Officials have launched an investigation after a viral video showed a white transit officer seemingly detaining a black man for eating a sandwich on a train platform in San Francisco.
Bill Gluckman said in a Facebook post that he was eating his breakfast before riding the BART, the subway system in the San Francisco Bay Area, when he was approached by the officer last week.
He can be heard telling the officer in a video shared to his profile: “You singled me out of all these people.”
“You’re eating”, the officer can be heard saying in response.
Mr Gluckman replied: “So what?”
The video caused a backlash among San Francisco residents and officials, who participated in an “eat-in” protest on BART train platforms during the weekend and criticised the incident as an act of racism.
Mr Gluckman wrote in a caption to the video: “Just out of curiosity ... has anybody ever got arrested and written a ticket for eating a breakfast sandwich on a Bart platform at 8:00 in the morning. Nobody? Just me? Okay.”
BART later confirmed the passenger was issued a citation on 4 November, adding that he “was not arrested” but rather “cited for eating which is a violation of state law”.
The statement continued: “It isn’t just a policy or ordinance, it is penal code.”
Rebecca Saltzman, BART’s board vice president, also said she and “other BART directors are following up with management” after the subway system’s independent police auditor received a complaint about the incident.
While an extended video of the exchange showed the passenger berating the officer, demonstrators who showed up to a protest told media there were bigger priority issues the subway system was facing than handing out citations for eating food.
“We can be doing better things, like preventing people from defecating or whatever on BART,” one resident named Nika Sanchez told NBC Bay Area.
John Riemann, another demonstrator at the eat-in, told ABC 7 News: “To me, I have no doubt this guy was treated differently because he is a young black man.”
