Police Gird for Attacks on Taxi Strike Breakers
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The police department will assign extra police officers to transportation hubs and taxi garages to guard against possible violence directed toward taxi drivers that work during a strike planned for tomorrow, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
“We are taking these steps to ensure the public safety and to guard against reprisals against cabbies who elect to drive,” Mr. Kelly said.
Mr. Kelly’s announcement comes after some taxi drivers who are part of a group planning the strike, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, allegedly began intimidating cab drivers who plan to work during tomorrow’s planned stoppage, the president of a rival group of drivers, the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, Fernando Mateo, said.
“They feel they are losing the strike and are resorting to violence and intimidation,” Mr. Mateo said. “We had two of our volunteers assaulted by members of the workers alliance.”
A man who answered the phone at the office of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance denied that Mr. Mateo’s federation is a valid organization before hanging up the phone.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance plans to strike for two days to protest the city requiring cabs to implement new technologies such as global positioning systems. The group has said the technologies will allow drivers to be tracked.
Extra police will patrol the streets beginning at 4 a.m. tomorrow, including officers in plainclothes who will drive yellow cabs, Mr. Kelly said. The officers will be placed at locations such as Grand Central and Penn Station, he said.
