At 3:55 a.m. on Wednesday, September 14, police responded to a call from a taxi driver who had allegedly been assaulted with a beer bottle and his own car after refusing to drive a drunk man home.
According to the police report, it began with a routine pick-up request in Belltown, where two people were waiting on the steps of an apartment building on the 200 block of 1st Avenue West. But once the passenger crawled into the front seat, the cabbie “determined that [the passenger] was very intoxicated and decided to decline a ride.”
The report states that this infuriated the passenger’s friend, who allegedly “came around to the driver’s side of the taxi and threw a beer bottle at the victim while he was still seated inside the taxi.” When the victim tried to get out of the car, the suspect then allegedly proceeded to slam the victim’s ankle two or three times with the driver’s door, and “kick the victim in the head while he was still seated in the driver’s seat of the taxi.”
Once the victim finally struggled out of his cab—why God, why?—the suspect allegedly “punched [his] head and neck several times.”
The victim states that he finally managed to call the police on his cell phone, at which time the suspect fled back inside his apartment and the “very intoxicated” man started walking north. The report notes that the apartment’s security cameras might have recorded the alleged beating.
Which all goes to say: Don’t get so drunk your friend is denied a taxi home and your subsequent meathead rage compels you to beat the crap out of a cabbie in front of your own apartment while being recorded by security cameras.
The 200 block of 1st W is not Belltown, it’s Lower Queen Anne. Don’t make me link to the Official Neighborhood Map. Augh, too late.
http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/nm…
Well, if you know of anything better to do on a Wednesday night, I’d love to hear it.
Interesting, I got into a cab a few weeks ago near the Westin at around 2 am on a Sunday morning got into the cab and some white couple (drunk and apparently walking from the Belltown area) started to scream and me and the driver that he should take them instead. And the couple started making threats and the cab driver offered to call the cops.
Seattle Hetro Nightlife! It’s for winners!!!
In Iceland, they told us if you’re too drunk the taxis won’t take you… just ask the police and they’ll give you a ride home! Seriously!
Drunks are the WORST. They always puke in the cab. I don’t blame cabdrivers for eschewing the shitfaced and violent.
I’m amazed at the number of people who threaten cab drivers with violence as part of their “why you should give me a ride” argument. It’s like asking to cut to the front of the line for the john because you have explosive diarrhea. Well sure, who wouldn’t want to walk into that?
What happened to assholes just throwing money around?
I must have good cab karma, because I am very nearly always wasted when in a cab…
50% of the entire POINT of cabs is to transport you hither and yon when you are drunk so you aren’t compelled to drive. Teetotalling cab drivers are bullshit.
@8, if someone is so wasted that they are a threat to vomit in my place of business, I’d throw them out too. Teetotaling has nothing to do with it.
We are told to call cabs when drunk to avoid driving drunk. It is horseshit for a driver to be able to refuse to take you home. All the description says it that the driver determined he was very drunk. It mentions nothing about the potential of vomiting or anything else. Tea-totaling may have nothing to do with this but Islamic fundamentalism does. This is a way that radical Islam gains a foot-hold in American society. I’d make a cash wager that this driver was is a follower of Islam. Worship how you want but do your job too. I firmly believe this