On the other hand, this is an excellent and original response to the piece on Facebook
It's a tad long and maybe repeats itself a bit, but reflects some of the stuff I post on here occasionally
But I could have written something similar in the 1990s when I drove in Dundee
Marcus Assakali wrote:
Police Scotland has a lot to be held accountable for, they shove anyone into any passing taxi to clear the area at closing time often.
They expect taxi drivers to take passengers without question, yet taxi drivers shouldn't be taking responsibility for the lives of others. They're a taxi service not an emergency service.
No matter how drunk someone is, no matter if they even have the money to be put into a taxi and no matter whether they're young vulnerable women who are totally out of it and almost asleep.
The police see it as passing the responsibility on to taxi drivers so they can gain control of the town centre which becomes manic at closing time.
The police don't care about the safety of taxi drivers nor members of the public when they do this.
Shouldn't they be the ones taking these folk home, often underagers etc since they're meant to care for the personal safety and welfare of the nightlife community?
After all the police are one of the agencies that are responsible for ensuring nightclubs and pubs uphold their license conditions which many don't because quite clearly there wouldn't be widespread abuse going on.
A blind eye is turned by many. We can't just pretend what's going on isn't going on.
The police stand outside knowing exactly what is going inside these establishments, is a toxic cycle, a brewing storm of different factors, that will repeat itself and unfold every weekend.
It's why many folk won't even go out in town now because there's far too much trouble, bairns that can't hack their drink and drugs, assaults of all kinds and people being supplied drink after drink, put at risk.
And yet cannabis is seen as a big danger to society. Anyone should have a walk around the town, sober on a weekend and explain how what is going on as a result mainly of alcohol, is safe? It totally is evidently leading to a lot of significant harm.
If the police can't enforce basic common sense with businesses not to serve folk alcohol, help them prevent drug misuse, when many are at their limit already, and they can't ensure members of the public are aware of their surroundings enough to be placed into taxis, got money, young single girls etc then they're part of the blame for not addressing it.
Taxi drivers aren't responsible for clearing up the mess every weekend they are their to take passengers from a to b in a decent manner.
The police aren't totally responsible neither but they can't expect taxi drivers to put themselves at danger, put them out of pocket and have problems ensuring people leave their taxis at the destination.
Yes folk ought to take personal responsibility for whatever their consuming, alcohol or drugs and their actions.... But it's unfair that taxi drivers are put at risk physically, financially and mentally.
Many folk who have family members in the trade know the amount of sh*t taxi drivers have to put up with on weekends, much of which is never reported because drivers often are not able to waste hours waiting on police coming to their aid when they are self employed and need to provide for their families.
I've had my dad assaulted, strangled, money stole, racially attacked, had to help vulnerable women, you name it. But he kept going because it was his livelihood and just accepted sadly it was part of the job.
You'll find that a lot of statistics are under reported because taxi drivers don't actually want trouble or bother.
People will assume, well if they can't handle the trade at weekends they should just not work as taxi drivers. The thing is there's still a lot of customers who do take responsibility for themselves and are no bother. It's very difficult sometimes to reject custom when police officers are routinely acting like taxi chaperones.
This is just a symptom of a much bigger problem that's not spoken about enough by the Police, Council, businesses etc because it's a much bigger problem than they're capable of dealing with.
Something needs to change because people are routinely being harmed by the ills of alcohol, drugs, assaults etc.
Taxi drivers are often on the "front line" so are well aware of what's going on and I'm pretty sure they don't just want the abuse etc to stop, they want people to not be allowed legally, in the situation they're in, in the first place.
We got a big society issue going on and those that are responsible need to be held accountable along with drinkers, society etc to make night life a much safer and enjoyable experience for everyone. For some the town is a no go area and a lot of folk want to be able to drink, party etc in a better environment too.
Good to see much of the next generation aren't choosing alcohol according to statistics. But some still are to their own danger.
Those in power: police, politicians, nightlife businesses etc have a lot to answer for, the lack of addressing, acknowledging and dealing with what's going on.
This should be a wakeup call to us all but I doubt it will come, it's normalised systemic behaviour, we've been part of it ourselves many of us but at the time you don't realise the consequences or wider circumstances you're out having a good time.
Nae good times to be had with the current culture, behaviour and relationship to alcohol/drugs in our society today. It's a damming indictment that should shame our city and country!
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