Taxi Drivers are oft-hated, and this time it's a crime

Yesterday, a film student (of all things)  pleaded guilty to attempted murder as a hate crime on Tuesday for stabbing a New York City taxi driver in what prosecutors said was an anti-Muslim attack.

Michael Enright, 24, faces 9-1/2 years in prison when he is sentenced later this month.

After hailing a taxi in Manhattan one evening in August 2010, Enright asked the driver, Ahmed Sharif, whether he was a Muslim, according to prosecutors.

When Sharif replied that he was, Enright slashed Sharif's throat with a knife, stabbed at his face, arms and hands and yelled anti-Muslim comments, prosecutors said.

Sharif survived the attack, and later he appeared with Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a news conference where he said he believed he was stabbed only because of his religion.

While any crime of this nature is shocking, the hate behind it is not.  Muslims are often held in contempt-- we know that.  But so are taxi drivers, and they are often the victims of violence, far more than almost any other profession in American.  Even good liberals who'd never say anything derogatory about an ethnic group often have little difficulty denouncing cab drivers.

At it's root is (a) some cabbies do provide bad service; and (b) people could have 19 good taxi rides, but if the 20ths is bad, that's the one they'll remember and talk about.

I've heard it again and again.  It hurts them on the streets, and it hurts them in the courts.

Here is Reuters on the Sharif case.

For a discussion of how the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission actually encourages an irrational fear of of taxi drivers, click here and read pages 19-23