Seattle Yellow Cab Drivers Are Being Secretly Videotaped Without Their Permission & My Last Comment On The Aurora Avenue North Prostitution Soliciting: Rodney Alcala

MV (King County Metro) is Spying on Seattle and King County Taxi Drivers

Back when Yellow Cab was a taxi co-op (BYG) and PSD was solely an affiliated dispatch company, comprising what was then known jointly as the Yellow Cab Taxi Association, all the cabs were equipped with City/County mandated cameras.  Upon entering the cab, the passenger would see, if they were paying attention, a notification that there was a continuous taping of all passenger behavior by video camera in the interior of the cab, alerting them because the passengers had (and have) the right to know they were being taped.  Unlike President Nixon back in 1968-74, who audiotaped much of various conversations with world leaders and others minus their knowledge, BYG wanted its customers to know what was occurring, making it clear that the video could be used against them in any type of legal action.  

But now I have found out, in perhaps with some kind of collaboration or coordination with Puget Sound Dispatch by MV and other agencies holding accounts, that secret videotaping by passengers (MV employees?) posing as MV clients has occurred over at least the past week and probably much longer.   All of us Yellow independent operators were only told about this the past few days through a fleet message and a paragraph in the current online newsletter.  Prior to this, none of us had any idea this was happening, and worse, we were never asked permission if we wanted to participate in this kind of owner operator surveillance.  I for one have no interest in being spied upon and enduring its potential consequences.  

In both notifications, PSD stated that the videotaping resulted in one driver being punished by the immediate removal from all accounts, with no statements made concerning any formal or legal decision making processes, making no reference to any City/County hearings over the matter.   In other words, it seems PSD brought the driver in, saying, "Boom! you are guilty!" and here is your punishment, making it clear that all of its owner drivers will be subjected to the same instantaneous judgement minus legal representation or appeal.  

How this is all fair I can't imagine, and since it isn't, I hereby withdraw any implied permission PSD thinks it has with video or audiotaping me without prior notification.  And when I have the time, I will have a sticker made stating just that, that no taping of any kind is allowed in my cab.  

My last thought is, were the City and County told in advance this kind of  taping would be occurring, somehow making them party to this?   I doubt it because its clear PSD feels it can act with immunity, doing whatever it wants to do without consequence.  Ah yes, the beat goes on and on and on!  When will it ever end?

Could the City of Seattle be named as an Accomplice to Murder?

The sordid parade of scantily clad women along Aurora continues, seemingly completely unconcerned about police intervening in their activities.  Having tried and failed to get the City of Seattle's attention to all this,  I have one last comment to make, and that is mentioning the name of that infamous "The Dating Game" serial killer, Rodney Alcala, he of perhaps 130 murders, someone who died July 24th while awaiting his execution.   This guy was nuts, once appearing on that dumbbell TV program "The Dating Game," taking time off from his killing spree to entertain and entice a young lovely.   

I bring his name up because this is the kind of man who would, without hesitation, kill a defenseless woman plying Seattle's "sex worker" streets.  And given the encouragement obviously provided by the City of Seattle to these women, wouldn't it make sense, if one of them is killed by a customer, that Seattle be considered an accomplice to first-degree murder?  What kind of man does the City of Seattle think these guys are, these crazy men buying sex off the streets?   If the City Council members and the Mayor thought about it, they would realize some of them are a new Rodney Alcala looking for additional victims.  And with that, I leave the subject to someone else.

Seattle City Code (SMC 6.310.455) Concerning Cabbie Behavior & Not Kidding: Passengers Attempting To Leap From The Moving Cab & Shelton To Macleary? & While We Were All Sleeping: The Real Costs of The Afghanistan War

Seattle Municipal Code 6.310.455 K & L

A friendly City of Seattle taxi official cleared up any confusion concerning cabbie liability, telling me that the law pertaining to prostitution solicitation applies to active participation inside the cab but not applying to the transportation of said suspected prostitute.  This applies to all illegal activities, making it clear the City of Seattle prohibits any kind of illegal activity from occurring in the interior of a taxi, forbidding the cabbie from being, in any manner, an active participant in an ongoing crime. That makes complete sense, shielding the cab driver from any charges relating to criminal conduct directly tied to the passenger.  For instance, if the cabbie transported someone to a bank, and told to wait but later finding out that same passenger robbed the bank, the driver would not be legally seen as an accomplice, instead having done what we all do, waiting for a passenger's return upon their request.  Thanks for the information, Mister City Seattle, I appreciate it!

Beware of the Psychotic Passenger

It's hard to believe, two passengers attempting to leap out of my moving cab, one at 60 miles per hour, within two hours of each other.  Damn the first one was scary, only having locked the doors preventing the young guy from leaping out to his death.  Actively hallucinating, and now standing on the rear seat, shouting "I have to get out!  Let me out!" I was finally able to pull over safely near the southbound I-5 Mercer Street exit.  Jumping out, he ran down the ramp.   Calling 911, I pleaded they send the WA State Highway Patrol in pursuit.  Damn that wasn't any fun!

And then a bit later, the account passenger from Northwest Hospital opening the door of the moving cab, luckily on a city street, allowing me to stop as he jumped out screaming.  He had been delivered to the hospital by the police, having some kind of drug related issues.  At least he leaped out at the assigned drop-off, removing the problem of having to notify anyone.  He was homeless and very upset, the hospital sending him off to a city park.  One would think there had to be a better destination but I was only the cabbie doing the hospital's bidding.  Again, no fun.

How many times do I have to state the obvious: Shelton to Macleary, Washington

Does anyone think any cab driver would deadhead all the difficult 81miles, 1 1/2 hours from Seattle to Shelton, Washington to serve a $50-60.00 prescription run?  To the Philippines dispatch call-center it somehow made sense, asking for cabs to take this fare.  Welcome to the nonsensical, to the dysfunctional, welcome to the Cebu-based Yellow Taxi call-center.  What's 81 miles when you are nearly 8000 miles across the mighty Pacific Ocean?  Why nothing of course.  Also at that moment, there was only one dispatcher working on a busy Saturday night.  Wonderful, oh so wonderful!

Figures from the Afghanistan War 2003-2021

What does this have to do with taxi?  Only the many veterans I have picked up at the local VA Hospital, that's all.  Here is some important info taken from an Associated Press article reported by Ellen Knickmeyer.

American service members killed: 2,448

US contractors: 3,846

Aid workers: 444 

Journalists: 73

Afghan military and police: 66,000

Allied soldiers: 1,144

Afghan civilians: 47,245

Taliban: 51,191

Costs

Debt-financed as of 2020: 2 trillion dollars

Estimated interest payments on that 2 trillion: 925 billion

Estimated interest by 2030: 2 trillion

Estimated interest by 2050: 6.5 trillion

There's much more information.  Google the article and read.  

U Need Tires?

Try my friends at El Compadre Tires, 9423 Martin Luther King Way South, Seattle

206-353-1771 and 360-815-0522

They are great and fast.  Cost of new set of tires for my personal car: $320.00. Flats repaired for $10.00. 

First Cruise Ship of the Season set sail on Monday July 19th

The "Serenade of the Sea" took off yesterday from Pier 91 for Alaska.  I am guessing this upcoming weekend will be busy. 

 

"I Will Wager You $10 That The Taxi Inspector Comes After You, For Aiding And Abetting...." & Two Poems

Criminal Cab Driver?

The above quote is from a friend responding to my "RED ALERT" concerning the blatant prostitute solicitation occurring these days along State Route Highway 99 (Aurora Avenue North) in Seattle's Broadview and Northgate neighborhoods.   His thought is that by merely mentioning I have transported passengers I suspect could be involved in something illicit or criminal, I too am somehow implicated, bringing up a question I've had from my earliest taxi days: what responsibility, if any, does the cabbie hold when recognizing potentially felonious or nefarious behavior?   

God knows! daily I am witness to all kinds of crazy and questionable behaviors and actions within the confines of my cab but do I have any perceived moral or legal authority to intervene?  Should I tell the dumbbell men I drop off at the strip clubs they are wasting their money?  Or the countless men I have taken to and from porno shops, should I suggest they would be better off finding a willing partner instead?  And what cabbie anywhere in the world who hasn't done the ubiquitous "drug purchase" run, something as commonplace as songbirds singing in the early morning?  Are you going to tell these birds to sing a different tune?  I doubt it, and if you tried, the bird taking wing, flying away.  

No, instead I make the greatest attempt to treat all my customers the same, trying to avoid judgement and wishing the passenger well, whatever they might be doing or where they are going.  When I do make counsel, its only in the extremest conditions, like suggesting to the drunk not to get in their car and drive away, that it's a bad idea.  Only then have I notified a 911 operator that someone dangerous is about take to the roadway.  My sole purpose this time, in my futile attempt to raise alarm about the ongoing streetwalking, is to help facilitate a new awareness about the victimization these women are facing, and nothing else.  If that somehow makes me a lawbreaker, then go ahead, arrest me for caring, something Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Jamal Khashoggi, Joe Hill and many others were murdered for, caring for others it seems at times the very worst of crimes.  

Poems

Easter 1982 Madrid 

Awakened from an afternoon nap by music, and seeing a procession  

marching past our hotel, dressed and dashed down to

the street as Spanish soldiers 

goose-stepped a hoisted Virgin Mary in carnival fashion above the milling

followers---machine guns, Fascism and Roman Catholic veneration all 

blending to celebrate today "Jesus has arisen!" Hurray! 

In My Marlette Bunkbed 

In my mobile home bunkbed I gathered my stuffed animal friends around me,

in my bunkbed I brushed away spiders from my face,

brushing away the Virgin Mary's womb my father prayed to,

scaring me, not wanting any part of their confining reality, 

covering and hiding my head beneath my Hungarian grandmother's

feather tick dunyha, my mother's shouts penetrating the kitchen's

sliding door. 

________________________________________________________

Note upon "Bunkbed:"  Our turquoise and white Marlette trailer, 8 feet wide and 55 feet long, was built in Marlette, Michigan.  The Marlette Company was founded in 1953, the year I was born.  Our home was essentially one long aluminum box, the "rooms" divided by wooden sliding doors.  My brother Steve, seven years older, had the lower bunk, with me occupying the upper.  My father would stand next to my bed and we would recite that prayer to the Virgin "Hail Mary" together.  We were very poor, driving my afflicted mother crazy, angry with her husband for our unnecessary poverty, even our inferior Marlette home endangered by the constant threat of repossession by the mortgage company.   

My comforter was from my father's mother.  Hungarian was my parent's first language.  Dunyha, or dunna, is Hungarian for eiderdown.  In Australia, the Hungarian has become doona, meaning duvet. 

Note on "Madrid:"  I will never forget, taking an evening stroll one night after dinner and passing a government building, the Spanish soldier guarding the place pointed his machine gun at us, aiming for our stomachs. This was in April, 1982.  Franco died in November, 1975, with his Spanish-style Fascism remaining a lingering scent perfuming Madrid seven years later.  For those interested in history, the Roman Catholic Church backed Franco in his fight against the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War  (07/1936-04/1939), hence the intersection of religion and militarism we witnessed that Easter Sunday.  For further reading, George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" is a great book to begin with.