tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708859863717325805.post2736188871878513..comments2024-02-13T12:56:46.050-08:00Comments on The Phantom Cab Driver Phites Back: The City vs Cab Drivers? A Micro History 1.Crocker Amazonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14344354862430937003noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2708859863717325805.post-31460798703658181842012-06-26T20:43:49.727-07:002012-06-26T20:43:49.727-07:00The assumption by the politicians and law enforcem...The assumption by the politicians and law enforcement that cab drivers are sub-standard citizens or non-citizens is still prevalent.<br /><br />There would be no attempt to convince us of the alleged opportunity of spending a quarter of a million dollars for a permit that isn't good for more than fourteen shifts a week, and with a definite ceiling to all earnings with or through the medallion, if the presumption weren't made that cab drivers can't tell a job contract from a home loan.<br /><br />Let's see, how else do they think we're morons...<br /><br />During the Jordana Thigpen TC, I was once interrogated by her and Sergent Murphy, Inspector Suslow having already retired. A passenger with very little English had gone ballistic when I asked her where she was from, screaming at me "I don't have to submit to your interrogation!" <br /><br />The complaint was absurd in the extreme but I had to sit there... what are you going to do when an attack dog has you corralled? Eventually the extremity of my error was acknowledged as having dissipated and I asked Sgt. Murphy plainly "Is it true that the Police Department has a policy of siding with complainants against cab drivers?" <br /><br />Astonishingly, he swallowed that, hook line and sinker, and said "Yes, because they are the ones paying our salaries." That is a verbatim quote of his words.<br /><br />IOW, 1) Yes, the top taxi cop told me directly that SFPD Taxi Detail had a policy against us. That is obviously a strident violation of the very idea of Justice. 2) Cab drivers were assumed to be an underclass of society, about whom ordinary reasoning power about rights and justice - even right and wrong - did not need to be exercised, and 3) There was held to be a "proof" against the cabbies, namely that they do not pay taxes. Nevermind that it is not within Police jurisdiction to decide who it is they dispense their brand of justice to - if a Wells Fargo executive complained about a B of A executive, the cops would not make assumptions about who did or didn't pay their taxes - even though we know that neither of them pay as much of their income in tax as I do.Christopher Fulkerson, Ph.D.http://christopherfulkerson.comnoreply@blogger.com