NEW YORK — Spurred by a complaint from actor Danny Glover that five cabdrivers had refused to pick him up because he is black, scores of undercover police and city inspectors took to the curbs here Friday in a crackdown aimed at uncovering racial discrimination.
Operation Refusal netted a handful of hackies whose vehicles were confiscated--including one driver in Manhattan who kicked out a woman seeking a ride to a Brooklyn hospital.
She turned out to be an undercover operative.
But many drivers who were on their best behavior Friday stressed the issue is far more complicated than black and white.
"A lot of drivers are scared for their safety," Ben Pierre, a black cabby, said as he paused to discharge a couple with big suitcases outside Pennsylvania Station. "I pick everyone up. Money is money. Green is green."
Others admitted, however, that they were afraid to take passengers into poor neighborhoods because of bad experiences. They told of being held up or having people beat the meter by disappearing into big apartment buildings without paying the fare.
"The mayor wants to crack down. . . . Everybody should not be against the cabbies," said one driver who wanted to be identified only by his first name, Khalid. As he drank a cup of coffee near his parked yellow taxi, Khalid, who is Pakistani, added: "The city should listen to the cabbies."
The issue of driver discrimination is not new in New York. Mirroring the experience of thousands upon thousands of ordinary people, even David N. Dinkins, the city's first black mayor, has complained about being refused rides.
But after Glover charged last week that cabdrivers passed him by five times in a single day, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced the undercover sting with tough penalties, including temporary cab confiscation and license suspensions.
"There are a thousand different things going on in New York City," Giuliani said Friday on NBC-TV's "Today" show. "Sometimes, an unfortunate event like this does create attention, and you can make something good come out of it."
The mayor pledged to increase the number of undercover taxi inspectors from about 40 to as many as 400.
"And we're going to have days in which we have an intensive effort with even more people," he said. "The whole purpose of this is really to say to taxi drivers, most of whom are terrific people and wouldn't do anything like this . . . , that it's just not acceptable."
