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Mayor: Sex Trafficking Victims, Please Speak Up
Police are looking for a yellow cab driver who followed his 25 year-old female passenger into her apartment and raped her on Sunday morning. The woman hailed a cab at 71st Street and Broadway, around 2:30AM after leaving pub P.D. O'Hurley's, and went downtown to her home on John Street. After paying, the cabbie apparently followed her into her apartment. The newspapers report the woman awoke to finding a man raping her, but she fell back into unconsciousness. The police describe the attacker as being an Indian in his 30s, 5'10" to 5'11" and 170 pounds. After this incident, as well as one last month of a cab driver sodomizing his passenger after taking her home to Queens, women are even more concerned about their safety when taking cabs home alone.
Police are looking at surveillance tape, hoping to catch the taxi's medallion number. Gothamist has gotten into the habit of memorizing medallion numbers of cabs we take, because we worry that we have left our cell phone or bag behind. It might be a good rule of thumb to write the medallion number down, or program it into your cellphone, because you never know.
The NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, where you can file for items lost in a cab as well as complaints against cab drivers.
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>>It might be a good rule of thumb to write the medallion number down, or program it into your cellphone, because you never know
Just get in the habit of asking for a receipt -- no need for pen, paper, etc.
-=-Joe
Good call, Joe. I'm usually in such a rush to get out, I tend to forget.
I would love to remember to get a receipt, but I have a hard enough time remembering my wallet and keys when I'm drunk and taking a cab home.
Any word if she was drunk? I mean it's a little odd to me that he ran away when she woke up and screamed.
Could it be the same guy?
The suspect description seems to desribe at least 80% of the entire fleet.
Pato - Police don't think it's the same man, since the two descriptions are very different.
doshin - That's the interesting thing - no one has mentioned whether the women were inebriated (not that it makes the rapes justifiable - it would simply be interesting insight on their state of mind). Both women were taken home late at night on the weekend, and you would believe they were drinking. Her friend hailed her a cab, maybe because she had too much to drink. But no one knows. Maybe this is more reason to drink water in between drinks to dry and stay as sober and aware as possible.
damn, that description completely describes me!
Local news last night described the woman as appearing extremely intoxicated in surveillance video from her lobby. Haven't seen the same in any print stories though.
She had a doorman, which is really scary. She was so drunk and unaware, that the cabbie-rapist followed her into her apartment as if they were a couple, and the doorman thought nothing of it.
That's interesting about the doorman. I wonder what is going to come of this.
Anyway, cabbies should stick to the legal ass raping they do with every increased fare.
(Yes, I know it's not up to them)
Hey Doshin,
it's cute how you switch up the literal definition of rape and use it to figuratively complain about money. Funny!
(Yes, I know it's not up to you)
I don't know if it's that I'm just more sensitive to this kind of thing now, but I've been encountering a lot of creepy cab drivers that flirt with me lately. Is it just me, or is this kind of behavior normal? And yes, like 80% of the fleet, they're Indian men in their 30s, which I don't hold against them but which doesn't make me any more comfortable either. About a week ago, I was somewhat inebriated coming back from the Knitting Factory and got into a cab, thinking nothing of it. The cab driver started hitting on me and, noticing that I was tired, invited me to sit up in the front seat with him where it would be "more comfortable to rest." Believe me, that woke me up FAST, I stayed completely alert for the rest of the ride, watched were we were going, and darted into my building. It was more creepy than a usual sleazy comment, and more terrifying given recent events -- I mean, what the hell? Do cab drivers not read the news? Is there some reason anyone would think it's OK to act like that, besides sheer cluelessness?
OK, not to be totally un-PC Holly, but these guys are a product of their culture (more likely Pakistan than India - look at the names- mainly variations on Muhammed etc not a whole lot of Raos or Patels- because the Indians are higher up the chain imigrant-wise, but thats another topic) and their culture does not take a very favorable view of young women out on their own, at night, drinking. They have not been assimilated to our liberal culture and proabbly feel these women are whores. Noit that that is any excuse, but I talk to these guys (I have been to the subcontinent a few times and like to see where they are from etc)and at times am falbergasted by what they say about women, jews, new york and America. And I doubt too many are reading the NYTimes. Just be very careful and try not to be alone late at night.
Max, your generalization is a little ridiculous. Whatever way those South Asian guys may have talked to you about women is no different than the way many left-leaning, well-educated preppy white guys I know talk about women. It's not flattering or "liberal", and it shouldn't be tolerated by guys from either culture. To claim that South Asian taxi drivers who have committed these rapes are merely a product of their culture is a little simplistic and reductive, isn't it? Gosh, that'd be like me saying that being racist, elitist, and patronizing is part of yours...
OK, I'm too fired up to let this go. Tell me something, Max, was the preppy white guy who raped and brutalized a good South Asian friend of mine part of your culture? I'm just saying in case the women here should be warned about your culture, too. He was from a rich suburb in North Carolina or Maryland, I forget which. He kept touching her and telling her how gorgeous she was as he raped her. Tell me, do people in your culture do things like that? If so, you should let people know that since you felt confident enough to let people know how men in my culture are.
Yeah, seriously Ajit. I'm certainly concerned by cab drivers acting creepy no matter WHAT their skin color, but I'm just as wary, if not moreso, of white preppy boys who think they're entitled to whatever they want to take, and who make just as screwed-up comments about Jews, women, sex, you name it. And it's cold comfort to think that if a rich white boy gets accused of rape, he usually gets a high-priced defender to smear the victim and make him look like a rosy-cheeked good upstanding white boy; somehow I don't think that's a common tactic of Indian immigrants. I mean, that's why I made the comment about not holding it against them or seeing it in their favor. I don't really give a shit what people's motivations for raping women in the back of cabs are; I just wish they would fucking catch these creeps, and I wish other guys would appreciate how freaky this is for women in the city who are in the habit of taking cabs home late at night because we think it's safer.
That description describes me too.
Max, I hear in your culture you strip men of color, leash them, force them to sodomize each other, and then take their picture. Your ill-informed musings on "culture" propagate white male supremacy, as if the money, power, and military force isn't enough.
Anyone complaining about the "legal ass raping" of the increased taxi fares should understand that drivers take home an average of $100 per 12 hour shift in one of the most dangerous jobs in the city.
The DA has declined the prosecute the taxi driver, which is akin to saying, 'we don't know what the hell the story is.'
The NYT story from yesterday states that according to the woman's account to police, she was dropped off, went upstairs (alone is implied), went to sleep and awoke to find the driver raping her.
However, on the surveillance tape, she is seen holding the damn door for the taxi driver to come right on in.
Basically, she might well have been raped. But. The woman presented a lie to the police (her entering the building alone). Which was directly contradicted by the building surveillance tape. So it's definitely a bad scene. We will not know the truth. Because the woman already lied, and the taxi driver is probably confused as hell by the whole situation. Which wouldn't absolve him of the possibility he judged the situation wrongly and did have sex with a passed-out woman. Yech.
It just sucks. Now business will get even worse. I doubt the papers are going to give nearly as much press to the fact that the driver was a) identified, b) questioned, and then c) released without charges being filed.
But hell, let the trollery continue. You hate us cabdrivers, so what. It's nothing new in the years I've been driving. This particular twist to it does pain me, though. One more reason to keep to myself when I'm out there.
holly, if you don't care what their skin color is, why the hell would you bring it up? and to say that it doesn't make you comfortable in the first place?
that is the most ignorant thing you can say.
I'd think that would be obvious. There are police reports of a guy fitting this description running around raping women. The point is that I can't help it -- if I realize that someone who fits a police description is acting weird towards me, I'm going to be scared, involuntarily. I think this actually points out exactly WHY vague descriptions that fit a huge number of people are problematic and potentially racist, both for potential victims and even moreso for people who fit the description. I've had more than one friend get frisked or stopped because they fit some kind of vague description -- and I probably don't have to point out that they were only guilty of Not Being White While Driving or Walking. THAT is why I brought it up. And I didn't say that it didn't make me comfortable -- I said that I didn't hold their physical description against them (because I'm quite aware there are thousands of guys fitting it) but that it didn't make me any MORE comfortable (because I also know that one or more of these guys is actually running around raping women). I can't get any more precise about how I feel about the whole problem, and how it affects drivers AND passengers.