Teen Hauled Off Metro Train, Cuffed for Putting Her Feet Up
![Officer drags Bethany Nava off the train at Westlake/MacArthur Park for not removing her foot from the seat where it was propped up. [Image: still from video taken by Brock Bryan.]](https://la.preprod-streetsblog.alley.ws/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2018-01-23-at-2.14.59-PM.png?w=800)
“Officer, please don’t do this.”
“Officer, it’s really not a big deal.”
As he films the scene unfolding in front of him at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station, Metro passenger Brock Bryan calmly pleads with an LAPD officer to stop manhandling a young woman he dragged off the train for putting her foot up on the seat.
The officer takes a look at the squirmy teen, the people starting to gather around him to protest his tactics, and calls for backup.
Bryan continues to plead with the officer to deescalate the situation while it’s still early in the interaction: “That’s really an abuse of power, officer … Over her foot on the seat? She wasn’t blocking anyone from sitting down?”
The teen is confused and upset, arguing there is no law that says she can’t sit that way.
“It’s the rules of the train,” the officer intones.
In this, the officer is not wrong – as detailed in Metro’s Code of Conduct, putting one’s feet up constitutes Disorderly Conduct and can get someone removed from a train and cited.
But causing a scene by physically dragging a girl off a train and immediately calling for backup means that it is really unlikely that a stern talking to about why Metro considers particular behaviors a problem and a simple citation are on the table anymore.
The girl willingly gives her name but says she doesn’t have ID because she was on her way to the DMV to get one, having just turned 18. As she gets increasingly upset over the futility of her protests and those of a woman that is angrily engaging the officer in her defense, she offers her backpack and tells the officer he’ll find nothing in there that would justify her being taken to jail.
The angry bystander taunts the officer, asking him if he feels good about having yanked a teen off a train, essentially for being disrespectful.
“Why wouldn’t I be happy?” he asks.
It’s one of the many moments in the video where it is painfully obvious how things will end and exactly why they will end that way.
It should have been a point of inflection – a moment used to de-escalate the situation. A step back to say, “You know, this is becoming more complicated than it should be. Let’s go back to the beginning and the reason I first engaged you. These are the rules. These are the consequences. I don’t want to keep you from getting where you need to go. And I don’t think you want to make the trains unpleasant for others trying to get where they need to go, so let’s see if we can have a conversation about how to make things better for everyone going forward.”
Instead, the moment – like the rest of the encounter – is about the officer trying to exert his authority over the girl and the situation, which means that anything the girl (or a bystander) says or does will be perceived by the officer as noncompliance and disorderly, and even threatening, behavior. In that context, conversation is moot and the only possible resolution is the cuffing of at least one person.
As more officers arrive on the scene – a couple of them at high speed – that’s exactly what happens: both the girl and the angry woman are wrangled and cuffed.
No explanation is given to the other officers arriving on the scene, no discussion is had about whether this is the proper course of action, no final attempt is made at deescalation. Instead, it all happens almost wordlessly, incensing the already angry bystander, who now lunges and spits at the first officer before being hustled away.
The teen was later cited and released. The bystander who spit on the officer was taken to jail. [See Brock Bryan’s video below]
It’s a disturbing encounter. And it is why people of color are not necessarily reassured by the more visible presence of the LAPD on the train. Friends, acquaintances, and people I’ve interviewed regarding police encounters have all spoken of how officers have escalated stops, both as a way to intimidate the person being stopped into compliance (even if there was no reason for the stop) and to justify both the stop and the citation or arrest that is likely to follow. [See some of our coverage of profiling here, here, here, here.]
And it is also why the Labor/Community Strategy Center (LCSC) sued Metro to get access to stop data at the end of 2017. To date, the suit charges, Metro and law enforcement entities have ignored multiple requests for public records regarding policing and fare enforcement practices, breakdowns of data on those arrested, cited, and engaged by law enforcement, and the agreements and communications between Metro and law enforcement agencies regarding law enforcement’s role in policing transit. [The lawsuit can be found here (PDF); our December coverage of the 2017 lawsuit is here.]
The 2017 lawsuit is part of a continued effort to monitor the extent to which Metro is addressing the disproportionate number of citations and arrests of black and brown riders alleged in the federal civil rights complaint the LCSC filed at the end of 2016.
But it’s also part of a larger effort to get Metro to spell out who this new emphasis on safety is for, how it is being implemented, and how it is being overseen.
In the lead-up to the approval of the new $646 million policing contract between Metro, the Sheriffs, the LAPD, and the Long Beach Police Department, there was no public discussion of how the trains would be policed, of how safety was defined, or of what the expectations or mandates of officers would be.
Instead, Metro boardmembers spoke broadly of how greater visibility and saturation on transit would yield improved response times and greater security. Boardmember Ara Najarian went one step further and asked what had to be done to make law enforcement officers feel safer.
Citing the video of an off-duty officer in Anaheim wrestling with a youth, flashing his gun and then firing it to scare the kid and his friends, Najarian said,
It’s important to look at the side of the officers and the deputies – from all of your agencies. I want to make sure…that none of [the officers] feel vulnerable, alone, isolated…We’ve seen in the news…how a single police officer can be hounded by a group of young kids and feel very threatened in his actions. So, I’m hoping that we don’t create that sort of situation and that all of our [law enforcement] agencies feel supported and [have] the ability to reach out in case incidents arise.
Considering the years LASD and Metro spent clashing over what role law enforcement should play on the trains (Metro wanted the Sheriffs to focus on fare enforcement; LASD preferred to do crime suppression) and the number of complaints that racked up against the Sheriffs, the lack of effort to outline either expectations or mechanisms for oversight regarding engagement with passengers is rather stunning.
Neither the lawsuits nor the death of a young man at a train station earlier this year – crushed by a train after he was frisked by LBPD officers over fare evasion and an altercation ensued – appear to have provoked much in the way of reflection on this topic.
Perhaps the visibility of this incident will – it’s been viewed over 1.6 million times on Facebook.
When asked for comment, Metro said that the LAPD had opened a use-of-force investigation looking into the incident. Metro also made clear that it intends for the visible presence of officers throughout the system – a level that has essentially doubled under this new contract – to be what elicits voluntary compliance from with rules from riders.
However, in a statement released on January 24, Metro CEO Phil Washington said, “I am extremely disappointed. Our riders deserve better. We want the Metro system to be a safe environment for everyone. I expect more from our law enforcement partners. This incident is still under investigation, but I want to be clear: this is not the kind of policing I want on our system.”
Then, because the day is still young, a second statement was issued revising and softening the first. It is as follows:
As Metro continues to work with our partners at the Los Angeles Police Department on the investigation of a young woman being forcibly removed from a Metro subway train yesterday, I want to be clear about my position: We want our Customer Code of Conduct rules enforced, but I’m disappointed at the way the situation escalated.
As a 24-year retired U.S. Army veteran, I understand and respect our police officers and their day-to-day duty in working to keep our system safe and secure. They encounter hundreds of conduct issues each day, and some of them are faced with very difficult situations. But my hope is that we work to de-escalate situations as much as possible.
The investigation is underway to gather all the facts, and until we have the complete story, we must not rush to judgement. Meanwhile, we remain committed to enhancing safety and the overall rider experience for all of our customers, and look to our patrons to be our partners in that.
*This post was updated at 8:21 a.m. and again at 11:55 a.m. on January 24 to include Mr. Washington’s statements.
Another piece in Sahra’s efforts to ensure that people don’t pay the fare or follow the rules on the Metro. This girl was removed from the train after failing to comply with repeated requests by the officer for her to comply with the rules. All she had to do was follow the rules that are posted in the Metro train. The girl “escalated” the situation by not following the rules after being asked to do so and then by resisting the officer.
Instructions for using the Metro:
1. Pay the fare
2. Follow the rules
I don’t see the issue here. He asked her to comply with metro policy and remove her feet from the seat. Presumably she does not as he says in the video he already asked her. So he asks her to get off the train and she is again belligerent to this. It’s the officers right and duty to remove people from the train for not complying with policy. He warned her to remove her feet and then he offered her the ability to leave of her own accord.
He did have to yank her out of the vehicle because she was latching herself to the bar and claiming paying fare earned her a right of refusal (it does not). The officer seemed calm the whole time. I’ve seen plenty of officer abuse, this is not it. She had plenty of opportunity to stay if she just moved her feet. She wouldn’t have been yanked out if she cut her losses and exited.
And if you want the story without the Sahra “victim” spin, the LA Times reported on it. The story on here omits that the LAPD have stepped up enforcing, “code-of-conduct violations on trains. Such violations include eating, drinking, vaping, gambling, littering and placing feet or shoes on seats.” You know, enforcing the rules to make it better for everyone to use the train.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-sergeant-investigation-metro-20180123-story.html
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10687ceb26b3e20dd1bb30623eff4524ed0a4ad2c5595c5ff450b8f61ff5bec0.jpg
The use of police on the metro, especially without any real public oversight is an atrocious abuse of power. Pulling off kids for having their feet on empty seats is at best a waste of resources, and at worst a sign of worst things to come. The people defending the police need to remember that this woman was specifically targetted as a woman of color in a neighborhood historically Latino that is facing massive gentrification. These officers (and their supporters) see the average neighborhood kid as a potential threat and their response is telling. A white kid wouldve walked away with a slap on the wrist, assuming the officer did anything at all.
the racism of the LAPD is, as usual, on full display here. there’s no reason to split hairs and try to find ways to excuse this kind of behavior from the cops when people are really just desperately searching for a reason to hate on a latina woman for daring to rebel.
I know – it’s amazing how different the perspective is when it is written by a PoC who actually knows something about the abuses of police authority against people of color, right? It’s like night and day.
Specifically targeted as a woman of color? Look, I am Latino myself. I use the subway and bus everyday and most of the people I see are Latino. I don’t appreciate people who put their feet on the seats I will be using. I have seen officers tell people of all races to stop doing a certain activity, including white people.
She was not targeted, she was asked to take her feet down. She specifically chose to disobey that and was asked to leave which she also did not do. Slap on the wrist? The situation would have ended with far less than that if she just took her feet down. That is not being targeted unfairly.
Don’t use asking someone to remove their feet from a seat as an abuse of power. I am a Latino who appreciates when people respect the mode of transit I use, and don’t want you lumping in POC with rude behavior.
instructions for being a cop (applies to internet comments, too): don’t be an @##hole.
i dont know how to respond to someone who thinks a cop should arrest and detain two women because of something so minute as a foot on a seat. i’m glad you’ve seen cops tell white people to stop doing something, i guess that destroys any semblance of racism ever existing within the police force and their actions.
I’ve seen plenty of actual policy brutality and to compare it with this is detrimental to actual progress.
And you are not being honest. They were not arrested for “a foot on a seat”. The one individual was simply told metro’s policy and to remove the foot from the seat. Is that an arrest? No. She was asked to leave the train because she refused to comply with metro’s policy. Is that an arrest? No, she was free to take her foot off the seat and exit the train without being so much as touched by anybody. Arrest? No.
Then she refuses to leave the train after being ordered to do so for violating Metro policy. If she wont follow policy and she wont move herself, she has to be moved, only after the officer tries non physically to goad her into leaving. Shes unmoved by this so he does the next step which is to make physical contact and she literally wraps herself to the bar in the train. So of course at this point she is belligerent and is detained. The other person spit on the officer and deserved arrest for that alone.
Their behavior far exceeded the bounds of treating this more civilly. They were afforded numerous opportunity to make this a simple request.
She wraps herself around the pole b/c her things are on the train and she doesn’t want the train to pull out with her stuff, not because she is being belligerent.
I think the thing to consider here, whatever your position on this – and I am frankly stunned at the number of people cheering the arrest of a teen for being rude – is that if the detainee had a number of chances to change her behavior, so did the officer. He makes bad choice after bad choice, each of which serves to escalates things….the outcome is wholly predictable from the first moment he grabs her. And that is deeply unfortunate.
In this situation, vested with the authority with which he is vested, it is incumbent upon him to be the adult in this situation and find ways to engage and deescalate and influence behavior.
It is also incumbent up on Metro, who has purposely doubled the presence of law enforcement on the trains and buses to do precisely this kind of policing, to engage LEAs on what their expectations are regarding policing. Especially given that Metro’s base ridership is overwhelmingly lower-income people of color. The fact that they have not yet done this is rather jaw dropping.
My hope is that this incident opens up those conversations within Metro and the relevant LEAs.
I don’t think anyone reasonable believes the officer behaved appropriately, but that being said, pleaseeee stop lying with numbers Streetsblog.
You post the lie, “In the lead-up to the approval of the new $646 billion policing contract between Metro, the Sheriffs, the LAPD, and the Long Beach Police Department”, when that number is million, not BILLION. And on top of that lie, the link that that quote comprises is also an uncorrected, year old lie. Where Joe states that the policing contract is $646 million annually, when in reality it is $130 million annually.
I agree with this this article, but it doesn’t help our cause when our advocates lie as much as Fox News.
I don’t see how he can handle the situation differently if she will not remove her feet and then will not leave the train. It was not an abuse of his authority to ask either of her and she was in the wrong.
Yes, I caught the billion error after posting – my one typo, but a very embarrassing one.
Thank you for the reply/acknowledgement of the error. I was upset, but also wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt that is was merely a typo. Joe’s refusal to update or respond to the early 2017 post irked me because we can’t make this world a more objective, efficient, and equitable place if we spew alternative facts like our opposition does. I appreciate the work you do here.
Well, then I’m glad you’re not a cop…? Metro’s hope is that a police presence will exact voluntary compliance from passengers. But they seem not to have planned for the case in which it does not. There are a lot of steps that could have been taken… hand her the rules and explain them and the rationale, give her a warning in the car and explain the consequences of a citation, if she gets unruly and things escalate, call for people to meet you at the station while you’re still on the train… I know there are reasons why they try to pull folks aside and out of the crowd to handle business. But this is part of the training they clearly don’t have… how to adapt their techniques to the environment.
This should have been one of their easiest cases. She’s not mentally ill, she’s not homeless, she’s not high, she didn’t murder anyone… she’s just badly. Considering that many of the encounters officers have are with folks who are in different states of distress, this example doesn’t bode well for how those encounters go…
I did no such thing. My point is, as someone who writes a lot about racial profiling and police-community relations, and a person of color, I write from a different perspective than a white person for whom policing is neither a personal nor a pressing issue.
Warnings don’t get feet off of seats. That’s why she insisted on being belligerent in the first place when all he did was ask her to taker her feet off of a seat.
>She’s not mentally ill, she’s not homeless, she’s not high, she didn’t murder anyone
This is precisely why his actions can be considered correct. Shes in a very fit state of mind to understand the consequences of being belligerent with a cop after he asks you to do something repeatedly. If it was a mentally ill person it would actually call for more de-escalation measures. Shes just an asshole who knows damn well that the cop is not giving “suggestions” to her.
The headline is incorrect. She did not get cuffed and forcibly removed for putting her feet on the seats. She was told this was against Metro’s rules and code of conduct and refused to abide by those rules and even then she refused to abide by the rules and subsequently was told to leave the train, which she again refused to comply with. She easily could have complied with the rules and respected other passengers but choose not to.
“And it is why people of color are not necessarily reassured by the more visible presence of the LAPD on the train. Friends, acquaintances, and people I’ve interviewed regarding police encounters have all spoken of how officers have escalated stops, both as a way to intimidate the person being stopped into compliance (even if there was no reason for the stop) and to justify both the stop and the citation or arrest that is likely to follow.”
Imagine these overly casual sentences published in a reputable publication.
Clean it up, SBLA.
This is such a vile thing to say that I am speechless.
Using this event as “why people of color are not necessarily reassured by the more visible presence of the LAPD on the train”? That’s so weak a position, the writer should be ashamed. For that, and for the patently untrue headline. As the video clearly shows, mouthy girl doesn’t understand manners, and she clearly doesn’t understand how to communicate with law enforcement. Feel sorry her, actually. People who put their shoes on the metro or bus seats have no respect for anyone else. No one wants to sit where your dirty shoes were. The cop was enforcing a KNOWN rule of the train. The PA system on the train routinely asks passengers to not put their feet on the seats. It’s common courtesy. The cop was doing his job and she was being an idiot. Resisting his orders was straight up stupid, as then yes, he has cause to arrest her. Then tall homegirl has nothing better to do with her life than to stand by and taunt the cop while doing his job. Obstruction. This is a no brainer. She made this situation for worse for the girl. Wonder if she’ll reflect on how worth it was to spit on a cop’s face as she’s sitting in jail, losing her job. Bodily fluids on a law enforcer? Not a light sentence. This victimy article is a mess.
Another year, you’re still here.
You can’t quit me.
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Same goes for train passengers.
what post?
If the cop walks away after telling her to take her feet off the seat and she refuses to comply, then the rules mean nothing. SHE escalated the situation, not the cop. Get over it.
public servant (allegedly) = train patron:: reaching for quite the absurd false equivalency there, aren’t we?
The one that is linked in this article from 2/23/17. You repeatedly wrote “annual” and “annually” regarding the contract cost because it sounded worse. When, in reality, you are exaggerating the annual cost by 500%.
Lol
Respect and politeness transcends race. Respect and politeness are taught in the home. This is not a LAPD or race issue; but rather one of proper upbringing. The people to blame here are the ladies’ parents. The fact the parents are now looking for an attorney is even more disgusting. If these were my children, I would instruct LAPD to keep them locked up for a day. Give them a night in jail to think about what they did wrong and hopefully learn a lesson.
I think it is important to enforce quality of life issues in order to make Metro more appealing to all LA residents.
The use of force only appeared after the rider refused to put her feet down and then refused to exit the train. If the officer says ok and walks away, then it is impossible to ever enforce those rules.
What is the right way to enforce these rules?
Latina Rosa Parks is a hero
Everyone that is saying that the officer is totally in the right should read this statement by Metro CEO Phil Washington : https://twitter.com/metrolosangeles/status/956195041634070529
Even the person ultimately responsible for the behavior of law enforcement found this police action to be not acceptable.
PR to save face when the Inevitable SJWs come with pitchforks
stvr… you must be a white supremacist.
His opinion was very well stated. Your “body slam” comment however was very inappropriate. I agree with him, parents should teach there kids to AVOID a problem rather then start one. You must not have children, or if you do, you have taught them to be just as entitled as the girl in the video, in which case I hope your children get dragged off a metro and handcuffed. Sorry about that, just to teach you a lesson on societies standards which you are clearly not upholding.
Oh, ok, “Only Alex in the World that’s a Raccoon.” My mother would never put her filthy shoes (that have walked through human sh/t and p/ss) where other people have paid to sit, so that’s a moot point you need not worry about. Disobeying a cop repeatedly, which the foul-mouthed teen did, isn’t a “minor mistake” – it says, “I’m a total idiot who hasn’t learned street smarts.” And tall girl is right next to her. Have a good day. – Five Stars
So only cops teach their kids manners? Good manners go a long way.
That changes nothing. If Washington cant even back an officer’s ability to enforce his own agency policy then the policy means nothing and all other passengers trying to have a pleasant experience are worse off.
Your comment doesn’t have a quote, but I’m assuming you’re referring to the quote where he said that is not the type of policing they want on the trains. That is something you say as a public relations statement given that the video went viral.
Mr. Newton, this website and organizations that you support are making a huge effort to get people like me to give up my car and accept using the Metro as a part of my life. One of the biggest impediments is that the trains are not clean or welcoming. Several months ago Metro started their “Super Kind” campaign in an effort to get the “Rude Dudes” to start following the rules (i.e. no food or drink, no blocking seats, no putting your feet on seats, etc.) to make the trains nicer and cleaner. Per this campaign, the LAPD stepped up enforcement of the Code of Conduct.
This officer verbally asked the girl to comply with the rule, she refused. He then verbally asked her to exit the train, per the rules, and she refused. The only force he used was to pull her by her arm (to which she resisted) and then put her arm behind her back. He didn’t slam her to the ground, hit her, taze her or shoot her. The officer used just enforce force to enforce the rules. If you want people like me to use the trains then they need to be clean, and if you want the trains to be clean, then people need to follow the rules and the police need to enforce the rules.
If this girl’s parents had taught her to AVOID a problem rather than seek one out, perhaps she wouldn’t be a drooling mess. She got off easy, and the other girl got what she asked for. If you don’t agree, walk down the street and spit on every cop you see. If you don’t get arrested on the first spit then I recant my statement.
“hand her the rules and explain them and the rationale, give her a warning in the car and explain the consequences of a citation,”
Based on this young woman’s behavior, giving her the “rationale” would not have done anything. He verbally asked her to take her foot off the seat and she refused. He verbally asked her to leave the train and she refused. He attempted to escort her off by her arm, and she resisted. This young woman escalated the situation for no reason other than trying to be a part of the “resistance.”
And on top of that, she was the one that created the problem by not following the rules.
And what did the cop do to the girl:
1. Verbally asked her to take her shoes off the seat. She refused.
2. Verbally asked her to exit the train. She refused.
3. Attempted to escort her off the train by her arm. She resisted and pulled back.
4. Pulled her by the arm off the train with enough force to get her off but without tackling her to the ground.
5. Pulled her arm behind her back so she couldn’t move away.
6. After being circled by bystanders verbally abusing him, he called for other officers to assist him – at which point one of the bystanders spit in his face.
Please tell me where in this did the officer not use a minimal increase in force or use more force than was necessary to enforce the rule.
The word for this is “anecdotal.”
Contributing your viewpoint to a discussion involving all viewpoints is one thing. Your perspective has caused you to be bias which you are projecting through a prejudice in your writing.
You have nothing to answer with other than “Trump”. Sounds like something Killary would say.