Taxi advocate warns – profile passengers

A city taxi advocate is causing a stir with calls for racial profiling after a livery cab driver was shot and left for dead in South Ozone Park on Friday, December 3.
The driver, Trevor Bell, 53, was shot multiple times during an attempted robbery. The suspect was caught on tape by a camera Bell kept on his dashboard and is a young Hispanic male.
Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America and the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, stated after the shooting that drivers should profile their passengers in order to protect themselves from such crimes.
“Drivers have to use their instincts to profile the types of passengers they’re picking up,” said Mateo. “There is a criminal element we need to weed out. If someone looks like they are trying to hide something, you need to keep away from them.”
Mateo has taken flack for his comments, in particular from Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky, who condemned the practice of racial profiling as illegal, calling it “downright wrong and simply unacceptable.”
However, Mateo would not back down, calling on Yassky to put himself in the position of cab drivers who pick up passengers in notoriously dangerous parts of the city.
“To Yassky, I would say get a hack license and get behind the wheel and go work in East New York or Jamaica after sundown. Don’t just talk about rules and regulations,” he said. “He doesn’t know what it is like to have a gun behind his neck – he has never even driven a cab.”
Bell was shot several times in the legs and neck before he was robbed of $100 by the suspect, who police have identified through a tipster but have yet to release a name. Bell, a married father of two, remains in critical condition. He took the job as a livery cab driver with Big D Royal Car Service in order to make extra cash for the holidays.
Mateo said that Bell was shot by a criminal element that drivers need to avoid on their route. He also said that anyone who thinks he is racial profiling is afraid to hear the truth.
“Officials need to acknowledge that we have a severe problem with criminals living among us. And we transport them daily,” said Mateo. “I challenge anyone that believes what I’m saying is wrong to get behind the wheel and go through what drivers go through on a daily basis.”