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?"
https://abcnews.go.com/US/former-bear-writer-handcuffed-train-after-allegedcomplaint-white/story?id=125829965
It’s not a racial thing he was refusing to obey the rules when the conductor asked him. The article is literally saying that.
Go try it, ANYONE would get kicked off when doing that.
This is laughably false. People put their feet on the seats on MTA transit all the time. Do you even ride these trains?
(Personally, I have a very negative opinion of people who take up excessive space on the trains, but I would never call the police over it, nor rat them out to the authorities.)
You gotta zoom out a little to see the racism. The racism isn’t in the rules about sitting. The racism is in how the rules are unevenly applied.
You leave your feet up when a conductor is telling you to put them down. You’re off.
It’s like no one is hearing the basics here.
You’re missing or refusing to see the point that the conductor is likely policing certain people’s behavior more
So yes, if the conductor or the police tell you to do something and you refuse you’re probably going to have a bad time. But more importantly, that situation is far more likely to occur in the first place if you’re a minority. It’s likely there was a white guy on that train sitting “badly” and no one policed him.
Zoom out more.
The conductor wasn’t bothering with the guy until the old lady complained.
So your idea doesn’t match the facts.
It was only AFTER the old lady got the conductor to talk to the O’Keefe AND that O’Keefe continued to refuse to move his feet off the seat that further action was required.
So no, the conductor wasn’t going out of his way due to racism. MTA conductors walk past this stuff all the time. But when asked, when it’s brought up and they’re in front of you: MOVE YOUR DAMN FEET.
… otherwise you’re going to get kicked off.
People can’t get the basic facts straight on this. The conductor WAS leaving everyone alone until the old lady, and O’Keefe’s continued refusal caused further action.
It’s O’Keefe doing that. Not your “The Racost conductor picking on all the black people” narrative. It’s the MTA not a country club.
Calling some random low paid MTA worker racist, doesn’t solve-racism. You’re doing people a disservice, not solving racism.
Do you think the old lady complained more or less because the guy was black? Do you think the MTA guy has any discretion? How many other people got the police called on them for sitting “improperly”?
I feel like you don’t accept the concepts of privilege and systemic problems, and are really zoomed in on individual actions to the point of not being able to see the whole picture.
The old lady probably complained because the guy was black. The MTA conductor probably escalated for similar reasons. The victim may have reacted negatively because of decades of racially driven abuse.
I’m not really sure if you’re arguing in good faith, or have some emotional investment in disbelieving racism can be pervasive and covered by other plausible excuses.
I believe in racism AND systemic racism. But this ain’t it. This is another day on the MTA - the only difference is a “celebrity” with a tiktok following is involved. Here’s a white MTA worker dragging a white guy off a train. I bet you would call that racism if it were a black man being dragged off. But in truth beligerent customers are an everyday thing. That’s how the public are. That’s how public transport is. MTA worker punched in the face, after asking someone to get off the train… MTA worker sucker-punched at random. This is real life, you’re not the main character just because you have tiktok followers and wrote a speech for Elizabeth Warren.
I don’t believe you. I don’t think this conversation is worth continuing further.
I already laid out the case for systemic racism yesterday:
https://lemmy.world/comment/19545014
You want to disbelieve me sure… I’ll just note that you’re leaving now that other MTA cases have been shown to you. Worse ones where shit just went down without celebrity tiktokers claiming it was racism.
That’s all. Make trouble on the MTA get asked to leave. That’s how it goes down on the regular.
MTA bus driver stabbed, - . Atttacks on MTA workers on the rise… The M stands for mass by the way… As in, a massive amount of public interactions each day.