Police detained and cited a black man in California after an officer stopped him on a platform of the BART – the Bay Area’s public transit system – because he was eating a sandwich.

BART police said that Steve Foster, of Concord, California, was in violation of state law by eating a sandwich 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 ABC 7.

Foster, who goes by the name Bill Gluckman on Facebook, posted footage of the incident, which had been filmed by his girlfriend.

In the clip, BART police Officer D. McCormick can be seen holding on to Foster’s backpack before calling for backup and escorting him off the platform. He told Foster that he was being detained for resisting arrest.

Foster’s girlfriend can be heard questioning the police officer’s decision. She told the officer 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, calling the detainment “childish.”

Officer 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 wants 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 is investigating the incident. In another tweet, it said Foster was not arrested, but he was cited for “violating 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,” the organisation said in the tweet.

The transit organisation 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 spokesperson said.

Foster faces a $US250 fine and 48 hours of community service, but plans on fighting the citation and told KTVU that he is considering suing.

Insider has contacted Foster and BART for comment.

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