A black man was put in handcuffs after a police officer stopped him on a train platform because he was eating
Steve Foster/Facebook
Steve Foster was detained and cited at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Walnut Creek, California, on November 4.
BART police said Foster violated state law by eating a sandwich on the platform.
Foster told KTVU that he thinks he was detained because he is black and that that the officer who stopped him should be disciplined.
His detainment prompted eat-in protests across the BART system over the weekend.
Police detained and cited a black man in California after an officer stopped him on a Bay Area Rapid Transit platform because he was eating a sandwich.
BART police said that Steve Foster, of Concord, broke state law by eating on the platform at the Pleasant Hill Station in Walnut Creek on November 4, KTVU reported.
His detainment prompted eat-in protests across the BART system on Saturday, where passengers filmed themselves eating on platforms to support Foster, according to ABC7.
Foster, who goes by the name Bill Gluckman on Facebook, posted footage of the incident that his girlfriend filmed.
In the clip, a BART police officer, identified as D. McCormick, can be seen holding on to Foster's backpack before calling for backup and escorting him off the platform. McCormick told Foster he was being detained for resisting arrest.
Foster's girlfriend can be heard questioning the officer's decision and telling him that signs in the area say food is prohibited on the BART trains, not on the platforms. Officers later told her that food was prohibited on all BART property, including platforms.
Foster told KTVU that he was frustrated by the incident.
"I've never had anything like that happen to me before. I've definitely had run-ins with the police before, but that was by far the pettiest," Foster said, describing the detainment as "childish."
'I was singled out because I was black'
McCormick told Foster's girlfriend that he was initially looking for an intoxicated woman when he saw Foster eating and stopped him instead.
Foster told KTVU that he regularly eats his breakfast while waiting for the BART to take him to his job in San Francisco.
He said he wanted the officer who stopped him to be disciplined.
"I think he really needs to know that he can't approach people the way he did or talk to people the way he did just because he has a badge," Foster told KTVU. "I think I was singled out because I was black, to be honest."
BART said in a tweet that it was investigating the incident. In another tweet, it said Foster was not arrested but "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," it said.
The transit organization told KTVU that Foster was "not cooperative."
"The individual was not cooperative and was refusing to provide his name, which is needed for a citation and is why the engagement lasted as long as it did," a BART representative told the outlet.
Foster faces a $250 fine and 48 hours of community service, but he told KTVU he planned to fight the citation and was considering suing.
Foster and BART did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
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