Article Submitted by Mount Vernon Resident, Gary Fuller

THE POLICE DEP’T HAS DETERMINED THAT YOUR RIGHTS AIN’T WORTH $.50

On February 13, 2010 I hired the services of Ray’s Taxi to ferry me to my destination from the Mount Vernon East train station.  He also took in two or three additional passengers, and I sat in the front seat.  I was counting out my fare as he dropped off one of the passengers.  Ray then said to me, “You know the fare is $5.00”.  I corrected him and told him that the correct fair is $4.00.

Ray then stated that he remembered me from a previous encounter in which he attempted to charge me $5.00 and I had compelled him to accept the correct fare of $4.00.  Then I remembered him as well.

Ray proceeded to drop off the other passengers, passing my block on two occasions.  In the meantime Ray charged all of his passengers $5.00, which they paid without question.  Before I knew it, drove me back to the train station and told me to get out.  I refused to leave the car.  I stated that it is against municipal law for a driver to refuse a fare-paying passenger who is not unruly.  He insisted that I get out of the car and I continued to refuse to leave the car.  I ended up calling the police, who arrived in minutes.  Things went downhill after that.

When the police arrived, they were told by the driver that I refused to get out of his car and that he did not want to accept me as a fare.  Ray was trying to give the impression that I had just got in his car.  I explained my side of the story from inside the car.  The police (Officer Holly) told me that the driver, no matter what he wanted to charge over the legal limit, had the right to refuse to take me as a fare.  I told her that she is wrong and perhaps she is not familiar with municipal law regarding taxis and taxi drivers in Mount Vernon. 

I refused to leave the car.  I requested the officers to contact a supervisor.  Officer Holly repeatedly refused my request for a supervisor.  She told me that I did not have the right to ask for a supervisor.  Wrong again.   

Officer Holly and her partner then told me that if I did not leave the car that they would sic their dog on me.  I immediately began to think about how my ancestors must have felt when faced with vicious police dogs.  I decided that since my forbearers endured pain, injuries, and humiliation sustained from dog bites in their pursuit of justice that their suffering shall not be in vain on February 13, 2010 (especially with February being Black History Month and all).  I told the officer that a police dog has never bitten me, and that I had never been in the position where one would have to.  I also told him that I guess tonight is the night that I will discover what my ancestors went through.  I called the officers’ bluff and told them to bring on this mighty dog.  They did not put their mean old dog on me.   

I requested that the officers ask Ray what the fare is.  When they asked him, he replied, “Four Dollars”.  When asked why he was charging me over the legal fare, he never really gave them a clear, intelligent answer.  Even so, the officers continued to insist that Ray had the right to refuse to take me as a fare and that I leave the vehicle.  I continued to politely refuse.  They threatened me with arrest.  I agreed that I would have to be arrested because that was the only way that I could be sure that I could get a police report verifying that Ray admitted that he was overcharging me.  

Officer Holly’s partner (shield # 2106) told me that he would arrest me for resisting arrest if I did not get out of the car.  I then told them that they have a “reasonable cause to believe” problem in that my insisting on paying the correct fare is not an arrestable offense in New York State.   They really did have a problem on their hands.  But they continued to refuse to call a supervisor, saying “we’re not going to call a supervisor over a dollar”.     

Then Officer Holly and her partner came up with a better idea.  They decided to have me declared an EDP (emotionally disturbed person) and that I should be admitted to a psych ward due to my irrational behavior.  I didn’t think that informing them of my training and background in psychiatric social work would help, nor would the fact that I too carried a badge and gun at one time, so I never mentioned it.   The police accused me of being an EDP because I was being irrational for asserting my rights about an illegal one-dollar overcharge by Ray’s Taxi.   The police actually did call the ambulance.  When they put the job in to the desk, I heard the dispatcher ask specifically “do you still need an ambulance”?  The ambulance was dispatched and arrived code 3 (lights and sirens).  When they exited their vehicle, the EMTs could not find the EDP (emotionally disturbed person) that was called in by the police.  Needless to say, by now there were other police on the scene, including an emergency services truck along with its personnel and gear.  I politely declined the EMT’s offer of a ride.  The EMTs went home.   

It’s bad enough that Ray’s Taxi and possibly other taxis are perpetrating wholesale fraud on the people of this city.  It’s also bad enough that Ray’s Taxi would commit a fraud upon the city of Mount Vernon by not abiding by its rules and law and breaking the law that he is bound to obey. 

It’s also unconscionable that a police officer would tell me that peacefully advocating for my rights – even if it’s dollar’s worth – will get you either arrested, chewed up by a vicious police dog, or planted in a psychiatric ward because they think that refusing to be ripped off for even one dollar by a public servant is irrational.  Did I say public servant?  Yes!  The taxi driver is regulated by the Mount Vernon Taxi Commission because drivers are considered as providing a public service.   

Additionally, the police department’s use of an ambulance and all the resources that it commands for the purpose of threatening or intimidating someone who is peacefully asserting their rights is outrageous and constitutes official misconduct in my mind. 

Needless to say, I am going to provide the appropriate follow-up to this matter, including, but not limited to picketing Ray’s Taxi.  I will remain silent about any other remedies that I may be contemplating. 

 

Gary Fuller,

A Full Citizen of Mt. Vernon, NY (not three fifths).