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Hailing a Cab for a Stranger Can Be Illegal
Don't these pigs have any real criminals to hunt down??? Under Rule, Hailing a Cab for a Stranger Can Be Illegal By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM Published: November 25, 2011 Recently, a man named Juan Bannister approached a stranger on Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. “Do you need a taxi?” Mr. Bannister asked, according to a subsequent police report. “Can I get you a taxi? Just wait here; you’re next.” Mr. Bannister flagged down a taxi, placed the stranger’s luggage in the trunk and, for his efforts, received a $1.50 tip. He was promptly arrested at the scene — charged, improbably, with the unlawful hailing of a taxicab. Mr. Bannister had fallen afoul of a little-known New York City traffic rule that prohibits anyone from procuring a taxi unprompted for another person “not in his or her social company.” The offense alone cannot lead to an arrest — Mr. Bannister, who was described by his lawyer as homeless, was also charged with criminal nuisance for blocking traffic — but it can result in a summons that must be answered in Criminal Court. Since 2009, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has prosecuted 109 cases that included a violation of unlawful hailing, officials said. The rule, in place since 1992, is on Page 10 of the city’s 108-page book of traffic regulations, after one that requires pedestrians to cross at the crosswalk and another that bans hitchhiking. But few New Yorkers seem aware of its existence. The doormen’s union, whose members routinely procure rides for strangers of a sort, was mystified to learn of it. The Police Department said it did not keep records of summonses given for the rule. Even the taxi commissioner at the time the rule was passed, Fidel F. Del Valle, said he had only a vague recollection of it. “I’ve done thousands of cases related to traffic — I’ve never seen this charge,” said John Campbell, whose firm in Westchester County, Tilem & Campbell, handles a variety of vehicular and pedestrian violations in New York City. The rule dates to a time when so-called squeegee men, who roamed the roadways demanding tips in return for washing windshields, were common. One related scourge was swindlers who would “help” unsuspecting passengers into cabs and then request the entire fare upfront. The practice was widespread at Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, where tourists, unfamiliar with the city’s cab trade, would hand over $80 to the friendly man who helped with their luggage. By the time they reached their destination, and realized the mistake, the scam artist was long gone. “When I drove years ago, it happened to me,” said David Pollack, the editor of Taxi Insider, an industry publication. “I say, ‘You forgot to pay me.’ And they say, ‘We already paid.’ I say, ‘What?’ ‘Well, we paid the gentleman who put the luggage in the trunk.’ ” Variations abounded: slam the trunk shut, but slyly keep the luggage; demand a tip for, among other unnecessary services, holding open the taxi door. That problem was addressed with another regulation: “No person, other than an occupant or prospective occupant of a passenger vehicle on a street, shall open, hold open or close — or offer to open, hold open or close — any door of the vehicle.” So does this mean that the city’s ranks of doormen, in dutifully procuring rides for tenants, have been breaking the law all these years? Not exactly. The rules make clear that hailing for others is allowed if the passenger initiates the request. And there is an exception for doormen in the no-holding-doors rule, which specifies that the act is allowed “when intended purely as a social amenity without expectation or acceptance of a gratuity.” (There is no guidance, however, on whether to tip a bellhop.) These days, the police have cracked down on the Penn Station-style scam, and hailing summonses are mostly issued in conjunction with other charges, like fraud. Edward McCarthy, a Legal Aid Society lawyer who handles arraignments at Manhattan Criminal Court, said he had encountered the rule several times. “When the rule is enforced and results in an arrest, generally speaking the individual has had a history of similar arrests,” Mr. McCarthy wrote in an e-mail. A hailing violation carries no prescribed fine or penalty. But Mr. Bannister, who could not be reached for comment, did not go unpunished. He pleaded guilty to the charges against him and received a sentence of seven days in jail, including time served. |