By Tiffany Williams –
A onetime writer for FX’s hit show “The Bear” was hauled off a New York City commuter train in handcuffs after a fight over how he was sitting — an arrest he captured on video and blasted as racist.
Alex O’Keefe, 31, who is Black, said in an Instagram post that he was headed to Connecticut on a Metro-North train Thursday when a white woman complained to a conductor about his posture. Moments later, cops yanked him off the train in the Bronx.
“You’re going to arrest the one Black dude on the train, because this white woman said she didn’t like the way I was sitting,” O’Keefe can be heard saying in the clip, as officers move to cuff him. “Resisting what? What are you trying to arrest me for?”
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said O’Keefe had both legs stretched across an empty seat — a rules violation. They said a conductor called police after O’Keefe refused to move his legs.
Security video reviewed by the agency backed up the conductor’s account, officials said. Police stopped the train around 10:30 a.m. in the Bronx and slapped O’Keefe with a disorderly conduct summons before letting him continue on another train.
A bystander’s video later showed the TV writer standing cuffed on the platform, facing a wall as cops questioned him.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber shrugged off the firestorm Monday. “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,” he said, though he added the agency would review the footage.
O’Keefe, who shared a 2023 Writers Guild Award when “The Bear” won best comedy series, told the Associated Press he was working through requests with his legal team and was “wary of being the center of a culture war in this political climate.”