The Los Angeles Times reports:
A City Council committee moved Tuesday to tighten penalties for taxi drivers who face complaints of discrimination for refusing to pick up an airport passenger on the basis of race.
The action was spurred by a recent undercover operation by two black police officers, who found that taxi drivers rejected 20% of their requests for rides at LAX.
The committee that oversees trade and tourism suggested banning cab drivers from working the airport for a year if an investigation finds them guilty of racial discrimination against a potential passenger.
“The last thing we want is for our city to have any part in discrimination,” said Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who proposed the policy change. He also pushed to continue the undercover stings for a year to gather more robust data on racial discrimination.
The City Council will vote on the suggestions next week.
Lawmakers said the policy change was inspired by ESPN analyst Doug Glanville, who wrote an essay last fall for the Atlantic magazine’s website, saying a taxi driver refused to give him a ride because he is black.
Glanville recounted that at LAX in September a white co-worker approached a United Taxi driver and asked to go to a downtown hotel, while Glanville walked to the back of the cab to put his luggage in the trunk. When the driver saw Glanville, “he froze, and his entire demeanor shifted,” he wrote.
The essay stated that the driver repeatedly refused to take them to downtown, telling the pair to walk across the street and catch a bus. As they left to find another car, they watched the driver pick up a white passenger.
Given the high rates of violence committed by certain groups of young black men, is it any wonder that some taxi drivers think twice?
My friends who rent out homes and rooms on AirBNB are reluctant to rent to blacks and Uber drivers are often reluctant to pick up blacks. This is a normal reaction to the behavior of a minority of blacks.
