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Despite a number of shocking assault charges and a DWI arrest, taxi driver Ramez Akladious (pictured) continued driving his cab with a suspended probationary license throughout 2008. According to the Post, he had been repeatedly arrested for a number of incidents, which included slashing a rider with a box cutter after he criticized him for taking an unnecessarily long route; striking a man in the face; driving drunk; and assaulting a driver by smashing his side view mirror, then his face.
But Akladious's fun and games came to an end after a January run-in with one Phedra Braxton, the operations manager for the Taxi and Limousine Commission. After he told her his credit-card machine was broken, she asked him to stop by an ATM, at which point he locked the car doors and threatened to call the cops. Braxton tells the Post:
He grabbed my jacket and bag through the partition window. I said, 'Get off me, what are you doing?' He tried to spit on me . . . When I got out and started screaming, he said, 'I should have never picked your black ass up. You black people never pay.' Here I am, an employee for the TLC, and all the years I caught cabs, I never had an encounter like that before. It's unbelievable that people like that are allowed to drive and deal with the public . . . The worst part of this is that he never should have been driving.Akladious's probationary license was revoked after the incident and he was slapped with a $4,350 fine, but he never responded to the ruling. Oddly, the TLC does not know what company Akladious drove for, and the Post, deeming him the "most dangerous taxi driver" in town, ominously suggests that he may still be "on the loose," slashing and spitting on innocent riders. If so, he's not alone; previously on bad cabbies: sexual assaults, credit card fights, and iPod bartering. Now the city is installing cameras in some cabs to monitor drivers.
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Holy shit! I encountered this guy driving down B'way. If I had known his history I probably would have backed down. I wouldn't let him cut me off so he chased me down and rear ended me. Ended up just being some heated words but it looks like he can get out of hand real quick. I guess you never know who you're dealing with.
This makes me a little confused: Even though he was arrested repeatedly, he was still driving and it was only when he attacked a TLC employee that his license was pulled? Hmm.
Funny how that works.
According to the article his license was already suspended, he just kept driving with it. Now it's been revoked. And of course he may still keep driving illegally.
Maybe the attacked TLC manager would know what company he's driving for if she had the good sense to note the license plate number. Nice work, Clouseau.
as a pedestrian and sometime driver, the cabbies in this city freak me out. they pull some scary shit and deserve to be crashed into, arrested, cursed out, smacked upside the head...
they just don't give a shit.
ironically, i usually feel perfectly safe riding with them. and once i puked out the door at a red light and the hack was super cool about it.
also, this guy looks like an angry, wet cat.
The revoked license is likely not going to stop this guy from driving since he didn't give a shit about the suspension. Combine that with the fact that the TLC didn't know who he drove for (I understand that's likely common considering how cabs get "shared" but maybe that's a huge problem that should be corrected.) TLC: get your shit together and protect us and yourselves from nutcases like this!
He looks Albanian.
I say Macedonian.
On second look I think you're right Nanny. I see it in the shape of his brow.
You know, the TLC makes it too difficult to complain about bad cabbies. If I remember correctly, your opinion is worth nothing to them unless you agree to waste your time and appear at a hearing. They need to get with the 21st century and keep a data record on every driver.
He seems like a nice man.
Deport him.
Holy crap! I'm pretty sure I've been in this guy's cab - I actually threw a $10 at him and jumped out at a red light. I thought he was going to kill us both with his insane driving, running of red lights and generally acting like a total psychopath.
He's repeatedly assaulting people, operating on suspended/revoked license, and committing what amounts to fraud. So shouldn't he have been outright arrested by now?
He has been arrested, at least three times according the article. None of those cases has yet been concluded.
Sorry, I should have said "incarcerated". Having so many charges against him ought to be enough to finally put him behind bars. Instead, as far as we know, he's still out there.
Maybe there is room for him at the police academy...
It's too bad she didn't have a gun to accidentally go off in his face.
"one Phedra Braxton, the operations manager for the Taxi and Limousine Commission" Does anyone have a description of this perp?