Cop handcuffs and detains black man for eating a sandwich on subway platform

According to SFIST, Bay Area Rapid Transit Police “don’t exactly have a sterling reputation when it comes to the treatment of black people” in the San Francisco area. Being a Southern California person, I can’t immediately attest that to be true, but if a video posted by a Bay Area man named Bill Gluckman is indeed indicative of a pattern, it could be said that BART Police have some reassessing of priorities to do.

In a pair of videos posted to his Facebook page, Gluckman, who is black, is seen having a heated confrontation with BART police officer D. McCormick over a sandwich he was eating Monday morning at a BART station.

Gluckman was taken aside by Officer McCormick, who told him he wasn’t supposed to be eating a sandwich on the train platform. During the exchange, McCormick can be seen grasping onto Gluckman’s backpack.

 

Gluckman protested, saying he did nothing wrong, and repeatedly asked McCormick to let go of his backpack.

“You’re going to jail,” McCormick said.

“For eating a f*cking sandwich?” Gluckman fired back.

At various parts of the video, Gluckman hurls obscenities at McCormick.

According to reports, the incident got heated after Gluckman refused to show his ID. He ultimately wasn’t taken to jail.

While being interrogated by Gluckman’s friend, who took the video, McCormick says that he was initially called to the station due to reports of an intoxicated woman, who he didn’t find, but stumbled onto Gluckman in the meantime.

Reactions on social media were mixed, from people calling the officer a racist, to others saying Gluckman should have respected the law and not resisted.

In a statement to NBC Bay Area, BART Police said that Gluckman “was cited for eating which is a violation of state law.”

“No matter how you feel about eating on BART, the officer saw someone eating and asked him to stop, when he didn’t, he was given a citation,” a BART spokesperson told KRON 4. “The individual was not cooperative and was not providing his identification which is needed for a citation and is why the engagement lasted as long as it did.”

On Friday, a group of BART riders gathered in solidarity with Gluckman. Some brought sandwiches to eat on the platform in an act of civil disobedience. About 30 people showed up to the protest.

“I’ve got my lunch here, it’s very threatening as you can see,” protester JJ Naughton said.

Featured image via screen grab 

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.