Cab Drivers Demand Change After NYPD Detective's Uber Rant Goes Viral
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Taxi and livery cab drivers rallied outside Penn Station on Friday, calling for policy changes and more police training after video of an NYPD detective unleashing a tirade on an Uber driver went viral.
"This is common, this is happening all the time," driver Armughan Asar said.
"There's a lot of different ways the police harass us," said cabbie Javaid Tariq-hes, who claims he was stopped by police just last week. "Police is always talking to us like we are not human, they treat us very badly, they talk to us very badly."
Bhairavi Desai with the Taxi Workers Alliance said drivers deserve better.
"While this one incident was videotaped and for the world to see, it's that kind of a verbal harassment that taxi drivers face every day," Desai said. "They get pulled over randomly and get treated like criminals."
She wants Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to have his officers focus more on crimes against drivers rather than just handing out summonses to drivers, 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported.
Patrick Cherry, the detective in the viral video, has been placed on modified duty. He is a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
A passenger in the Uber cab recorded the traffic stop on the West Side Highway near West 14th Street on Monday afternoon and posted it to YouTube.
"Stop it with your mouth. Stop it with your 'for what, sir, for what, sir.' Stop it with that bulls**t, and realize there are three vehicle traffic law violations that you committed, OK?" the detective says. "Do you understand me? I don't know what f***ing planet you think you're on right now."
The detective leaves, and the passenger in the back seat tells the driver he has the encounter on video, calling it "crazy" and "inappropriate" and advising the driver not to say anything.
The detective then returns.
Warning: Strong Language
"I don't care what you have to say. You understand that?" he tells the driver. "People are allowed to park their cars on the side of the street without your interference, and then your opinion about what's going on, OK? Especially when the person you're doing it to are the police.
"The only reason why you're not in handcuffs and going to jail and getting summonses in the precinct is because I have things to do. That's the only reason that's not happening, because this isn't important enough for me. You're not important enough," the cop says.
The detective was wearing a suit and no badge. He was driving an unmarked Hyundai with flashing blue and red lights in the windshield. Cherry said he pulled over the driver for honking at him while he was trying to park his car.