FOX 5 Investigates: Destination Discrimination: MyFoxDC.com

FOX 5 Investigates: Destination Discrimination


WASHINGTON - On most days, Otis Carter, Jr. takes the Metro home from his job in Alexandria. But when he is running late, he will sometimes spring for a cab.

"As soon as I get in a cab and they start to pull off, then they ask me, where you going?” says Carter. “Where am I taking you today, sir? I say, 'Southeast Washington' and then the problems begin."

Carter says cab drivers here at the King Street Metro station have denied him a ride to Southeast almost a half dozen times in the last two months. He contacted FOX 5 after one driver even called the cops on him.

"The officer came over and said he wasn't going to deal with this all night and told me to take a walk and find another cab company,” says Carter.

FOX 5 decided to put Alexandria’s cab drivers to the test using FOX 5 photographer Steve and FOX 5 intern Julian.

Julian is the first to get into a cab.

JULIAN: "Is it possible that you can take me to Southeast?"

The first driver is quick to put the address into the GPS and doesn’t hesitate to give Julian a ride.

But others…

JULIAN: “Brandywine.”
CAB DRIVER:“Brandywine…ok…”

…tell Julian they can’t find that same address.

CAB DRIVER: “I put that in the GPS. I am so sorry.”

From the very beginning, Steve gets denied.

STEVE: "Can you take me to Southeast?"
CAB DRIVER: "Hmm?"
STEVE: "Southeast?"
CAB DRIVER: "Where in Southeast?"
STEVE: "72..."
CAB DRIVER: "You mean Washington, D.C.?"
STEVE: "Yea."
CAB DRIVER: "No, I'm not going there."

TISHA THOMPSON: "Did you just refuse a ride to that passenger?"
CAB DRIVER: "Which one?"
TISHA THOMPSON: "The man that just got out of the cab. The black man."
CAB DRIVER: "No, I didn't."
TISHA THOMPSON: "There was a man that got in the cab and then he got out of the cab."
CAB DRIVER: "Because I have to pick up my daughter from school. I'm not able to make it at 6 o'clock because he want me to go to D.C."

Carter says it is an excuse he has heard before.

“I’ve gotten that often,” he says. “There's something wrong with my car. I've heard that. I don't know where that is. Have somebody else take you."

Donald Kahl is the Executive Director of the Equal Rights Center, a local non-profit that tests taxicabs for discrimination.

"Excuses aren't alright,” Kahl says. “Because excuses are just that. They're excuses."

Kahl says refusing to take someone to Southeast is a form of subtle discrimination.

"You no longer hear someone say I won't give you service because you're African-American. But rather, they're more subtle barriers of accessibility or disparate treatment that are thrown up instead. It is a problem,” he says.

And FOX 5 discovered that when the sun goes down…

CAB DRIVER: "I can't go there this time. I'm very sorry."

…the excuses…

CAB DRIVER: "It's not, it's not you."

…turn into quick refusals.

CAB DRIVER: "It's rough."
STEVE: "It's rough over there? What about Anacostia, can you take me to Anacostia?"
CAB DRIVER: "Take the next one please."

Steve gets out and the driver takes off. Steve tries the next cab.

CAB DRIVER: "To be honest with you, I don't know Southeast."
STEVE: "Do you know the Anacostia Metro Station?"
CAB DRIVER: "Not really."
STEVE: "Not really?"
CAB DRIVER: "Go take someone who knows better."

Steve tries the third cab in line, who finally gives him a ride.

Chris Spera is the Deputy City Attorney for the City of Alexandria and is in charge of investigating complaints against cab drivers.

"If they don't feel safe, then we understand and we're going to give the driver the benefit of the doubt,” says Spera. “But to just say, ‘Gee, I don't like that location,’ that's not enough."

Spera says city code states, "No driver of a taxicab shall refuse or neglect to convey any orderly person."

Spera says he suspended a taxi driver last year for refusing to pick up a woman in a wheelchair.

"It’s not an easy way to make a living, so you want to be fair to them,” Spera says. “But at the same time, you can't discriminate. You have to serve the public or else you shouldn't be in this line of work."

Spera says the city has only received four “Refusal to Carry” complaints in the last two years. But Kahl says complaints “tend to be dramatically underreported.”

Kahl says cities like Alexandria should conduct sting operations and tests like FOX 5’s to help combat discrimination because "having someone willing to step forward and say, ‘I have been the victim of discrimination’ is a very, in some instances, a very difficult thing to do. There are a lot of pressures. They might not trust the government, they may be embarrassed, they may think they've done something wrong or they may just not want to make waves."

All feelings Carter says he grappled with before he called FOX 5.

"We have to do something to actually make a change. Because it only takes one person. I am sure I am just one of many that have gone through this type of thing."

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When the City of Alexandria passes legislation to financially guarantee safety of property and health of cab drivers going to specific Metro stops in SE, then I'll say they are discriminating if they don't go. But if I have a family to support and if something happens to my cab I am screwed, forget it. There are plenty of Metro stations in Alexandria that will get you just fine to SE DC, take that and quit crying.

"Kahl says cities like Alexandria should conduct sting operations and tests like FOX 5’s to help combat discrimination "

OH RIGHT, municipalities are so flush with cash they should spend taxpayer money to investigate this huge community issue, to benefit people who DON'T LIVE in Alexandria. Let's wait first for DC government to begin paying for investigations on why their Foggy Bottom-area cabs won't drive to some areas of PG County in Maryland.

If you are a cabbie, it is a shitty fare to take someone to Anacostia or Temple Hills from Alexandria. Chamces are you will not get a fare going back. If you take someone into Northwest or Arlington, there's a much better chance you will get a return fare.

I sympathize with the notion of providing non-discriminatory service, but you can't expect these cabbies to committ economic suicide or drive into shitty and unsafe places without a concealed carry.

Most cabbies in Alexandria are Ethiopian, Middle Eastern or other African. Not a racial issue anyway.

The guy running the so-called "Equal Rights Center" is a pretty obvious parasite who makes his dimes of unfounded complaints like this.

idontlikebeingrightaboutshitlikethisbutiam



Edited 21 time(s). Last edit at 5/31/1967 05:57AM by WingNut.

Last edit at 11/30/2015 01:37PM Last edit at 5/14/2015 03:52PM Last edit at 1/28/2014 05:57AM Last edit at 11/29/2015 01:10PM Last edit at 3/14/2011 11:52PM Last edit at 7/20/2012 04:07AM
Last edit at 6/29/2013 11:18PM Last edit at 3/19/2011 01:02PM Last edit at 3/26/2012 09:07PM

I don't blame them who wants to get robbed.

Cabbies have the scariest jobs! Lets face it, it's not like they're never robbed or murdered.
And no one knows better who the scariest passengers are, and where the scariest neighborhoods are.

Unless Fox had white people dressed in various clothing styles (business, tourist, thug) also ask to go to the same destination, thier experiment only proves cabbies just dont want to go to Southeast and NOT race.

I know a ton of cabbies, and I can tell you right off the bat that it's a job I'd never take if I could avoid it. Picking up total strangers is a great way to end up dead, so a cabby is well within his/her rights to use their best judgment regarding passengers and locations.

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"And if any women or children get their legs torn off, or faces caved in, well, it's tough shit for them." -2LT. Bert Stiles, 505th, 339th (On Berlin Bombardier Mission, 1944).