect.”

https://www.blackenterprise.com/alex-okeefe-screenwriter-pulled-train-karen/


His Instagram post includes four slides. The first slide is a video, where O’Keefe films law enforcement officers. In the video, he says, “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.”

In the video, he films a woman whom he points at. The woman is elderly and wearing a face mask.

“You call the police to arrest the one Black dude on the train,” he says in the video, adding, “I haven’t done anything illegal.”

In the caption of the Instagram post, he wrote:

“The police told me to leave the train, I refused and asked what was I doing illegally. 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?”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-bear-writer-arrested-on-train-after-complaint-from-white-woman/ar-AA1N32W1


https://www.instagram.com/dotgov/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=cc7fa9a4-b521-44b3-85bf-e78c22597fbe

Link to tweet

[ALBliberal]

1. OMG

[Irish_Dem]

2. Slouching while Black will get you arrested.

[dflprincess]

30. Or "manspreading" ?

Which is annoying and rude but not illegal. I can't believe this woman and the conductor really shocks me.

[Irish_Dem]

37. Oh I didn't think about that.

This is how many men sit these days.
I don’t care how they sit.
The old lady must be sexually preoccupied.

[stopdiggin]

45. sprawling, deliberately invading and encroaching other's space (especially in spaces such as this)

Last edited Mon Sep 22, 2025, 11:41 AM - Edit history (1)

is thinly disguised aggression. I haven't (personally) seen anybody arrested for it - but I have seen where offenders get some shoves and pointed push-back (as gentle reminder of 'manners') - but almost exclusively when the correction is coming from a fitter (and more dominant?) male. (which serves to illustrate something of the dynamic happening)

But it's crap behavior - and let's not play the game of pretending we don't know about it.

[IbogaProject]

51. The article suggested she wasn't sitting next to him

Yes taking up excessive space is annoying but on that train it would have only been an issue if it was crowded.

[stopdiggin]

56. I agree. We (I) got off on a little tangent

in response to another post, that may not have reflected the situation the OP was addressing.
But - personal experience with boorish (and what I contend, deliberately invasive and offensive) behavior - in my words 'thinly disguised aggression' - led to my posting.

let's not pretend ... like we don't know ...

Now - somebody calling the cops .... Takes us in a different direction.

[LisaM]

58. He seems to have been on the seat in front of her.

And there were plenty of seats, so manspreading (I agree, rude and aggressive) couldn't have been the issue either.

I'm guessing he was slouching and maybe appeared to be sleeping? People get on our light rail in Seattle and sleep but I wouldn't call the police. I wish the other passengers would have spoken up.

My mom doesn't like when people wear baseball hats in restaurants and has been known to scold total strangers for it (till my sister said she wasn't going out to dinner with her again until she stopped). Who knows what the woman saw or wanted. It's upsetting. I don't blame him for being so vocal, it was smart because it helped document what was taking place.

[Still Waters]

91. From what I have read

he was sitting in one seat and had his feet up on another.

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/alex-o-keefe-arrested-the-bear-writer-mta-ct-train-21061647.php

[LisaM]

95. Maybe he was blocking the aisle?

I can see asking him not to do that (if he was), but if it was all on the same seat, I don't see how there is an issue. I often take up two seats if I have groceries (unless the car is full). The seats on the Seattle light rail are small and uncomfortable.

[MadameButterfly]

118. Sorry I wasn't able to open the article but

there is a lot of discussion here about what he MIGHT have been doing. We really don't know unless the above article explains, and it appears he wasn't sitting close enough to affect her personally. I'm guessing the arrest wouldn't have happened to a White person. And we wouldn't be hearing abaout this if he wasn't an accomplished person with some clout to speak out.

If she really said "You aren't the minority anymore," then we know this was about race.

Not really about how he was sitting.

[Irish_Dem]

67. I have not seen it. But I don't use public transportation.

And not sitting around young males.

So their legs are sprawled out, touching the women next to them?

Yes I agree that is not OK.

[Ms. Toad]

65. Noting about sexual preoccupation -

It is the invasion of space. Way more than once, I've had to sit in an uncomfortably small space (trains, buses, and planes are the worst) because some man insists in taking my space with his "manspread" legs.

(Or, not quite as bad, a man uses this tactic to prevent someone from sitting next to him - forcing me to stand or sit in a different (often less comfortable) seat.)

[Irish_Dem]

68. Yes I was just tutored regarding this male aggressive practice.

I have not witnessed or experienced this behavior.
But I would not like it one bit.

Some men like to take up all the space.
And intimidate others.

[Ms. Toad]

76. The worst was on a plane,

I had the window seat, and a manspreader was in the middle seat, then near the end of the flight he fell asleep and toppled over on me. I could not wake him, or get the attention of the flight attendant. I actually had to crawl out over the top of the seat in front of me. Not fun.

[Irish_Dem]

79. I have heard about this as a ploy. The man pretends to fall asleep

or be passed out from too much booze. Uses it as an excuse to drape themeless
all over the women next to them. Sometimes it gets much worse.

Wow that is awful. You were trapped.
What if there had been an emergency.
Or were not able to crawl over the seat in front of you.

I would have started yelling for help I think.

[Ms. Toad]

84. He was actually asleep or passed out.

When I crawled over the seat in front of me, he flopped over completely - still out.

The looks on the face of the flight attendants when they realized I was trying to get their attention because of him would have been priceless - had it not been for the potential for danger.

If he had tried anything, I'd have stood up and tossed him over onto the person in the aisle seat (or the aisle - it is possible it was only two seats across)

[Irish_Dem]

85. Sounds like more than just booze.

Wonder if he also taken some downers or ambien to sleep on the plane.

He posed a safety threat to passengers and crew.
You were trapped in the event of an emergency and the crew would have
been diverted from their crisis duties trying maneuver around
the man or wake him up.

[Ms. Toad]

89. I wouldn't be surprised.

And agreed as to the safety issues. It is one of the more bizarre situations I've encountered - I was quite surprised that none of the flight attendants who passed by when I tried to get their attention were at all interested in what was going on. What wasn't clear until I crawled out and informed them they had a passenger who was passed out was that they hadn't interfered because they believed we were together.

[Irish_Dem]

90. The FAs have seen it all I guess and it is common place and boring to them.

Passengers tanked up on booze and drugs acting out or passed out.
They put everyone on ignore perhaps.

The lesson here is make more noise.
Say loudly "I need help."

And asked to be moved to another seat.
They can ask a big male passenger to take your place.

I once read a story, I may get the facts someone wrong but the gist
is that a woman and child POC were being harassed by the man sitting next to
them on a long flight.

He was a big guy calling them names and being aggressive. Other passengers
complained and since there were no seats available the FAs explained the situatin
and asked for male volunteers to switch places.

The funny and satisfying part is that two huge male bruisers were glad to help and sat
on either side of the abuser. And made it clear he needed to shut his pie hole.
The guy was quiet for the rest of the flight. The mother was so grateful.

[Ms. Toad]

99. I don't remember exactly why I didn't make a big loud fuss -

I know there was a reason. He was a black male - and I suspect part of it was that I didn't feel threatened - just annoyed, and I was likely more concerned about how they might treat him. Once the flight attendants started looking the other way when I tried to get their attention without making a big scene, I was interested in what it would take for them to recognize something wasn't right. It was also a relatively short flight (I think under an hour.) Had I felt threatened - or had I felt he was in medical danger - it would have been a different story.

[Irish_Dem]

101. Oh yes I see.

The situation was a bit more complicated.

And the FAs were also obviously ignoring you and didn't want to deal with it
on a short flight. Not worth the hassle.

Yes and you didn't feel in danger.

I would have ignored it on a short flight too.

But I am an Air Force kid and alert to in flight safety issues.
And this was a safety issue whether you felt threatened or not.
You were blocked from emergency evacuation.

And seated next to someone who appeared unconscious.

But short flight, it all sorts itself out quickly.

[Ms. Toad]

63. My first reaction, as well, based on his comment that she said something about not liking how he was sitting.

It doesn't justify arrest. But, I've been the victim of ordinary manspreading - being forced to squeeze into an already too-small space on a plane or train because a man (it always is) refuses to pull his legs out of my space.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

81. Who said that?

[GreenWave]

116. Sometimes our lengthy lingams must be understood better.

[Lovie777]

3. Jim Crow...................

[lostincalifornia]

4. I hope there is a lawsuit filed by O'Keefe against these thugs, which would include the MTA, and the bigoted

jackass woman who started this garbage.

[electric_blue68]

114. As soon as I saw the "MTA" identifier I was aw, crap another racist indident in my area.

[raging moderate]

5. What does MTA stand for? Where did the train ride start?

I live in Maryland. I want to know if the state of Maryland was involved in this.

[bigtree]

7. appears to be the Metro-North Railroad

Metro-North serves customers throughout New York and Connecticut on our Harlem, Hudson, New Haven, Port Jervis, and Pascack Valley lines.

https://www.mta.info/agency/metro-north-railroad

[raging moderate]

11. Thank you.

Good information.

[BronxBoy]

18. Metropolitan Transit Authority

Manages all public transportation in the city

[Celerity]

25. Metropolitan Transportation Authority

[Warpy]

112. I live for the day when it's the bigot who gets tossed off

I've been waiting my whole life for that.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Stupid cops. Plus arrogant cops: you did not obey our authoriteh, so we arrested you. . . . .nt

[dalton99a]

8. Hope he files a lawsuit ASAP.

[Johonny]

9. I hope he sues everyone involved

$$$$

[harumph]

10. How he was "sitting"?

Was he sitting on a basket of baby chicks? I mean what possible sitting posture could
prompt this? Oh, I get it - he was sitting while black.

[txwhitedove]

14. He was facing her?? In short fuzzy video, seats are high so she couldn't see his lap.

[Ilsa]

12. The elderly woman, the conductor, others should have

been arrested for disturbing the peace with their vile conduct.

[iluvtennis]

13. SMDH. n/t

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. Sometimes people find it hard to understand why white women align themselves with white supremacy and/or patriarchy.

This is why.

[yardwork]

16. It also explains why a few minorities also align with those they perceive to have power.

Incidents like this serve several purposes in amplifying racist power structures. One purpose is to remind all other Black men that they are vulnerable and ought to play along or else.

It's really reprehensible and reflects the worst impulses in people.

[OldBaldy1701E]

17. BINGO! (n/t)

[IronLionZion]

19. "Stop resisting!"

"Resisting what?"

That's a very good question. Under arrest for what?

[underpants]

36. This got me. Wow.

The police told me to leave the train, I refused and asked what was I doing illegally. They said I was disturbing the peace by not leaving the train.

[jmbar2]

20. I am so ashamed of white people doing racist shit. Sue the pants off them. It's the only way to get through to them.

Reminds me of the heartbreaking story of when Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy got arrested for PERFORMING for WIPEPO. Heartsick that this is still happening.

Link to tweet

?lang=en

[Lars39]

21. She saw a black person and just didn't want him there in her sight/presence.

The man wasn’t doing anything wrong. She’s despicable, and so are those cops.

[Beringia]

22. OMG

[obamanut2012]

27. Let's not use gendered slurs

[niyad]

54. Thank you.

[wolfie001]

24. Appalling and disgusting

I'd love to see that old hag outed and made very uncomfortable. Maybe TizzyEnt and Danesh will take up the case! Embarrass that local police force.

[niyad]

31. I agree wih everything but the term you used, hag. In current use,

misogynistic. Look up "hag" in wiki.

[wolfie001]

41. Maybe DU can post a syllabus of offensive terms

I use many terms when the "feelings are there." I guess "old battle-axe" would also be wrong. How 'bout harridan? I always liked that one. From the late Middle Ages?, I'm sure. Anyhoo, I will take note.

[Abolishinist]

107. A syllabus of offensive terms, what a great idea!

It's just too bad we're not able to run it by Lenny Bruce and George Carlin first.

[wolfie001]

108. lol!

Did you see 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'? I saw like the first 2 seasons and one of her encounters and mentors was with Lenny Bruce! Really was a great show.

[Abolishinist]

120. Haven't watched any of the episodes, but it sounds good and won a number of awards.

As I recall we were going to watch it a while back and something else took over. I'll put this on our 'possiblities' list. Thanks!

But now, for some reason I feel like rewatching The Blair Witch Project, Hocus Pocus, and The Witches of Eastwick. I also bumped into Häxan, which is a 1922 Swedish Danish silent film which could be fun. Free on YouTube, search for häxan 1922 full movie. I posted a link but it gets disabled when transferred to DU.

[wolfie001]

121. Oh thanks! Some stuff to check out here!

SJP was so cute in 'Hocus Pocus'.

[Joinfortmill]

26. Sue them. Sue every fucking one of them

[chowder66]

28. That is so damn disturbing.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

29. Video on youtube

https://youtube.com/shorts/PR-Dp3zyxJ4

[Hope22]

39. That woman probably has dementia.

She is either frightened for the trouble she caused or not all there. I hope she gets sued big time! This is disgraceful. Next up young women not acting lady like hauled off to jail for god knows what.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

75. Why would you make that assumption?

[Hope22]

83. The look in her eyes...

Just saying, she’s either startled at the ruckus she caused….or has a problem. I’ve seen that look before in my elders. Not trying to be rude but I did give two options.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

86. That's quite a lot to draw out of a split second of footage. And either one doesn't explain away racism, or the fact

that no one else spoke up for O'Keefe.

[Hope22]

98. That's a lot of defending a white woman who got a black man thrown off a train...for no reason.

Destroyed his day and needless to say his navigating this screwed up country. Yup, I’ll apologize to her when he gets justice. Like I said I gave two options. You choose or invent your own. I’m out.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

100. You think I'm defending her? I'm saying she did what she did because she's a racist old white woman.

[hamsterjill]

32. Okay, now I'm gonna sound like a Karen (and I hate that term!!!), but hear me out, please

I'm always wary of videos like this because they never show the before and after. I've seen plenty on social media that claim to "prove" something, and when you watch the actual video, it doesn't give the whole story. Then you read the news later and it's a whole different story than what's in the video. But here...

But what in the hell could he have been doing to that woman??? I mean, I thought maybe he was slouched and blocking the aisle or something. But her seat is behind his and isn't even part of the same set of seats.

It's absurd that he isn't being told WHY he's being arrested and detained. That's the part that really bothers me. The police can just grab someone on a train, put them in handcuffs and take them off without an explanation? Every law enforcement office now thinks they can behave like ICE and get away with it?

[Number9Dream]

94. We also hate the term "Karen"...

We know two Karens. One is a veterinary technician, the other a retired high school teacher. They are two of the nicest people.
Please stop using that term.

[hamsterjill]

97. Agreed, but note that I was referring to the OP.

Mr. O'Keefe uses the term in his Instagram post that is appended in the OP. So tell that to him.

[yardwork]

117. The NYC subway system is under attack by Trump.

Trump and his minions keep saying that it's dangerous to ride the subway. I expect the local authorities are hypersensitive about any appearance of "crime.'

In this case it was an older white woman who apparently said she felt unsafe or something, and we see the racist response.

Trump encourages the worst behavior in everyone.

[niyad]

33. This isn't something from history? This just happened???

[AverageOldGuy]

34. Sue the living shit out of everyone

The woman
Train
Cops

Go to the newspapers and TV

Marches and protests

And then really get serious

[live love laugh]

66. They didn't even communicate with the woman so they probably don't have her name.

[patphil]

35. He should sue the MTA for racial harassment...riding a train while black.

[Hope22]

38. Too bad no Karen photos..

The only way to stop this is shining the light! This is disgraceful. In 2009 officers with dogs boarded trains in Grand Junction, CO and Salt Lake and looked up brown people to inspect papers. The train employee, not sure if he was engineer or what cornered the officers on board and told them to stop targeting his passengers. He said the same passengers had been inspected/ targeted in AZ. The officers even walked across the top of the cars with the dogs. It was stomach churning. My heart goes out to non whites and women. We are truly f-ed!

[exboyfil]

43. It is on the cops as well

They had no RAS let alone probable cause to remove him from the train.

[Hope22]

48. Agree....

…that and I didn’t see a train representative there. They will most certainly be involved in the fallout. With any luck video will surface of what the infraction looked like!

[exboyfil]

50. Yes the rep would have to trespass him

To get him off the train, and they better have a pretty good reason for such a trespass order to remove him from a public accommodation like a train operated by the government. Even then he needs to be notified that he is being trespassed and given the opportunity to exit the train without being detained.

[Hope22]

88. I have witnessed a train employee tell officers to all but piss off.

The officer backed down too.

[Totally Tunsie]

40. I'd love to know specifically WHAT Police Dept. was involved

and at which MTA station the train was actually stopped.

Inquiring minds want to know!

[vanlassie]

53. The other white woman (police officer)

was l, way way out of line. She came in hot. Sue them.

[Totally Tunsie]

64. With apologies, vanlassie, I'm not understanding your reply

or how it relates to my questions. Clarify?

[vanlassie]

78. I can't recall but I imagine I made a mistake. Sorry.

[Totally Tunsie]

109. Relax and enjoy your evening.

[vanlassie]

113. You too.

[exboyfil]

42. Should be sent it to Audit the Audit, Lackluster, and The Civil Rights Attorney

That will get eyeballs on it.

No RAS for a detention and this was more than a detention. By removing him from the train, that was an arrest which requires probable cause.

He should get himself a lawyer.

[niyad]

55. RAS?

[exboyfil]

61. Reasonable Articulable Suspicion

[niyad]

103. Thank you. That is not exactly a common acronym.

[JustAnotherGen]

44. As I've ranted on Threads

It matters who that mean old you know what is. She needs to pay the price of public shaming for her 'Miss Anne' behavior. Guarantee that's not the first time she's White Supremacisted up around non-white people.

Those people never change. The American White Supremacist has been the same since 1619.

They never change.

[Lulu KC]

46. Posture?

Am I awake? Mind. Blown.

[Bayard]

104. I would like to see a pic of how he's sitting

I can't imagine anything in that context that would be offensive, unless he wasn't wearing pants.

On a side note--I love that movie!

[Lulu KC]

122. The description is now out there

(If only I could remember where I saw it--The Guardian? NYT?) He was sitting with his legs up, using two seats to stretch out. Okay, against the rules, blah blah but hardly worthy of an arrest! Handcuffs!? Etc.?

Argh.

[Bayard]

123. Did she ask him to move, or was she too afraid of his blackness?

[Lulu KC]

124. Here's the story I read

Looking it up in my history and voila! She complained to conductor, who called police.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/sep/23/the-bear-writer-alex-o-keefe

[pandr32]

47. OMG. We have to turn this around, and fast.

Way too much ugly is showing.

[Coventina]

49. Sue the pants off of them!!!

[1WorldHope]

52. Either EVERYONE goes out into the streets..

... or this country is going back to the 50's. The politicians are waiting for us to complain loud enough and big enough so they have the fortitude to stand up for us.
There is not enough dissent.
I join the white hairs 3 days a week to protest. I don't think anyone is afraid of us. I am losing all hope. What the fuck is it going to take to get people in the streets like they do in France and other countries?

[Americanme]

57. Seems racist to me.

When the woman complained to the conductor, the conductor should have told her the man was doing nothing wrong. When the conductor called the police, the police should have said the man was doing nothing wrong. This is insane.

[Sneederbunk]

59. What do the police reports say?

[Quanto Magnus]

60. That woman should be arrested

for making a false report.

[cbabe]

62. Sorry Karen, I'm not your Pullman porter anymore.

https://m.

&pp=0gcJCRsBo7VqN5tD

[Hekate]

69. Party like it's 1955 again. Oh wait, it's 2025 and the rotted corpse of Jim Crow has risen from its grave...

Jesus Christ on a Trailer Hitch.

[Celerity]

71. 1953 again.

Brown v. Board of Education

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and hence are unconstitutional, even if the segregated facilities are presumed to be equal. The decision partially overruled the Court's 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson, which had held that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that had come to be known as "separate but equal" and was rejected in Brown based on the argument that separate facilities are inherently unequal. The Court's unanimous decision in Brown and its related cases paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement, and a model for many future impact litigation cases.

[Hekate]

87. 55 to 25 rhymes visually

I originally wrote 1954, but went for what I went for. Also, I am an old lady who actually remembers what happened after Brown vs Board of Education, and it was ugly as sin.

[AdamGG]

70. They should need more probable cause to detain someone

than their posture while sitting on the subway. What if you were on your way to an important appointment and then you had to waste your time with this bullshit.

[Figarosmom]

72. He's a writer on a popular show

Seems he has a platform.

[mnhtnbb]

73. My youngest son was a grad student at Yale

and I rode the MTA back and forth from Manhattan to visit him several times while he was working toward his Master's and then Doctorate. I never encountered any issues with racism when on those trains. I never heard any stories from him, either, in all the time he and classmates would go into the city riding the MTA.
WTF has gotten in to people?

[Buddyzbuddy]

74. If the racists of America don't stop what they're doing

they're going to get the minorities they fear.

It will then become too late to regret their actions.

[Vinca]

77. That's insane. Arrested for poor posture??????????????????

[littlemissmartypants]

80. I'm so sorry, Alex O'Keefe. ...

So sorry, bigtree.

❤️💧

[highplainsdem]

82. So disgusting.

[Grins]

92. Someone should tell John Roberts!!!

He said that shit went away long ago.

[Grins]

93. "Henry Louis Gates Jr." Act I, Scene 2. NM

[Hassler]

96. I hope he informed the cops and old Karen

They would all feature prominently in a future script he'd be writing.

[70sEraVet]

102. That whole thing escalated into 'stupidland' needlessly

"....so she went to the conductor and complained. The conductor called the police and stopped the train."
The conductor should have just moved the woman to a different seat. Calling the police, stopping the train (the trains don't run on time if a black man isn't sitting up straight?) was all unnecessary.
Yeah, the police's solution is to arrest someone. Or to shoot them. Luckily, THAT didn't happen.

[PatrickforB]

105. Maybe O'Keefe should find out who the white lady is and sue her for a couple million. n/t

[electric_blue68]

106. WTF?!! (have errands to run, be back later)

[BumRushDaShow]

110. As noted upthread - Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. 16 years ago

[electric_blue68]

111. His Posture?! His Sitting?!! As before...WTF?!!

"You're disturbing the peace by being on the train" bc one pissy white woman complained for no reason ?
Arrggggg!!!

No one else complained. And they didn't even talk to her. 😑

Oh, Mr. O'Keefe, I'm sorry you had to endure yet another abuse living while Black.
Feck!

I remember that napping Black student incident

[electric_blue68]

115. Re-reading and seeing the vid...

So we don't know whether she came in through the entrance/exit by her seat. Ot she came from the the other end of the car, and passed by Mr O'Keefe. More likely the close by entrance.

To the dementia comment - she had enough presence of mind to go get a conductor! (Who probably should of told her to let it be)

She's in the end of the car double facing seats in the set closest to the exit so she's not even next to him, or in front of him in the next seat. If he happened to have his leg sticking out in the aisle it's still no reason to be arrested, and would really be rude only if he didn't pull it in when someone heading one way or the other wants to get by.

Of course, she could be so racist that she was upset he was facing in her direction. Seems like there might have been other seats available.

I guess we'll see if more info emerges. Hoping Mr O'Keefe will get a good lawyer. Just wow.

[sl8]

119. NBC/AP article:

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/onetime-writer-fx-bear-taken-nyc-train-handcuffs-rcna233095

Onetime writer for FX's 'The Bear' taken off NYC train in handcuffs

Alex O'Keefe, 31, won a 2023 Writers Guild Award with other writers as "The Bear" was named best comedy series.

Sept. 22, 2025, 9:08 PM EDT / Source: The Associated Press
By The 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.

[..._]

[gulliver]

126. Looks like he broke the rules and behaved like a jerk

Now, was he breaking the rules and behaving like a jerk (by not moving his feet) before or after somebody provoked this behavior from him? I'll wait for the evidence.

But I want to know why he didn't move his feet. I'm for obeying rules, especially when the elderly are involved.

Not obeying rules, and not standing up for people standing up for rules hurts the reputation of the person who didn't obey the rules and the reputation of any group that tolerates it.

[ck4829]

125. Chilling.

[MuseRider]

127. Someone has likely said this already but

I just got home and have not had all the time to read through so.....if a repeat I think it should be something we think about every day anywway. Never should we let a single person be taken by police without a witness or someone who just says whatever they need to say to keep by the side of the person being taken away. I am dumbfounded at how this action seems to be coming more and more common. I don't care who you are, if I witnessed I will get to you somehow. GOD this pisses me off to no end. We are all at risk but it is surely being directed to single groups of people.