A screenwriter for The Bear claims he was arrested because an “old white lady” didn’t like how he was sitting on a Connecticut-bound train.
Alex O’Keefe took to his Instagram to post a clip of the incident on a Metro-North train from last Thursday (Sept. 18). The video shows him protesting as police place him in handcuffs and escort him off the car.
Another clip shows him arguing with the police with his face to the wall as cops appear to write him a ticket. The post includes a photo of the “Karen” who complained about him, and another elderly white gentleman who looked on as O’Keefe was arrested.
“An old white woman got on the train and immediately pointed at me and told me to correct how I was sitting,” O’Keefe wrote. After she complained to the conductor, the “old Karen’s friend said ‘You’re not the minority anymore.’”
After he was removed from the train, police told him he was “disturbing the peace by not leaving.”
He added, “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?”
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Police Department issued a statement to the Daily Beast, saying that officers responded to the scene upon receiving a report of a “disorderly passenger” on the train.
“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 MTAPD told the outlet. Security footage later showed a “31 year-old male” who had “both legs stretched across an adjacent seat.”
After being removed from the train, O’Keefe was permitted to board the next train. He was issued a summons for disorderly conduct.
In 2023, O’Keefe won a Writers Guild of America Award for his work on Season 1 of The Bear. He’s also flexed his pen as a speech writer for politicians, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren.