Facebook Steve Foster was approached by a transit officer for eating a sandwich. Watch the video.
Steve Foster is a Concord, California man who was handcuffed by a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) officer who approached him because he was eating a sandwich. The officer claimed Foster was resisting.
Foster, who was cited, posted video of the incident on a Facebook page, where he goes by the name of Bill Gluckman. You can see those videos later in this story. The officer’s actions have sparked outcry, and the BART GM apologized to Foster.
BART General Manager Robert Powers wrote in part, “The officer was doing his job but context is key. Enforcement of infractions such as eating and drinking inside our paid area should not be used to prevent us from delivering on our mission to provide safe, reliable, and clean transportation. We have to read each situation and allow people to get where they are going on time and safely. I’m disappointed how the situation unfolded. I apologize to Mr. Foster, our riders, employees, and the public who have had an emotional reaction to the video.”
On November 8, 2019, Foster wrote on his Facebook page, “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.” He shared these videos on Facebook. Be aware that the language is graphic in them:
Here’s the second video:
“You are detained, and you’re not free to go,” the officer says in one of the videos.
“You singled me out over all these people?” Foster said.
The officer says, “You’re eating. It’s against the law… I tried to explain that to you. I have the right to detain you.” Foster responds, “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
People aren’t allowed to eat or drink on the BART platforms. The incident occurred at the BART Pleasant Hill station.
“If it’s really that important to people and they want the real story behind what happened then just ask me cause the news not even delivering the truth and how it really actually unfolded and neither is Bart,” Foster wrote on Facebook. “The only thing I wish I could’ve done differently at this point is recording the officer coming up the escalator towards me before the entire altercation started. Wouldn’t be any gaps to fill to make stuff up that didn’t happen.”
The BART General Manager Released a Lengthy Statement on the Matter
.@SFBART GM apologizes after man handcuffed for eating sandwich on platform. But I interviewed Steve Foster and he’s not accepting the apology.
“Moving 415,000 riders each day comes with complexities and there are laws in place to keep our system safe, welcoming, and clean,” the BART GM’s statement also says.
“I’ve seen the video of the incident involving a man eating on our platform and our police response. Eating in the paid area is banned and there are multiple signs inside every station saying as much. As a transportation system our concern with eating is related to the cleanliness of our stations and system. This was not the case in the incident at Pleasant Hill station on Monday.”
The statement continued; “The officer asked the rider not to eat while he was on the platfrom (sic) responding to another call. It should have ended there, but it didn’t. Mr. Foster did not stop eating and the officer moved forward with the process of issuing him a citation.* The individual refused to provide identification, cursed at and made homophobic slurs at the officer who remained calm through out the entire engagement.”
He added, “I’ve spoken to our interim Police Chief about my feelings related to this incident and our Independent Police Auditor is conducting an independent investigation. He will report his findings to our Citizen Review Board.”
The statement was later amended on November 11 to remove “the part about the officer passing by and walking by again. The officer involved clarified to staff he didn’t walk by because the platform was too crowded.”
The statement originally stated: “The officer asked the rider not to eat while passing by on another call. It should have ended there, but it didn’t. When the officer walked by again and still saw him eating, he moved forward with the process of issuing him a citation.” The statement was updated to read: The officer asked the rider not to eat while he was on the platfrom (sic) responding to another call. It should have ended there, but it didn’t. Mr. Foster did not stop eating and the officer moved forward with the process of issuing him a citation.”
Foster told ABC7 that he thinks the officer should have taken a different approach. “It would have been simpler if he would have come up to me and said hey, you can’t eat on BART nor on the platform,” he said to the television station. “I should have been informed because I didn’t know I couldn’t eat on the platform.”