Sept. 18 incident<\/a> to Instagram. He documented MTA police in New York placing him in handcuffs for alleged disorderly conduct. In the caption of his post, the speechwriter \u2014 who is Black \u2014 alleged that officials detained him on a train after an \u201cold white woman\u201d complained about how he was sitting. He claimed the woman took issue with the \u201cone Black person on the train.\u201d<\/p>\nThe MTA Police Department confirmed it responded to a \u201creport of a disorderly passenger\u201d at the Fordham Metro-North station in the Bronx. A conductor reported that a 31-year-old passenger occupied two seats and \u201crefused to remove his feet from one of the seats.\u201d <\/p>\n
Police accused O\u2019Keefe of placing both his legs across an adjacent seat, violating the rail line\u2019s rules. They also accused him of refusing police directions to exit the train onto the platform and to board a following train. O\u2019Keefe delayed service \u201cfor several hundred other riders for six minutes,\u201d police alleged, and was handcuffed and removed from the train.<\/p>\n
In his Instagram post about the incident, O\u2019Keefe alleged that a friend of the woman who scolded his manner of sitting told him, \u201cYou\u2019re not the minority anymore.\u201d He added that police \u201carrested\u201d him without \u201ceven talking to the Karen who reported the one Black person on the train\u201d and that only other Black passengers recorded the dispute. <\/p>\n
Police refuted that and said O\u2019Keefe \u201cwas not placed under arrest at any time\u201d during the incident. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Keefe doubled down on his previous denials of wrongdoing in a statement shared Tuesday, writing, \u201cI was harassed and detained for sitting while Black. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday, the court made a clear judgement: I did nothing illegal on September 18. Like millions of New Yorkers, I was going to work to earn a living and support my family,\u201d he added. \u201cEven though this absurd case was dismissed today, I will continue to defend the civil rights of every New Yorker. Every worker has a right to a safe commute.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n