--- In taxidriversofamerica@yahoogroups.com, "edwarddenaut"
wrote:

Why do they kill cab drivers?

In the August 2001 trial of a man accused of murdering a
taxicab driver, Assistant County Prosecutor George Rukovena told a
Cleveland jury:

"He killed David Link because he wanted to brag about it."

How often does this happen, that the motive in a taxi
homicide is not really robbery, but rather to act out a tough-guy role? The driver
is just as dead whether it is robbery or something else, so does the motive
even matter?

I think that motive does matter. It makes a difference if the
person is after your money, or if he is working on his self-esteem.

Based on a close reading of hundreds of news articles, I
believe that easily half of all taxicab driver homicides are motivated by
something other than robbery. Compelling evidence is seen in the fact that
most cab homicides are "senseless murders" and on the unpleasant fact that
grossly excessive violence is a characteristic feature of taxi homicides.

Senseless murders have a pattern to them. According to UCLA
sociologist Jack Katz, many violent criminals are acting out a
role.

They don't really care about the victim or the money, and they are only
dimly aware (if at all) of the predictable scripts that they are
following.

The sociologist argues that robbing the victim is almost an
afterthought, helping the criminal make sense out of his own actions in
committing the murder.

In my opinion, cab drivers are absolutely barking up the
wrong tree to approach driver safety as an exercise in robbery prevention. It
is about preventing people from using our taxicabs as a theater or stage for
acting out specific patterns of behavior.

One pattern in behavior associated with senseless murder has
to do with defilement of the victim. I'll skip the detailed argument
here, noting that scores of examples are readily at hand, and ask instead: how
many times does an assailant have to shoot a man in the head if his
purpose is simply to get the driver's money?

A second pattern associated with senseless murder has to do
with chaos. The assailant is unconsciously driven to create a chaotic situation.

If it is true that many violent criminals are acting out a
definable role, then it should be possible to recognize when the script
begins to unfold in a taxicab. We should be able to get an early warning when
extremely dangerous patterns of behavior begin.

I do not claim to have the answers, but here are some of the
questions.

How, for instance, should a cab driver regard a difficult
customer who spits or who deliberately dumps a beverage in the cab? Are
those acts of defilement? What is the appropriate response, and is the response
different if you know that acts of defilement are associated with
acts of senseless murder?

How important is it for a driver to maintain order in the
cab?

Where is the boundary between a boisterous or unruly situation and a
chaotic situation? Is there a line between customer service and driver
safety, and does "chaos" define that line?

Maybe the solutions that work to prevent robberies are also
the same solutions that work to prevent senseless murders. But maybe not,
especially the standard advice to be a compliant victim in an assault. If the
antagonist seems more intent on playing a role than getting the money, a
driver might be better off fighting back or trying to get away even if
attempting to do so is a high risk move.

My strategy is to laugh and smile a lot with my customers,
and to share many good words, and also to keep a bullet-resistant partition
between us whenever possible. The shield is a minor inconvenience
most of the time, but when the one-in-a-thousand, or the one-in-ten-
thousand, starts spitting or trashing the place or causing me to think the
word "chaos," I will have some time and space to consider what's next in
this script!

-
Charles
Rathbone



(Charles Rathbone currently drives a cab in San Francisco. His
interest in taxicab driver safety dates from 1992 when he attended the
funeral of a coworker, the second driver slain in less than a year. Since then
he has played a lead role in organizing a campaign that led to ten public
hearings and passage of the 1994 taxi safety law in San Francisco, performed
an analysis of the information available on hundreds of fatal assaults,
testified as an expert witness in the trial of a taxicab driver accused of
murder, and prepared articles on safety issues which have been
printed in many taxi publications. )



Pattern in taxi homicides

The typical fatal scenario is a night time shooting from inside
the cab.

Most of the deaths are due to head or neck injuries, and most of the
assailants are in their teens. The following are the main findings
from my report "606 Taxicab Driver Homicides, United States and Canada,
1980- 1994"



94% of the attacks occur when the driver is inside the cab.

85% of the fatal injuries are gunshot wounds.

82% of the assaults occur at night.

74% of the deaths are due to head and neck injuries.

64% of the deaths are from gunshots to the head.

66% of the assailants are under age twenty.

47% of the assailants act alone.

25% of the assailants are outside the cab.



________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2004 03:00:35 -0000
From: bassmaster_65321
Subject: Ottawa Taxi Dispatchers go out on strike

Bringin' in the New Year on the picket line - Ottawa taxi
dispatchers on strike
[January 1, 2004] OTTAWA - Moments before the clock struck twelve,
taxi dispatchers, members of CUPE 4266, filed out of work and
gathered at the picket line. Last minute talks broke off between the
union and Coventry Connections' ZipTrack as the central demands for
a wage increase and a benefit plan were not met by the company. The
47 taxi dispatchers take calls for BlueLine, Capital, Veterans and
DJ Taxi in Ottawa.

"Before negotiations these were low-waged workers with no benefits.
After negotiations, they remain low-waged workers with no benefits.
This is why we are on strike," said Andy Mele, CUPE National
Representative and chief negotiator. "ZipTrack has given us no
choice but to fight for what is fair." Mele characterized the
negotiations as "slow and like pulling teeth."

"It's a slap in the face," said Donna Reaney, a dispatcher and Chief
Steward, CUPE 4266. Reaney has been with the company for over 15
years. "We've waited a long time for a fair wage and benefit plan
and can't wait any longer. It's time ZipTrack learned to respect the
work that we do." The dispatchers take between 500 and 1000 calls a
night.

Over 100 people brought in the New Year on the picket line outside
ZipTrack offices at 455 Coventry Road. BlueLine and Capital Taxi
cabs lined both sides of the street in support of the dispatchers
and were greeted with load cheers as they pulled in. Families
brought their children and together they braved the cold in support
of this fight for a fair contract.

The taxi dispatchers make on average $9 an hour and have no benefit
plan. A leaflet distributed on the picket line urges supporters not
to call a cab, but to flag them down or use alternate means of
transportation for the duration of the strike.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) represents over half a
million workers.




________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________




------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links

To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taxidriversofamerica/

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
taxidriversofamerica-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
------------------------------------------------------------------------



EYE-OPENING FOR SURE

Maybe NOW is the time to call for an "Omaha Taxi Drivers Association"or OTDA and citizens of Omaha should call for an "Omaha TaxiCab Commission"before something happens and the public asks...WHY DIDN'T WE DO SOMETHING YESTERDAY?.

Whatcha Think?
Email Us