INDUSTRY IN REVIEW

By Don McCurdy

I love that phrase.

Federal officials, both FBI and other justice officials, cannot "confirm or deny" that an investigation of the New Orleans Taxicab Bureau took place. What an exciting story, one of the subjects of the non-confirmed or denied investigation has a secret recording of "Cornbread" telling his fleet to run out and get inspected because "Big Will" was on duty. Why you almost expect Ron "Tatersalad" White to pop up somewhere in the story. The sad part of the story is that the people consigned to watch the hen house are eating the chickens.

Like any other governmental regulatory body the taxicab bureau is open to go along to get along type of corruption that permeates a nauseating number of government endeavors. A little "grease" works wonders at many levels of government as witnessed by General Electric's tax bill. Really, you don't know about that? Best do your homework. The more government, at any level, involves itself in the matters of business the more opportunities there will be to not "confirm or deny" what might be going on.

Would I have been arrested?

Charges have been dropped against a taxicab driver who is alleged to have struck two off duty police officers who shot him. Wow, that's pretty benevolent. While officials conceded that the two off duty officers had been drinking no tests were conducted or charges filed against the officers for their involvement in what clearly appears to be a drunken road rage incident.

Let's all count how many times we've heard of the charges being dropped against a driver that struck two police officers with their vehicle. Gee, I came up with ZERO, how about you? Now, close your eyes and imagine what would have happened if I was drunk and fired a gun into another motorist's car. As a concealed carry permit holder I would have been arrested for possessing a firearm while drinking. Further, had I been involved in a road rage incident and found to be drinking I would have at least been breath tested or, as is popular here, blood tested with a warrant. So, why exactly were these shooters treated so differently?

It is always a sad event when police officers act poorly on or off duty, but it is clearly magnified when their brethren cover up their misdeeds. One can only wonder what may have happened if the driver had gotten out of his taxicab as ordered by the drunken badge carriers.

What's the message?

The Charlotte City Council has spoken! Three of the city's taxicab companies are allowed to serve the airport. The new approach is supposed to help keep the taxicabs serving the airport cleaner and "relatively new" according to the Aviation Director. The drivers did the usual complaining that they'd get put out of work, but that doesn't hold up since they can simply drive for one of the companies that are allowed to service the airport.

The issue really is twofold in my opinion:

• First, the government is picking winners and losers in business by virtue of regulation, and I am against that. If you want to set criteria that licensed operators must follow to work the airport great, but why exclude licensed, permitted operators? If you set the criteria and a company or operator doesn't comply they've excluded themselves.
  
  
  
• Second, what message does it send to your citizens? Visitors need to have this level of service while it's okay for the good citizens of Charlotte to get inferior service? I'm not sure I would want to get that message from the people I vote for, but then, I don't live in Charlotte.
  

It's for public safety!

While the TSA rummages through our shorts it really doesn't even raise an eyebrow when Ocean City alters its random drug testing policy because drivers are dodging the calls from the testing clinic. Let's just take a second here to think about these warrantless searches being conducted with no probable cause in the name of public safety.

How many of us would like to drop what we are doing and drive across town, unpaid, and pee in a cup? Yeah, yeah, I know, its public safety. The question I have is how many accidents have taxicabs had that were attributable to drug or alcohol use? Are we fixing a problem or are we being proactive and fixing an event that might someday happen?

Taxicab drivers often have scheduled pickups that they arrange with their clients. Is there consideration given to the idea that drivers are running a business? It's easy to create onerous rules that totally disregard someone's right as long as it's someone else. I doubt the city council members would long put up with their own policy if they had to do it too.

How's that working for you?

It was recently reported that NYC city council member James Sanders spent 45 minutes trying to get a cab for him and his daughter. While the story did have me laughing hysterically it also served as a clear example of what careful regulation brings: high prices and poor service.

The city has totally lost sight of the purpose of the taxi industry which is transportation. Half million dollar medallions, layer upon layer of regulation, iconic cars, green cab initiatives and the entire lot of what is NYC taxicab regulations and even city council members can't get a cab. With each new solution to the unintended consequences of NYC style regulations comes the inevitable new spate of unintended consequences.

The new "borough" cabs are alleged to be going to bring better service to the areas outside Manhattan, but in reality, will probably only bring costly medallion prices and a spate of unintended consequences for customer service. Next time, perhaps, Mr. Sanders will call a car service. They seem to have less regulation.

So, how stupid are we supposed to be?

Is it intentional or are news people just so dysfunctional that they can't simply state the facts? In a recent article regarding Georgia's immigration law Jeff Hullinger reports that taxicab, limousine and maybe even bus drivers could be arrested if they are illegal immigrants! The fact is that the law requires a crime to have been committed other than simply being in the country illegally in order to be stopped and questioned, and knowledge and intent on the part of the transportation provider to break a law, to hire an illegal immigrant.

Hullinger quotes brain dead moron Quinten Washington as to the possible ramifications of the law being fines for the local bus company. Is this guy really a lawyer? Did he read the law? Is his law firm embarrassed at his obvious ignorance of what the law really says? I understand that illegal immigration laws are a hot topic these days, but can't we all try to stay intellectually honest? Why are these distortions necessary? Clearly, it's just another example of why trust in the media is waning.


If you have any comments regarding this or any of my articles please feel free to contact me at dmc@mcacres.com. —dmc