thu 09 jul 2009 01:38:22 — witte de withstraat
taxi mischief in Lplein finally gets news
at about 4:20 last sunday morning a prospective taxi passenger in leidseplein, rob sitek, got into an argument with a taxi driver, who apparently struck him so he fell and hit his head on the pavement, and died the next day. this came the day after a scathing article in parool about the behavior of taxi drivers in the leidseplein area. gangs in collusion, misbehaving, overcharging, taking the long way etc. putting each other under pressure to raise the prices and to refuse short rides.
so many times i've stood there myself and wondered why are those police over there saying nothing about how these drivers are acting. everybody knew about it, nobody thought they could (or should) do anything. one confrontation avoidant policeman was even quoted as directing people to complain to the city agency for taxihandhaving, of which there is no such thing.
predictably the politicians are anxious to make it into a game of party politics.