S.F. Woman Beaten by Cab Driver in Lower Haight After Not Paying Fare

• Mel Gibson is f-ing psycho, period.

• tj, you know nothing about me. you are wrong about my knowledge and understanding of the press in this city. you make comments that have nothing to do with this story. you have, however, done a good job of trying to personally insult me. that is not necessary, is it? this assault incident is disturbing enough. this story, the reported incident, is the story.

• you've missed the point, tj.

• tell me why? jesus you have some free time. have you seen anybody else report it? why are you so negative and angry and jumping all over this article, why can't you appreciate the SF Weekly was the first to report it.

• hey tell me why. why are you so righteous. no room for what in this city? any opinions that differs from yours. you sound like a bully. grow up. you clearly do not know know jack about how hard the press works in this town and how little they get paid. we have no room or time for you either in this c

• "You talkin' to me?.. You must be talkin' to me. I'm the only one here... You talkin' to me?"

• that "nameless" driver thing usually applies to independent owners who drive a cab bearing a certain companies name and colors but are responsible for hiring their own drivers. Even if that was the case in this incident and the cab was discovered the responsibility would fall either on the driver that was assigned to the cab at that time or the cabs owner. If neither of them were the perp I'm pretty sure they wouldn't take the fall for him.

• the cameras are mainly a deterrent for would be robbers but can also be used to gather information if a crime has been committed. I'm sure that the police would have been reluctant on spending man hours on your incident since you had had no info on the cab; especially since it could be a waste with all the gypsy and out of town cabs that illegally work the city. This chick was at least able to identify the cabs color scheme and De Soto is arguably the only SF cab company that is blue and white so they would have somewhere to start. I've made it a habit for myself and always advise my customers to make a mental note of the cab co. and number. I do it just In case I accidentally leave something in there but I guess since cabdrivers seem to be attacking people like hotcakes is even more of a reason to do it.

• 1976

• Are you serious about pulling the picture files? I was stabbed in the arm by a taxi cab driver but becaues I didn't note the cab company before it drove off the cops said they couldn't do anything about it.

• The weekend before Christmas 2010, the same thing happened to me but the Cab Driver attacked me with a box cutter knife and I had to go to SF General in an ambulance and have a 6 inch scar on my left forearm to prove it. Then I hear about cab drivers that arn't legal are rampant in SF. What are the police/city doing about this? They certainly didn't do anything for me and when I called a week later to find out I was sent from station to station with no one knowing anything of my case.

• Our old LaSalle ran great

• Notice the drive stepped out of the cab to assault his fare instead of in the cab but I'm sure the "webcams"installed as a crime deterrent and to monitor and provide a peep show to what goes on in and at the back of the cab should provide clues to which cab and which driver. All too often these cabbies, especially on the late routes, let someone else drive their cabs for a fee of course so it could be some nameless dude.

• surehedid makes a valid point. Poke through the Web and view the multitude of news reports where further investigation by authorities led to proof the accuser (so often a female) actually lied about the so-called perpetrator for a multitude of reasons. One case led to the false accuser's boyfriend shooting and killing the falsely accused one!!!! How about the lacrosse team who went through so much and though not perfect angels were NOT gang-raping gals. Heck, most of the staff and student body of an entire university mobbed in protest against innocents when only accusations were present. So many instances!!!!! The head prosecuting attorney of Denver, CO is on record stating upwards of 60 percent of accusations brought to his attention turn out to be false!!!! Of course, an accusation can be true but ANY rush to judgment is a fool's game. The woeful lack of follow-up against those falsely accusing or the extremely light punishment against liars who ARE punished does little to deter those using false accusations for their personal odd desires while proving a willingness to what can be the destruction of an innocent's reputation, finance, even entire life!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Yes, It is a company name (they don't make "Yellow" cabs either).

• Are there any witnesses to this story, or is this just her account of what gad happened? I may be being a little insensitive but this sounds like maybe an abusive boy/girlfriend did this and she's making up a story to cover. Hopefully they'll print a REAL article about this story because if it is true it definitely deserves more press than this.

• I had a cabbie continue to drive past my apartment about 200 yards so he could trip the meter again for a higher fare despite my screaming STOP 5 or 6 times. There was no traffic preventing him from stopping. I gave him exact change for the fare that was on the meter as he passed my apartment and dared him to call the police. I had another cabby in Marin driving as slow as possible to make me miss my bus to SF Airport He was continually demanding to take me to the airport for $50 during the whole ride. We arrived at the Landing and he refused to open the trunk until the Airporter left and he still tried to extort a ride to the airport. The bus left and I called both the cab dispatcher with my cell and waved over a police car to force him to open the trunk. Fortunately, there was another bus leaving in 15 minutes He did not get a tip either.

• one of the great things about living in the city: you can take a cab and not drink and drive. if she was drunk, she could not and SHOULD not have walked home. i agree with "guest" poster of earlier: cabbie should have simply asked for her wallet for collateral while she went to get her money from her apartment. happens all the time. ALL THE TIME. instead, he, like the woman-hater that driver obviously is, took her wallet and keys and left her by the side of the street, alone, beaten, humiliated and drunk. what is going on??? for $9??? where is the REAL story? tell us who, what, where, when, how and WHY! give us news, not this blog nonsense. this story is too disturbing and important to happen in our little 7 x 7 city to go without answers.

• How old is that photo? A 65 cent flag drop? Those were the good old days.

• The majority of SF taxi's are now set up to take debit cards although some cabbies are lame and say that they don't or their system is "down" for various reasons (mostly because we have to pay a percentage on the dollar and it takes several days to post). All De Soto taxis definitely take cards though

• cabbies should have debit swipes by now. we're in a cashless world. producing cash in a cab is like bank robbery. if it was 9 bucks, this lady wasn't going very far, she could have sleep walked home.

• Mel Gibson played a good psycho cabbie too!

• As a cab driver I will say ANYTHING is possible but I find it hard to believe a licensed cabbie would risk criminal charges and their A-card over $2.50. I also find it interesting that the victim just happened to have the exact amount of what she thought the fare should be. I'm just going to go out on a limb and say she was hammered since she coldn't manage to stay awake for $9 ride (thats like 6 minutes) and I've personally spent over 5 minutes, with the help of a police officer, trying to wake wake someone who had passed out in my cab which would add a couple bucks to the meter if the driver didn't turn it off. With that being said All SFPD has to do is pull the picture files from all DeSoto or all taxis period. The files don't go to the companies they straight to the police anyway. If she was in an SF cab they would have her pic with the cab number and company. And if a driver really did that, he's fucked and he totally deserves it

• DeSoto? I hope that is a company name. They stopped making the Desoto car in the 50s

• she hopped into a cab en route home, and apparently dozed off. When the cab driver arrived at her destination -- he demanded $9 "Don't fall asleep in the back of the taxi, the cabbie may take a longer route to your destination," police said. Ranks right up there with "These guys really came to play ball." and "Doc, it hurts when I do this."

• fucking noob

• a beating seems a bit much, but if someone tried to ride & ditch, my first reaction is you get what you deserve, if she was the one who said "I was going to go up to my place to get the money." if I were the cabbie, I'd ask her to leave her ID or something of value with me while she went up to get the extra money. onto a more important issue: there are NOT enough cabs in SF, I see folks waiting in the rain and cold for 20 min on BUSY corners. SF: allow more cabs in the city. WTF.

• "... or just pay the $2.50" doesn't make sense and is offensive! You said in the article that the VICTIM said she would go get the additional money (which she didn't have). How could she "just pay the $2.50"? I don't recall reading your blog in the past and clicked on it through a link. I hope all your entries aren't like this. You've turned off a first time reader and I doubt i'll be back.

• well a credit card would have given specific evidence as to the cab in question. I also wonder about the passenger in this story, as most people I pick up at that hour are drunks - who often have issues with details about their surroundings and how they go there

• "Better yet, just pay the extra $2.50." Are you serious? Did you really end this "article" with that idiotic remark? Grow up. You represent yourself as a member of the "press" and yet you blame the victim. We have no room or time for that in this city.

• IT IS A GOOD THING THE ILL FATED PASSENGER,DID NOT PRESENT A CREDIT CARD TO COMPLETE THE TRANSACTION WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?,WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW!!! gopat92@gmail.com

• Oh, yes, blame the victim. How far down the ladder do they now scrape for police officers? Our once proud and helpful and superior police department has crashed morphed into a Squad 54 joke.

• "Don't fall asleep in the back of the taxi, the cabbie may take a longer route to your destination," police said. Nice victim blaming. How about a "taxi drivers, stop being dicks!"

• Sorry, the police are too busy too handle minor crimes like assault and robbery.

• well the driver probably didn't put the trip into his waybill so there's probably no paper trail. It's also possible it was an out of town cab illegally trolling the streets of San Francisco. 1 that comes to mind is the "chosen cab" which has a 925area code # on the side. There's also random "gypsy" cabs, such as "united cab" which makes their taxis look very similar to Luxor cab's color scheme.

• It's Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver. Watch it. You'll understand.

• Why the picture of the man?

• Should be able to just pull the trip sheets from all the "blue and white" cabs in San Francisco for that day and find your suspect no?

• What an amazing story. Someone actually found an available cab in San Francisco at 5:15 on a Sunday morning!

TotalComments: 39