Alex O’Keefe, a former writer for the hit FX show “The Bear,” complained of racial bias after he was forcibly removed from a commuter train while traveling from New York City to Connecticut.
The incident happened on Thursday, Sept. 18. O’Keefe recorded the encounter on his cell phone. He complained that an elderly white woman called police because of the way he was sitting on the train.
O’Keefe didn’t go into detail about how he was sitting.
In video clips, O’Keefe told officers, “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 on the train.”
MTA police handcuffed O’Keefe and briefly detained him on the train platform while the train left the station.
He was allowed to board another train.
Later, O’Keefe summarized the “racial bias” incident in social media posts.
“I was arrested on the @MTA train to Connecticut today, pulled off, handcuffed, and detained,” O’Keefe wrote in a video caption.
“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.”
He continued: “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.’ 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.”
The videos sparked outrage on social media.
In a statement to USA TODAY on Sept. 23, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority denied O’Keefe was arrested.
The MTA said officers followed procedure in briefly detaining a “disorderly passenger” who was “occupying two seats” and “had refused to remove his feet from one of the seats.”
The statement continued: “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 sea.”
The statement concluded that the officers told O’Keefe to exit to the platform, where he would be allowed to board the next train.
@IndisputableTYT @UrbanViewRadio @karenhunter
? Writer & organizer Alex O’Keefe (The Bear, Green New Deal comms, WGA activist) says he was removed from an MTA Metro-North train on Sept 19 after an elderly rider complained about how he was sitting. Conductor stopped the train,… pic.twitter.com/CxUl06Kc85— SPW NOLA (@SPW_NOLA) September 20, 2025
