His crime: taking up more than one seat.
The New York City Police Department confirmed to The Gothamist that they arrested a man shown in the video because he was “committing a Transit Rules and Regulations violation of laying outstretched occupying more than one seat.”
A video of the incident, filmed by a by-stander, was published Wednesday, but the arrest took place on May 30 shortly after 4 a.m.
“For what?” the man yells repeatedly as two officers arrested him.
“Record all of this, please,” he says to the person recording the incident.
“I’m coming from work, and they fuck with me because I’m sleeping,” the man says. “And there are bums that sleep on the train,” he hollers.
The man did not go easily. He is seen pushing the two officers – one male and one female. The female officer is shown hitting the man back with her baton.
Besides the initial citation for occupying too much space on the barren train, the man was charged with resisting arrest and second-degree obstruction of governmental administration, according to The Gothamist.
As noted by The Gothamist, which is a publication that focuses on news from New York City, cops issuing tickets to subway passengers occupying more than one seat is not an unusual occurrence.
But the publication notes that MTA rules allow sleeping or dozing on a train as long as it is not “hazardous to such person or to others or may interfere with the operation of the Authority’s transit system or the comfort of its passengers.”
WATCH (Warning: Graphic language):