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From Hollywood celebrity to city agency sting to needing to settle with the sting victims - only in New York, kids, only in New York. Back in 1999, Danny Glover complained that five unoccupied cabs refused to pick him, which sparked the Taxi and Limousine Commission to investigate. And in between, 1999 and 2002, 500 cabbies were suspended or had their licenses revoked. The other day, a judge ruled that it was unconstitutional for the TLC to suspend cabbies before they could get a hearing, so the city open up its wallet to avoid the trial for revocation policy. Why avoid a trial? Well, Rudy Giuliani would have been one of the defendants - and he's too busy asking rhetorical questions about whether he'd be able to raise money for a presidential campaign. Suspended cabbies will each get $121.50 for each day they were suspended (according to the cabbies' lawyers, suspension averaged 61 days or $7,411.50), and the cabbies with revoked licenses will get $26,000 plus the chance to re-apply for a license. That's nice, but it sounds like some of these hacks might have been out of work for four years. And the TLC still conducts "Operation Refusal" stings on cabbies - they just aren't punished before going to taxi court. (Yes, there really is a taxi court.)
Has a taxi ever not stopped for you? Is it racial or is more of the "no, I don't go to Brooklyn" variety? And Why does this make us think of the Eddy Murphy skit on SNL where he went undercover in whiteface?
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Cabbies tend to not stop for black people. If you're fortunate to be light-skinned yet live way, way out in Brooklyn, get IN the cab first. Then feed the cabbie small, segmented instructions. This will hide the true distance of your trip. For example say "go over the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn. I'll tell you from there". Then, once you're already past the point of no return, say "take the zillionth exit" then say "okay, go ten thousand blocks" and finally "I'm at the hundredth building on the right".
I live in Brooklyn and when I'm in Manhattan, I have usually have found it problematic to hail a cab. I have my white GF hail them as I lurk in the shadows and jump in when they almost always stop for her. I'm South Asian and you would think there would be some degree of connection with the many SAs who drive cabs, but it does not seem so.
ahh this reminds me when I was told to 'get out' of the cab, when he refused to go to Ft Green. We were at a stand still, I refused to get out and he not moving. Told him to find me another cab...
Needless to say I did not give him a damn dime.
Yellow cabs die.
Supposedly the proper response to "get out" is "fine, take me to a police station."
Did any of you think about why cabbies don't want to pick up blacks? :)
Cabbies usually don't pick up black people because they assume they will have to take them to an out-of-the-way black neighorhood like Harlem or the Bronx. Also, there are have been stories or cabs taking guys out to remote seedy neighborhoods then being mugged in their cabs.
bklynd, that's great -- I'm going to use that
Mike, then cabbies are justified in what they do. Their safety is more important then hurt feelings of some folks, isn't it? They just improve a bit their chances of not being robbed/killed. Every bit helps. Who else would worry about their safety, if not they themselves?
We won't go/drive into seedy neighborhoods ourselves, how can we condemn them as racists then?
What's this "we" talk? I walk through seedy neighborhoods all the time. I'm a reasonably tough guy- I can take care of myself, and have done so before in the past, relatively unscathed. If you're not a racist, then you're a pussy.
There's a significant difference between refusing a trip for distance reasons, and refusing it because you don't want to get robbed/killed. It seems that if more protections were in place for the latter (security cameras in all cabs, better barriers between passenger and driver), it would go a long way towards addressing the second.
I've just taken a look at a page about taxi driver homicide: http://c.rathbone.home.att.net/facts.htm
which people might find interesting.
I did not look closely, but does that page gives statistics of the assailant's race? Of it is not PC to even ask that question?
wow, love the rationalizing thats going on here. how many of the "well...its makes them feel safer, so its OK" posters are black/hispanic or any other minority in this city? have you ever tried to catch a can at night, or in the snow/rain and been repeatedly denied only to see the same cab pick up other passengers?
guess what folks, the TLC clearly states:
Refusal Law - From Driver Rule 2-50:
It is against the law to refuse a person based on race, disability, or a destination in New York City. A taxicab driver is required to drive a passenger to any destination in the five boroughs.
its the LAW. if as a cabbie, you don't want to follow the rules, then you should find a new line of work. if not, then be prepared to get suspended or get your license revoked. case closed.
J, if you walk through/work/live in seedy neighborhoods "all the time", it's your choice. But it won't matter how "tough" you are when you'd get mugged by ghetto punks.
What's with "racist" nonsense? It is just common sense.