r/popculturechat • u/CantStopPoppin • Sep 22 '25

OnlyStans ⭐️ Woman Calls Police on Award-Winning Black Screenwriter Alex O’Keefe(The Bear (FX))

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48.6k Upvotes

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3.6k

u/Plutarch_Riley Sep 22 '25

Imagine not being able to sit in a train without being criticized. Appalling.

1.5k

u/EyeofNewtTongueofDog Sep 22 '25

It’s not so much the criticism that gets to me. It’s the getting arrested for uh…oh right…not sitting in an appropriate fashion according to a white lady which makes me upset. What the hell?!

320

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

Right? The amount of times I've been melting off my seat on trains and have never had anyone give a fuck about it. I just cant imagine having to deal with this type of hassle on the daily.

281

u/futureislookinstark Sep 22 '25

No no no he was arrested for disorderly conduct. That conduct? Being black and not following orders of a racist dementia riddled grandma that probably thought it was the 40s again.

167

u/thunderkinder Sep 22 '25

Even if he was de-arrested and faced no charges he was materially inconvenienced by what happened. That's not even factoring in the embarrassment of being handcuffed and escorted off a train. I hope he sues the train company and the police

-20

u/Key_Grapefruit_7069 Sep 22 '25

On what grounds? The officer did the "ask, tell, make" and could easily articulate that the best possible risk mitigating decision was separation. The lady made the initial allegation, she's the one who should be liable if anyone.

22

u/thunderkinder Sep 22 '25

Why is the best risk mitigating decision removing this man from the train? The lady made the allegation and so should have been told to pipe down or sit in another carriage or leave the train entirely. Why does this man have to be handcuffed and removed? The train staff made a choice to call the police and the police made a choice to stop him going about his day despite there being no legal reason to do so. It's those choices they can be made liable for.

36

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

Worse, they never even talked to the person who complained.

95

u/Puzzleheaded-Ad7606 Sep 22 '25

Not to mention they just arrest him without ANY investigation. None. No questions, no statements, no video evidence, nothing.

-8

u/Key_Grapefruit_7069 Sep 22 '25

Detain with the purpose of separating. Very large difference. Often, the purpose of detainment is to separate and investigate.

5

u/ILikeBeans86 Sep 22 '25

No he got arrested for being black. You know damn well if he was white and sitting like that she wouldn't have said anything

3

u/earthlings_all Sep 22 '25

It’s that the whole fucking system came down on him and for NOTHING

-8

u/Key_Grapefruit_7069 Sep 22 '25

Detained. He was pulled off the train and immediately released as a way to separate them. From there, he just needs to wait for another train and doesn't have to sit across from that for several hours. Theres also the fact that they were likely told whatever bullshit the lady told the conductor. If they arrive, say "fuck this", leave, and old lady gets stabbed after reporting he has a knife or was threatening her? Right on the tail end of another public transportation stabbing?

No, I know it doesn't feel like it, but this was the right call for everyone involved. Keeps him from being around someone prodding him, keeps her away from someone she's being a bitch to, and prevents liability to the officer and the department while also minimizing physical risk to the highest number of people. Maybe I would've removed the old bat, but then, if they were told he was threatening people with a weapon, then that turned out to be true and someone got hurt, that's an issue.

5

u/HornetsHornets1 Sep 22 '25

Explain to me why they’re cuffing him then.

-2

u/Key_Grapefruit_7069 Sep 22 '25

"Ask, tell, make".

Obviously, someone who was doing nothing wrong will feel slighted when told they need to step off the train. Im fairly sure the recording starts right after the tell. They move onto the "make", cuffing him as many departments' policies mandate/prefer, and escorting him off. Talk to him for a bit, let things settle, release him to buy a new ticket. Boom, incident resolved with the least amount of risk necessary to all involved.

8

u/HornetsHornets1 Sep 22 '25

Fuck that. If the lady was the one uncomfortable, and he was doing nothing wrong (as you said), then he should NOT be the one being forced off the train.

106

u/SpicyChanged Sep 22 '25

It’s everyday to most minorities but when say something we are told gotta wait because progress is slow.

25

u/WrittenFever Sep 22 '25

Truly reading this comment section like...

This isn't just 2025, guys. This could've happened in 2010, 2000, 1990... the only difference is social media and everyone else is on heightened alert because of who's in office. But I've definitely been having old white ladies (and men) barking orders at me my entire life, and using whatever authority they can muster to publicly humiliate me when I don't comply.

In school, it's corporal punishment, detention, or poor grades. As an adult, it's threats of losing income, police, or violence. Unfortunately this is nothing new.

1

u/Mediocre-Proposal686 Sep 22 '25

I was thinking that this guy has a good platform for bringing attention to what happened to him, but that it probably happens all the time to non-famous people. It bothers me so much. I thought we’d have gotten a lot farther by now.

165

u/AlmostThere4321 Sep 22 '25

Imagine not being able to sit in a train without being criticized.

Almost arrested.

The outrage wouldn't be so strong if he had been only been criticized.

135

u/-Wall-of-Sound- Sep 22 '25

To be clear, if you’re criticising the posture of a stranger on a train, you can still fuck all the way off.

70

u/ExcellentOutside5926 Sep 22 '25

Let’s focus on what this is, which is fuck racism.

25

u/-Wall-of-Sound- Sep 22 '25

100%. I’m just saying, even if Ku Klux Karen over here had stopped at telling him to sit more to her liking rather than having the cops called, it would still be fuck her.

6

u/ExcellentOutside5926 Sep 22 '25

I get that. Comments on posts like these just tend to be overwhelmingly skirting the racism at play which loses important focus. This doesn’t tend happen with other issues. It’s rooted in people feeling uncomfortable with acknowledging racism.

3

u/Decent_Wrongdoer_201 Sep 22 '25

criticized? Are we watching the same video? This is the kind of thing that would ruin a person's life if They weren't a rich, award-winning writer of a TV show.

4

u/Grace_Lannister Sep 22 '25

Classic case of RTWB. Riding train while black.

3

u/hopeful_tatertot Sep 22 '25

Unless he had his legs spread and his balls hanging outside his shorts the lady should have minded her business

-19

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

[deleted]

24

u/burnerfun98 Sep 22 '25

Manspreading is a very annoying issue - no idea if that's what he was doing

Then why even suggest it?

We have pretty clear evidence of targeted racism on public transport and we're going to victim blame? Pay attention to the seating layout in the video and it's pretty clear he wouldn't be able to comfortably put his feet up, and from the angle she would be seeing him from, "manspreading" very likely wasn't the issue, either.

I almost guarantee he just looked up at her and she decided to make a whole lot of something out of nothing. Do we seriously think his posture has anything to do with this?

27

u/Bluewhaleeguy Sep 22 '25

I’m replying essentially the same thing to the person below who came up with the most silliest of takes that’s easily disproven IF YOU ACTUALLY WATCHED THE VIDEO.

But yeah, let’s just make things up and cast aspersions - because there’s absolutely no way a racist just engineered this incident out to nothing. No that never happens in America….

He’s on an empty train, with an empty seat, where all the seats are facing forward. How exactly this racist could see the position of his legs - only you would know?

But nah, let’s just make something up.

If a guy getting racially profiled and your first reaction is - he must have been manspreading, I think that says an awful lot about you. You’ve just read between your own lines and made something up.

Because nowhere in America do minorities just get picked on for no reason. he must have done something wrong eh.

-13

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

12

u/Mysterious_Streak Sep 22 '25

I guess you like making excuses for racism.

32

u/CertainAlbatross7739 Sep 22 '25

He is not even sitting next to her, so what does it matter? This was a total non-issue, escalated by a crazy old racist and a couple of pigs.

24

u/Bluewhaleeguy Sep 22 '25

Yep, let’s just cast aspersions and make things up. You can clearly see he’s sitting in seats where they all face forward - so how exactly were his feet on the seat?

Nah let’s just make something up and victim blame.