Friday, October 19, 2012

Cab driver assaulted Queens-bound passenger


From the NY Post:

A veteran taxi driver had his license revoked after a midtown surveillance camera caught him yanking a passenger out of his cab and tossing him into the middle of the street – all because he didn’t want to drive to Queens.

"Even without corroborating witness testimony, the video is most compelling evidence," wrote administrative law judge Tynia Richard in recommending that Sidikiba Diallo, a 20-year cabbie, be stripped of his hack permit.

According to public records, Diallo's problems began at 3 a.m. on April 8, when he stopped at the Ichi Umi restaurant and bar on East 32d Street off Fifth Avenue and picked up Glenn Yonemitsu, who had been drinking with friends.

Yonemitsu asked to be taken to 41st Street and 43rd Avenue in Queens.

Diallo charged that his passenger was intoxicated and refused to take him.

For several minutes, the two argued.

Some of the facts in the case are in dispute, but two cameras mounted outside the restaurant captured the moment when Diallo physically ejected Yonemitsu from the passenger compartment.


From NBC 4:

Diallo had previous run-ins with taxi regulations: The TLC said he once locked a passenger in the back of his cab. Another time, he supposedly pushed an inspector while getting a ticket.

Diallo was not at home and could not be reached for comment.

The TLC says cabbies can refuse a ride if a customer seems intoxicated. But they cannot refuse a ride based on destination, and they are not allowed to touch a passenger.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fair is fair...
so let's have a look at both sides of the coin.

I can remember a few occasions of drinking
with a group of Japanese businessmen until the wee hours of the morning. That's how business is often concluded in Japan...man to man over a brew....or two...or three and four.

When they get drunk, they might even entertain the idea that they are the kings of New York.

I've witnessed a few flirting and making outright sexual advances to barmaids. Afterwards some do indeed stumble about like adolescents.

They're on home office company expense accounts and go hog wild at times.

Then there were those shifty cabbies who've
(many times) been all too eager to take my Japanese business associates on a grand tour of NYC...
before eventually depositing them at the Japan Air Lines terminal at Kennedy Airport.

There were no complaints from a particular cabby
who took a sleepy Osaka businessman back to the Plaza Hotel via once around Central Park.

That was just a few blocks from "Tonno" a posh Japanese night club where he'd been celebrating a little too much..

Anonymous said...

they should take the medallion, too.

Anonymous said...

Maybe he's just a driver and doesn't own the medallion.
I'd bar him from ever getting a hack license.