Taxiing with Booze

Powerline notes Muslim taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport are refusing to transport passengers who visibly carry alcohol.

To me, the solution seems obvious. If a taxi reaches the head of the cab line and refuses to accept the next willing customer, for any reason, the dispatcher should require that cab to start over at the back of the line, rather than allowing them another choice of passenger.

One of the other cabbies similarly suggested here "We're talking about the choice to run a business. If you choose not to transport alcohol, that's your choice. It's the same choice if you decide not to take someone with a cane or a limp, a toupee or a bad hat. Go to the back of the line."

Daniel Pipes adds (in the original article to which Powerline refers) "Why stop with alcohol? Muslim taxi drivers in several countries already balk at allowing seeing-eye dogs in their cars. Future demands could include not transporting women with exposed arms or hair, homosexuals, and unmarried couples."

Here in Chicago we've already had a battle last year over cabbies refusing to pick up Black customers wanting to go to the South Side. In that instance, even Black cabbies were refusing some fares during some hours after a rash of robberies and murders of cabbies on the South Side late at night.

As Chicago made clear to its cabbies then, refusing fares might even cost the cabbie the medallion that allows them to operate a Chicago cab.

Personally, I doubt I'll ever be in a situation of hailing a cab while carrying alcohol. But I can easily imagine the opposite problem - refusing to reward with my fare any cabbie for whom that would be a problem.