Quoting Troy West, Uber Chief Legal Officer: "What It Says Is That Uber Is A Reflection Of The Society It Serves."

This quote is taken from a New York Times article written by Kate Conger reporting Uber's announcement verifying 3,045 sexual assaults for the year 2018, 92 % of the attacks originating with Uber operators assaulting their customers.  9 customers were murdered and 58 killed in automobile accidents.  While the total trip volume is high, over a billion rides provided, those still are shocking statistics generated by Uber.  Lyft too announced over 40 rapes occurring over their ride-share system.

Can you imagine the uproar if the American taxi industry made similar announcements, admitting to rape, murder and an in-general mayhem occurring in their cabs?  But here we have Troy West, the guy responsible for overseeing customer safety for Uber "ho-humming" these terrible incidents by more or less saying "what do you expect, we live in a violent society."

While it remains true that violence exists in America, one DOES NOT expect to be raped taking an Uber, Lyft or cab home from a concert or local tavern.  Do you  expect to be raped when shopping for apples at Safeway or shoes at Macy's?  Of course you don't, instinctively expecting a safe and sane shopping environment provided by responsible businesses.

To believe Troy West, that being raped is inevitable due to the society we live in, is to embrace the belief that anarchy and bedlam is our everyday norm, something that simply isn't true, West instead attempting to justify Uber's totally inexcusable behavior.  What his statement says to me is an admission that Uber is not in control of its own operations, and worse, never will be, our "insane society" making this kind of behavior a distorted, inescapable guarantee, that having our customers murdered and raped just part of our everyday business reality.

Unreal is all I can say.  And how and why Uber will continue to be accepted as a functional company is something I don't understand.  Even one rape is completely unacceptable but over 3000 boggles all credulity.  How can this be possible? 

And how can this keep happening day after week after month after year?  Government and its regulators must intercede before they too or someone they love are victimized by an unqualified ride-share (TNC) operator.  Just recently, an Uber driver in Lebanon was convicted of raping and killing a 30 year old female British diplomat, someone who was scheduled to return home to the UK the next day.  I mention this only to illustrate the true human costs of the lackadaisical regulatory approach taken by governments across the globe toward Uber and Lyft and other TNC companies.  To quote Pete Seeger, "When will they ever learn?"

Good question, isn't it?