& Al Sharpton can come along for the ride. There have been within the past four months four cabdrivers shot to death here, three in the Bronx and most recently one in Yonkers and in all cases the motive was robbery. In May cabby Roberto Pita, 37, was shot to death on West Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. On August 17 cabbie Amadou Ndiaye, 46, was shot to death at Boston Road and Wilson Avenue. On Aug. 23 cabbie Jose Pena-Seguira, a 42-year-old father of four was shot to death by a paroled murderer near St. Mary's Park in Mott Haven (that's the South Bronx). Digression but it's not - lock Madoff up and throw away the key, KEEP SOCIETY SAFE! Most recently in the early morning hours of Sunday August 30 another cabby, Pericles Salas, 32, was shot in the head in Yonkers on Jessamine Avenue and pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital which is the hospital in Yonkers if you read the local paper here that most crime victims in Yonkers seem to go to, busy place. Salas was an illegal immigrant from Mexico who supported a wife and 5-year-old daughter by driving long hours into the night. Fernando Mateo, head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers said "there was no partition and no camera in his vehicle (as per the law and safety regulations - ed.). We're going to hold them responsible for his death" referring to the Mexicana Cab Service.
While that's all well and good the real killer here as usual is Political Correctness. Yeah we all know by now many cabbies don't pick up black fares, there's always much ado about this every few years or so in New York City. It's weaved its wave into edgy urban comic monologues but in all of this it's assumed as a matter of course for a cabdriver to do this is wrong as in racially immoral when the fact of the matter is cab companies should be allowed a certain latitude in exercising discretion and professional judgement when their drivers have to go into bad neighborhoods. OK I said it, nobody can talk about it but the elephant in the living room is black crime and when actor Danny Glover raised a beef a few years back about cabbies driving past black fares cab companies were told in no uncertain terms that this is illegal, an example of the grossest form of discrimination and ya wanna know something? when things calmed down and the racial activists had their way cabdrivers getting shot to death began to go up again. Now I've hashed this over with a good handful of people from time to time, the most honest place in the country right now is the living room and while most reasonable folk can see it from the black angle if you will they also say they're not seeing it from the cabdriver's perspective at all. It's a thankless job and a risky one as well and have the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson ever attended the funeral of a slain cabdriver? NO, they only pop up when there's a racial grievance in the air. Big Al has to go to the beauty salon every week to get his hair done for his next media appearance...
I feel the old blood-pressure rising, gonna stop here for now.
While that's all well and good the real killer here as usual is Political Correctness. Yeah we all know by now many cabbies don't pick up black fares, there's always much ado about this every few years or so in New York City. It's weaved its wave into edgy urban comic monologues but in all of this it's assumed as a matter of course for a cabdriver to do this is wrong as in racially immoral when the fact of the matter is cab companies should be allowed a certain latitude in exercising discretion and professional judgement when their drivers have to go into bad neighborhoods. OK I said it, nobody can talk about it but the elephant in the living room is black crime and when actor Danny Glover raised a beef a few years back about cabbies driving past black fares cab companies were told in no uncertain terms that this is illegal, an example of the grossest form of discrimination and ya wanna know something? when things calmed down and the racial activists had their way cabdrivers getting shot to death began to go up again. Now I've hashed this over with a good handful of people from time to time, the most honest place in the country right now is the living room and while most reasonable folk can see it from the black angle if you will they also say they're not seeing it from the cabdriver's perspective at all. It's a thankless job and a risky one as well and have the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson ever attended the funeral of a slain cabdriver? NO, they only pop up when there's a racial grievance in the air. Big Al has to go to the beauty salon every week to get his hair done for his next media appearance...
I feel the old blood-pressure rising, gonna stop here for now.