Video: New York City Council takes on the MTA from NYCtracks.com on Vimeo.

The City Council’s transportation and education committees held a joint hearing to question the MTA on the elimination of free student MetroCards. The audience was surprisingly sparse, considering the passion witnessed at previous hearings on the MTA cuts. But some of the council members were riled up. We have a three-minute video summary of the two-hour meeting.

— Simone Sebastian

Five people were arrested tonight at the MTA public hearing at the Brooklyn Museum, according to NYC Transit and NYPD officials. They say the people are likely to be charged with misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

The incident started when a young woman tried to take the speakers podium out of turn and got into an altercation with security officials who tried to stop her.

The audience rallied to her defense, prompting intense screaming matches with security. The scene was temporarily chaotic. Order was restored within five minutes and the meeting restarted with a much smaller crowd.

A transit official said some of the people who were arrested are college students. We have no confirmation on the students’ ages. At least two people who spoke during the hearing said that they attended New York high schools.

The audience had gotten increasingly agitated during the night as politicians and their representatives took the podium. Speakers were called to the microphone in the order that they registered. But many audience members shouted out that they wanted to hear from students.

Read more on our live blog from the event.

— Simone Sebastian