Should cab drivers be able to choose their passengers?
joopy
Posts: 1,353 Forum Member
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Video referenced in the article below (4th paragraph)...although I'm sure most have already seen it since it was in all the major UK online newspapers:
http://hw-mobile.worldstarhiphop.com/u/vid/2015/06/8y8bjJmp9rEG_mobile.mp4 - language unedited
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEDVIMDCsV4 - language beeped
This is an ongoing debate in America, with many cab drivers reluctant or outright refusing to pick up black passengers due to fear of violence. I believe Diane Abbott said there was a similar situation in the United Kingdom.
What do you think?
http://hw-mobile.worldstarhiphop.com/u/vid/2015/06/8y8bjJmp9rEG_mobile.mp4 - language unedited
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEDVIMDCsV4 - language beeped
This is an ongoing debate in America, with many cab drivers reluctant or outright refusing to pick up black passengers due to fear of violence. I believe Diane Abbott said there was a similar situation in the United Kingdom.
What do you think?
“It is illegal for a taxi to refuse you service because of your race, ethnicity, cultural background, disability or gender,” New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito says. “Or based on your destination".
From June 1st the city of New York introduced set fines for breaking this law. Drivers who are found guilty for a first violation face a $500 fine. A third violation within three months can lead to a $1,000 penalty and a license revocation if the driver is found guilty during a hearing.
A source in the National Taxi Workers Alliance - the biggest cab driver Union in the country - told us "Our guys are just scared. We've had drivers robbed at gunpoint, assaulted verbally and physically, spat on, some have even been killed. It's not a race issue, I'm African-American and I feel the same. It's a safety issue, that's all. If a certain dog bites you again and again, you're going to stop feeding it".
On June 20th, a driver in Brooklyn was lured to a pickup point and immediately attacked by his prospective passengers, in a video that went viral online.
According to the annual FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR), driver assaults have soared 52% since 2008 - with African-Americans accounting for 64% of arrests in 2014, despite making up just 13% of the American population.
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nobody gives a crap about anywhere else
Again, two sets of clashing human rights.
I guess if there is the real possibility of violence, you'd have to leave it up to the discretion of the taxi driver, in the hope that he wouldn't just apply this principle to black passengers, but to anybody who looked potentially troublesome.
Interestingly, I note that an African American cab driver feels the same
If a person/persons make you feel unsafe in your place of work, you shouldn't be forced by law into dealing with them. Especially on your own in a vulnerable, secluded space.
I'm surprised the law got passed.
I remember years ago a pub I used to go in started getting a clientele that wasn't exactly friendly. A lot of the non-fighting type of customer stopped going in, and all the local taxi firms stopped picking up there. Nobody blamed the taxi firms one bit.
I'd say the same about the fact that jewellers have locked doors with a buzzer system, so they can control who comes in and who doesn't. Or security screens in front of cash desks, etc etc etc. Why shouldn't anyone who works with money/valuables want to be protected (but I do realise that mostly the firms are protecting the valuables)?
If that law means not being able to choose who you take into your car, and most likely you'll be forced to have sitting behind you as you drive, then I'd have to stop being a taxi driver.
You can see why they'd do it.
I actually just searched for the statistics. Could only find the 2013 report, but it was actually 66% that year.
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-43
Section 46B. Although gotta remember those are just arrest figures, not convictions.
But then surely, they're picking up more of the 36% of other races that attacked someone, doubling their chances of being attacked by them...
Not really. They may not pick up anyone extra to make up the shortfall, but if they did, then logically, it would be from the extra 13% non black cohort, meaning that their chances of being attacked would have still dropped by about 60%, even though there might (statistically) be more attacks from white passengers..
Don't forget, the 64% of attacks is apparently from the 13% black population. Which means that the other 36% of attacks comes from the remaining 87% of fares.
Although there will probably be marked local variations.
Agreed. As long as the cab driver stays quiet, who could prove it? Like, interviewers who just say someone wasn't as good as the candidate who got the job. Unless they say "You're not having the job because you're a woman/black/whatever," then it's incredibly difficult to prove.
Well quite. It must mean a severe loss of earnigns if you have to take the car off to clean it and I wonder if you ever really get rid of the smell. Maybe thats why mini cabs so often reek of chemical air fresheners.