Taxi driver fined $25K for refusing to pick up black family

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A taxi driver in New York City has been fined after a black family claimed that he would not pick them up but then went on to allow two white women to get into his taxi.

According to DNAinfo, Cynthia Jordan, the woman who was denied a ride, claims that the taxi driver, Cabbie Baqir Raza, told her and her two daughters that he was off-duty when they tried to hail his taxi, even locking his doors so that they could not get inside the taxi.

However, Raza then drove 25 feet away to pick up two white women. “Upon seeing what was transpiring, Ms. Jordan ran up to the cab and exclaimed, ‘Are you kidding me? You picked up these two … white bitches … instead of me and my family. I’m gonna report you,” said Judge Raymond Kramer. But Raza was apparently unfazed by Jordan’s complaints.

The judge has since ruled that Raza must pay $10,000 to Jordan for compensation for his discrimination, as well as $15,000 in a civil fine.

“I’m happy for the judgment,” Jordan told DNAinfo New York. “Hopefully, someone will hear about this, and it will affect the way taxi drivers pick up fares in New York.”

Jordan said that this kind of thing is actually fairly common and that even though she is the vice president of a stock transfer firm, she routinely has a hard time getting a cab.

“I’m always out with my young daughter trying to grab a cab,” she said. “There is nothing threatening about us and you should see how many people drive right past us.”