Taxi Driver Online

'You just get used to it' - Stoke-on-Trent taxi drivers on the shameful racist abuse they endure

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/st ... ke-3758634

A clip of a passenger hurling sickening abuse has been viewed thousands of times

Cabbies working around Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire have told how vile racist abuse is ‘part and parcel’ of the job.

A clip of a passenger hurling sickening abuse has been viewed thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter after it reemerged over the weekend.

In the footage, originally filmed last August, a man - seemingly under the influence of alcohol - can be heard chanting ‘England til we die’ before launching a barrage of taunts at the taxi driver.

Staffordshire Police have now confirmed the passenger was offered a ‘community resolution’ - meaning he had to write a letter of apology to his victim and pay his fare.

Now cab drivers say that although the vast majority of passengers are polite, the racist abuse they receive from a small minority is regular.


Image: Stoke Sentinel

Driver Naseer Ahmed, who has worked as a cabbie for nine years, is now taking a break from working behind the wheel to try to find a new job because of the racism he has faced.

Naseer, aged 52, of the Westlands, said: “It happens a lot.

“It particularly happens to drivers who are not able to talk to the passengers properly. The person who was abused in the video looks like he had just started on the taxis.

“It is disgusting, it is doing it to someone who is vulnerable and can’t fight back.

“I’m not a fighter, but I can talk to people. Many times people would call me names and I would tell them to get out.

“If there was say four people in the cab and one started abusing me, I would say, ‘your parents must be proud of that’. Usually the others would laugh and you would get away without anything worse.

“Unfortunately, Stoke-on-Trent is pretty racist and that got a lot worse after Brexit. I have had so many people say to me ‘when are you going to go home?'.

“I picked up a group from Manchester and one of them was messing about and saying stupid stuff to me all the way back. I made a call to base saying, ‘this guy is threatening to kill me’.

“Then when we got to Newcastle he said 'sorry' and was trying to shake hands with me.

“Probably 95 per cent of people are nice, but it is the five per cent - who don’t represent Stoke-on-Trent.

“It’s really sad. Taxis now have a panic button and if you press it they know at base that something is wrong.

“Now I have decided to have a break to try to get a new job, but if I don’t get anything by February I will go back to driving taxis.”

Fellow taxi driver Ahmmar Mahmud, aged 40, of Tunstall, said: “It’s just drunk people getting into the cab.

“It has happened to me in the past. It’s part and parcel of the job.

“You can ask for help if it happens. You can call the police or contact the base.

“You can refuse people, but once they have got in the cab it is too late.

“I’ve been called racist names. You just get used to it.”

Donovan Tomlinson, of City Cabs, said: “I work in the base and you hear all kinds of complaints. It’s something the drivers get quite often.

“There’s quite a few of them who worry about racism. It’s something that they all accept, when they are picking up drunk people it is something that goes on. They take it on the chin.”

In the video, a man can be heard calling the driver a ‘f***ing f****t’, before demanding his money back and threatening to ‘smash his head in and take his taxi off him’.

He then says: “You’re getting terrorised by English people because you’re a dirty P*** b*****d bruv. Dirty Muslim b*****d.

“P*** f*****s, I’ll take his taxi off him if he doesn’t take me home.”

The passenger shouts at the taxi driver to give him a further £10 and demands to be taken to Cheddleton.

After the video was shared extensively on social media, Staffordshire Police Chief Constable Gareth Morgan confirmed on Twitter that the incident would be investigated.

Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove MP Jonathan Gullis was also quick to condemn the ‘mindless, racist behaviour’.

Same country wide.

Pi***d up scum think they have a 'be as racist as you like' pass when they get into taxis/PHs driven by BME drivers.

Will it ever stop? Doubt it.

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IDFIMH