In the caption of the Instagram post, he wrote, “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,” he said.
O’Keefe also says in the caption that the friend of the woman who called the police had said to him, “You’re not the minority anymore.”
A separate video about the incident has been uploaded by the user, Nalae, on TikTok, where it has quickly gone viral, having been viewed over 160,000 times as of reporting.
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?"
The article is purposely misleading.
From another article: The Bear’ writer booted from MTA train for refusing to take feet off seats — he blames ‘old white lady’
lmfao jesus the misleadingness of it
get your fucking feet off the seat or get off the train
if they leave that out, I trust nothing they said about how the rest of it went
Sure it sucks, but involving the police in someone having their feet on the seat? Way to overreact.
Pretty standard for disorderly passengers in the subway. Nothing really novel about this.
I’ve rode the subway for over 20 years and have not once ever seen the cops called for anything less than a fist fight.
I’ve ridden the subway in sf probably about 10 times, or so, total in my life and I’ve seen the cops called twice. I know on at least one occassion it was because a homeless person was basically just agitated and making people uncomfortable.
There was a video about attempting to arrest someone eating a sandwich when it wasn’t allowed. You have to enforce the rules for people who refuse to stop after a warning otherwise there’s no point in having any rules at all.
It seems petty but it’s only petty by the person refusing to follow them
The conductor was being ignored, he controls what happens on his train.
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Her comment of “you aren’t the minority anymore” starts to make some sense maybe.
Like I infer his refusal to take feet off seat and then claim persecution when consequences happen, are nothing to do with him being black minority being picked on. So she is inferring he is being treated just like anyone else.
But I have no way to verify that assumption
I feel like a crazy person reading all of your comments saying it’s justified to call the cops and arrest someone for having their feet on the seats.
Anti-social behaviour on this level should not have people reaching for the state violence button.
I’m not saying cops need to come, but a conductor or ship captain gets to make the rules and people have to follow them or get asked to leave, like he was. If nobody has to listen to travel provider authority then there is zero order. Imagine being on a plane and refusingbto buckle up…you get removed, because ifbyou can’t follow an easy rule you are going to be a bigger problem in flight
Why do you trust that article more than this one? Did you see his feet on the seat?
Real question, is feet-on-the-seat something people are typically arrested for there?
This is what happens when a malignant narcissist emboldens abd enables the racist sociopaths.
Immediately pointed to me and told me to correct how I was sitting.
Old white women try to remember it’s not 1952 challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
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whoever wrote the article sucks
How does one sit “offensively” on a train? All the coverage of this seems to just skip over that. Was he sitting with no pants? Laying across 3 seats? This is a novel one for me.
The article is purposely misleading.
From another article: The Bear’ writer booted from MTA train for refusing to take feet off seats — he blames ‘old white lady’
Aha, there you go. I don’t think anyone should put their feet on the seat, but I also wouldn’t alert the police about this.
I can tell why he seemed to leave that bit out of the story. His story is a lot less sympathetic if you frame it as:
“I was sitting on the train and had my feet up on a seat. I refused to take my feet off the seat, so she complained to the conductor. Then ??? and I was getting arrested.”
People with their feet on the seats really bothers me. It’s extra crass if the train was full and he wouldn’t move his feet, but I am not sure if this was a packed car or not. Either way, it’s disrespectful to have your feet on the seat in public transit, and I’d be curious what his exact language was when refusing. Definitely not an arrest-able offense, but this guy sounds like a jerk. I hope we get to see bodycams at one point.
They didn’t call the police, they went to the conductor, who in turn called the police.
Where I live, and you don’t listen to the conductor, they will call the police that specifically handles train security. Not to arrest you but to get you off the train. In most cases it’s to fine the people that get caught without a ticket. If you really misbehave they can legally hold you until the real police arrives.
Yeah, its a different story where we need more context. Racist old lady has blackman arrested, vs entitled idiot was too arrogant to allow others to sit down by placing his feet on open seats. Somewhere in both of those lies the truth.
she meant he should sit at the back
What is your source for this? Even the quote from above says “how” he was sitting, not “where”. Did someone else have better coverage?
It’s just a reference to racism and Rosa Parks
Err, what?
Sorry I thought you were answering another comment!
It’s a stupid question, I gave it a stupid/nonserious answer. It’s like someone else mentioned a reference.
Yeah, except it fundamentally changes the situation under discussion. Turns out he had his feet on the seat NOT that the woman wanted him to move to the back. Totally different.
ok, my bad
So who is the minority now? And what flex does she think that means?
This thread is strange- is this some kind of palintir/fsb operation to spread rage and despair? I’m so sick of having my emotions manipulated. Also some people should reflect on their misogyny maybe. And ageism, Americans have been trying to sell me their toxic ageism my whole life. And their racism, obviously, but also race shit stirring. Anyway fuck the internet, I left reddit because my brain was being messed with… Back to books, Tony Morrison today.
What will you do about it?
Stay on the train and punch the Karen in the face before getting off at the next stop.
What is this world coming to?
What is this world coming to?
Fascism.
But the US is way ahead on that.
Racist old gal? not in this times where holy persons like Kirk exist. /s
He was sitting with his feet on the seats and refused to take them off, so the conductor did have cause, since it takes a space from somebody else
Plus who wants to sit in whatever mess you may have stepped in
This guy would have definitely thrown a fit if somebody else had their feet up on his seat.
WTF. She probably wears that face mask all the time, you know those weirdos that wears them even if they’re not sick.
You mean that white pointy one with the eye holes?
“You’re not the minority anymore.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
This says so much. They think “minority” means a person who gets special treatment. That’s how fucking deluded they’ve become.
That… explains so much. Racists are fucking jealous that black people get to be oppressed??? Is it like some martyrdom by proxy fuckedupedness?
Sorta. I was raised with this bullshit, so I can see the distortion of reality. I’m still unpacking all this in therapy myself, because it’s a whole worldview.
First off, they’re woefully uneducated about history. My high school in Oklahoma briefly touched on the Civil Rights Movement and tried to pass it off as something that was over and done. Rosa Parks got arrested, the white people were shocked that this could happen, they had a sit-in party at a milkshake stand (they didn’t talk about any of the pushback that got), MLK did his speech and now everything is fine for black people, no more institutional racism, literally being taught in schools. Now, combine that with your own needs not being met, and the talking heads/politicans say that you’re not getting the aid you need because it’s going towards making hurt feelings better. There’s only so much money in the coffers, and you gotta be really hard up if you’re white, but it’s easy to get if you’re black.
There’s also a heavy religious framing about ancestral guilt. Like, if God can make life suck for everybody because Eve ate an apple, and libs are trying to play god, it follows to reason they’d want to make your life suck for the sins of your great-great-great grandparents. It’s never outright stated, but if you listen to enough sermons, the puzzle fills in. Like, again, they think the civil rights movement fixed everything, so they think white people have atoned for their transgressions, but the pastor says libs are in consort with satan and can’t forgive like jesus, so that’s why they want white people to suffer.
Edit: I want to make it clear that I do not personally believe any of that, it’s just what I was taught as a kid.
I appreciate you identifying where in the GOP’s propaganda they lead young people astray.
People like you doing a retrospective autobiopsy via therapy can help those of growing up in other contexts protect young people from propaganda, and distribute to them the truth.
Speak your truth! It’s only becoming more important as time goes on in this increasingly fascistic world.
My favorite part of this is the only people making the ignorant racist lives suck are the Republicans taking everything not the left asking them to be tolerant…
It’s like that comic about the guy with a plateful of cookies telling one guy that ta third guy is going to take his singular cookie. There are 2 types of republicans - one that takes, and one that gets taken from just as much as the left. The prior group has convinced the latter group that the actual thief is the left, who are in just as bad of a position as they are, if not worse. That’s why they can’t believe it. They’re not taking everything, at least not enough to make ends meet most of the time, same as us. It’s the much smaller fraction of rich republicans that are doing the taking. The issue is that they can’t believe that truth, and so they lash out and become a completely different problem.
This is why the term “color blind” is used by someone trying to go the right way, but still not getting it, which leads to the ignorance of their racism. In being blind you are blind to the fact that racism still exist and isn’t fixed. Then that leads to incorrect beliefs like “minorities are getting special priveleges and when they don’t have the same quality of life it is because of their own poor behavior” as opposed to acknowledging the systemic racism still in place.
Sometimes, but not always. I used to call myself colorblind, but I could see how the cops treated my black friends worse than they treated me. At one point, they rounded us up waiting at the bus stop (there was an abandoned restaurant by the bus stop, and the cops said we were trying to break in), and all my POC friends got frisked, but I was the only blonde girl, so I just got a talking to about how “hanging out with the wrong crowd will ruin my life”. Some of those kids are working on their PhD now, so “wrong crowd”, kiss my ass.
I understood “colorblind” as a “skin tone has no bearing on how I interact with you, we’re all human”.
I always thought that “everybody gets treated the same at first, adjust as we go along” was respectful, but then moved to the west coast and it’s apparently a horribly racist thing to do here, and I don’t understand why?? Something about how black people are going through struggles I can’t understand, but I also thought that everybody had struggles I don’t know about?
Like, if I don’t make assumptions about somebody in a wheelchair, it’s a good thing and not ableist, but if I don’t make assumptions about a black person, it’s a bad thing and racist? I have never been able to understand how people up here think it’s less racist to stereotype an ethnicity.
There’s also the problem with white “leftists” up here not actually knowing any POC and getting it from fucking facebook memes. Like, I had a white person once tell me, in all seriousness, that me saying “hey, what’s up” is appropriating AAVE and the correct thing to say in greeting to a black person is “I see and respect our differences”. I said that sounded patronizing as fuck, and she said I should join the kkk with that attitude.
Unlearning racism has been an awful experience, really. I’m listening to what black people say they want, but that’s somehow still racist, and I’m so close to just giving up and doing what feels right to me.
Colorblind is removing their identity.
You are still a black, white, brown, etc. person (I’m using {color} from now on cause I don’t want to type an array of colors each time). The person’s experiences as a {color} person are valid.
While you shouldn’t treat someone different because they are {color}, you should validate that they ARE different and celebrate those differences in an appropriate fashion.
It’s like a friend coming out to you and you reply “I don’t care”, while that is not the worst way to respond and you mean well, you are invalidating WHO they are.
I think this is much more eloquently illustrates my point: https://youtu.be/91O7q7D4xnU
Consider therapy. It helps
Consider therapy. It helps
Thanks, you must have missed where I said I’m slowly unpacking all this in therapy. My therapist says I’m doing good, and that I’m not a racist monster because I’m putting in the effort, but that doesn’t seem to be a common definition. In any case, I don’t call myself colorblind any more, even if I don’t understand why, people do react poorly, so I don’t do it any more. This is retrospective.
It’s like a friend coming out to you and you reply “I don’t care”, while that is not the worst way to respond and you mean well, you are invalidating WHO they are.
But when I called myself ‘colorblind’ I wasn’t saying “I don’t care”, I was saying “Okay, tell me what that means”.
Like, when I came out, I absolutely hated how big of a deal people made about it. I had people “validate that I was different”, but it felt like they were just making fun of me for being different because it was all weirdly patronizing. All this nonsense about “it’s okay that you like boys and girls, you’re still my friend” when I’m an adult who is into men and women, and I wouldn’t have started hanging out with you if I thought you didn’t like gay people? I’m still me, I haven’t changed, and stroking my ego is just telling me that you feel weird around me now that you know I’m not ‘normal’.
I still felt stereotyped and unwelcome, even though they were being “inclusive”, and I don’t want to do that to black people. I don’t understand why that’s racist.
They honestly think that black people and minorities have it on easy street.
thats because they are afraid of the power and riches they accumulated through subjugating minorities, will be used against them in retribution, so they go the extra mile , with the help aristocrats/oligarchs to keep the status quo. also white people are extra defensive when discussing racism as well. even if they arnt outwardly racist(closeted racist), i witness how they act around people that are not white , especially when they either look or approach near them.
during covid, like in the midst of it a older white lady dint like i was getting on the train the same time i was, she said it was not nice to go before “an older lady”, i muttered bitch under my breath, you would do that to another white man or lady, but you would do that to a POC, because you will get immediate clapback from a white person over a POC. AS FAR as covid was concerned she wasnt masked, or properly masked. the entrance to train was large enough where 2 people can get on the same time.
Yep. It’s like a child fighting for the attention of an abusive parent.
on reddit, people said racist white people like that are afraid they do the same thing to them, of how they persecuted the blacks, so they act extra “im not racist, your being racist for calling out my race”. they also try to deflect white privilege as a non-existential issue.
They should be made to understood what it means to be a minority if they want that status.
Moreover, throw them in jail legitimately, since they misused the justice system.
I honestly had trouble parsing that statement until I read this comment; it was nice being stupid and ignorant for a minute.
Its a tale as old as time that they’d strip protections against racism, implement racist laws, and then pretend as if slavery was so long ago that it didn’t matter anymore. It was literally happening not a decade after the Civil War ended
Thank you. I’ve been looking for a single comment to explain the lunatic doublespeak she was using.
MAGA is literally a cult of fascism.
Cops are racists.
I mean what the actual fuck?!? If this is only half as egregious as this is being portrayed I wish I had been there. I would have told that old white Karen to shut the fuck up. And I don’t even know who this dude is. And I’m an old white dude.
Us old white dudes have a responsibility to get involved in these events.
Exactly…
The only thing better is some old white grandma getting involved. Pretty sure sweet old ladies outranks an old “Susan”.
I’m only 42 but I hope to be brave enough one day to be such a “sweet old lady” who kicks some ass.
Sounds like there’s a market for “Comfy Steel-toed Boots For Ass Kicking Old Ladies”. Let me find that 100k I put under my mattress…
I know cops are scary, but white people need to realise their power in a situation like this. Being white gives you like a +80% modifier in interactions with the police. Even just getting in the space and being a clueless white dude asking questions spreads that modifier to allies in proximity, including those being arrested.
By getting involved you raise the expectation of civility, because our fucking society is racist.
“I was there and heard that Karen screaming (fill in a bunch of racist shit). She said no one would take his word for it. You see that trash on the ground? She threw it at him and missed. He was minding his own business and tried to walk away, but she wouldn’t let him be. Then she started going on about (aliens or jewish lasers or some real schizo shit). I think she’s having a breakdown or fit.”
Can confirm. I regularly cuss out and yell at cops that are harassing homeless people, not even violating their rights, other than their 14th amendment rights to freedom of movement.
There are clips online of crazy white people straight up attacking the cops, and the cops are just like “well shit, now what?”
It’s so fucked up that this is true
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Indeed and I do (60, 6’2" 100kg white guy) here in Australia, and it’s most often some old white entitled woman. (My 82 yr oldmother is one of these, she doesnt think our First Nations people should be allowed on the same sidewalk as her)
Problem is I then get called out for being a pedo/rapist , this has happened a couple times for calling out some racist bitch.
He literally says he refused to sit right on the MTAs seats. They decided how he was sitting was not appropriate conduct and HE refused to adjust for the MTA.
You don’t get to put your feet up on the seats just because you’re a “celebrity writer”, or black, or have a tiktok.
If you refuse their rules, they can refuse you service.
He literally says he refused to sit right on the MTAs seats.
No he did not. This is what he said.
this white woman said she didn’t like the way I was sitting on the train."
Yes, trains have rules… Like elections…
And if your sense of rules breaks down, your country might turn to shit.
I don’t know how to tell you this buddy…
Hehe, yeah… When even the Holocaust museum is self censoring, there might be err… Something wrong.
Slippery slope. First people are putting their feet up and then we descend into chaos. That’s pretty unhinged theory.
Yeah, we get that. The thing is, there’s no rule that says how you should sit on a train, that’d be ridiculous (ofc you shouldn’t invade other seats or put your feet on them).
The article explains that an entitled white woman told a black man that she didn’t like the way he was sitting, and because the white is always right in America, that poor man got pulled out from the train and arrested: no questions asked whatsoever.
Imagine that someone tells you “I don’t like the way you word your comments” and then you get reported and banned for that without way to defend yourself; it’s the same here except that this involves racism.
“there’s no rule that says how you should sit on a train”
Yes there are:
Riders may not lie down or place feet on the seat of a train, bus or platform bench or occupy more than one seat. Riders may not place bags or personal items on seats.
How often is that rule applied equally across all riders and by all conductors?
Was the specific rider caught doing this singled out for a specific reason? Was it a random selection?
Should riders enforce rules, or should that be left up to the conductors?
A rule only exists if it is enforced.
It’s probably applied whenever a conductor is told… And that is the conductor enforcing the rules.
How was he sitting that was so improper?
Riders may not lie down or place feet on the seat of a train, bus or platform bench or occupy more than one seat. Riders may not place bags or personal items on seats.
Conveniently left out that it’s a $50 fine and not removal or arrest.
Yes, you’d have to escalate and be beligerent to have that happen. Happens everyday, with people who don’t believe themselves celebrities.
Oh no! He’s getting mad because he’s getting removed for no reason! Very stupid.
You’ve been told the reason Sir, and given the option of moving your feet off the seats. If you continue to refuse I’ll have to ask you to get off the train.
Since you’re in here making claims, I’m positive you have a source that backs your started claim up? Something I’m sure you’d love to share with the rest of the class? Hmm? Got some proof…?
That the issue was how he was sitting, and that he refused to change that is not disputed by anyone in the story.
He states it himself:
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 MTA isn’t a country club, they deal with people of every race everyday. They also deal with people who refuse the rules everyday.
Show me where he violated your holy rules. I’ll wait. “The old bag said so” doesn’t count as a source, young man, so, it won’t be accepted as one.
if the MTA worker also decides you’re in the wrong, then you’re in the wrong…
"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," he said.
So this clearly isn’t just the old lady. It’s someone who works a low paid public facing job and doesn’t need this shit.
If old people AND customer service people are against you, you might be the problem.
“Correct how I was sitting” could literally mean ANYTHING. Maybe she wanted him to sit up straight, maybe he was “manspreading”, it’s really impossible to know from the description here.
If camera footage shows him taking up two seats or putting his feet up or something, fine, but stopping a train because someone “refuses to sit ‘properly’”? Seriously?
Yeah, we can conclude from the MTA workers actions that it probably wasn’t a posture or slouching issue - and that it was probably something much more common… Like having your feet up on the seats.
The MTA isn’t stopping a train because someone is slouching.
Which of those things was he doing?
Why choose, they’re all against the rules. The MTA decided which one, and he says himself he refused to change his position.
“I refused”
His words, not mine.
So you’re saying we don’t know that he actually was doing any of them, then.
MTA workers deal with 1000s of people everyday. They’re not singling people out on any grounds but whether you’re following the rules or not.
Those two bitches had bags on the seats in front of him…fuck you!
He should have complained to the MTA officer then. But they can have bags on their seats when they’re not sitting on them. You can put bags on the seat you’re sitting on, just not on a separate seat.
It’s one seat per passager.
Yeah! I mean sitting incorrectly in the train?? He’s lucky they didn’t shoot him on the spot!
Apparently having rules and accepting when the conductor asks you to follow them is just a thing in public transport etiquette:
What you’re missing is that the response was out of proportion. If I park my car in a street sweeping zone, they don’t cart me off to jail, they write a ticket.
No one was carted off to jail. He was removed from the train, released and told to get the next one.
Where do you people get this misinformation?
Reading comprehension: 0%
A ticket isn’t a free pass to keep breaking a rule.
The conductor called the police and stopped the train," he said.
Well there’s your problem, the conductor should have told this woman to do one. Let’s say that he had his feet up on a seat, or whatever, in what world do you stop the train service entirely for that.
Imagine grounding a plane for this.
Interrupting everyone else’s life because yours is inconvenienced, not even impacted, should not be allowed.
Entitled mess of a human
I am thinking she didn’t go to the conductor with the actual complaint. Instead, like the Central Park Karen, she probably came up with some horror story of the man assaulting her or some such. He noted, after all, that they didn’t even take her statement when arresting him (for no reason).
There’s an “aggressive” man on the train… each time we say something racist we feel in even greater danger. Halp.
Yeah, you’d just ask him to not do that, explain that it’s a rule …and that’d be that!
And if it’s bothering her so much, change train cars! Sit a few seats down. Get on another train.
Admittedly, this is harder when you don’t have robust public transit.
The way you get more robust public transit is people using it though (and voting for it). Enforcing rules in this works against that imo
Why should some old lady move because some young guy is breaking the rules. Why can’t she try to tell him then go tell the conductor when he refuses to obey the basic rules of public transport.
That sounds like a good way to approach the situation.
Ask the other rider to fix their behavior. If they don’t, ask the conductor to ask the other rider to fix their behavior. If they don’t, I don’t think you need to call the cops.
The conductor could just as much charge the rider some fee that can be posted in the rider policy of the train, in the train, in the ticketing app for the train, at the station, etc. This way the train owner/operator can collect some remedy for the rider’s violation of the rules to help fund remediating the rider’s impact to the train environment (like cleaning their specific seat when that’s usually outside the conductor’s responsibilities), including a markup if they want to add that.
Now, I don’t think charging fees will work for every violation. But I still think it’s a valid lever the train owner/operator could make use of instead of bringing the entire train to a halt.
If the rider refuses to pay up, then call the cops. Or, the conductor could also ask the rider in violation to exit the train at the next stop. That’s another option. If that fails, call the cops.
Additionally, if cops are needed, the conductor could call them and ask them to meet the train at one of the stops coming up. This way the arrival of the cops could be timed with the arrival of the train to the station. Minimizes impact to everyone else’s schedule, and ensures cops have access to the train since most of the time spent on a train is in between stations which often isn’t accessible by road.
I think there are ways to better manage this than to stop a train as soon as a conductor witnesses a violation and start a train only after cops arrive to that specific location and escort the rider violator off the train.
A reasonable take. Others in the thread have cited the rules call for a fine for infractions like this anyway.
“You’re not the minority anymore.”
It’s a code for “you’re in Trump America, now.”
It also makes 0 sense while still sounding racist, so definitely trumpian
💯
its also a codework, its okay for us to say the N-word with the hard R.
