Taxi Driver Bitten, Assaulted - Police Set Attacker Free

Haroon Rashid, 40, of Brooklyn, was assaulted on Sunday, October 2nd at around 11pm at 57th Street and 10th Avenue by two young passengers, one male and one female. After reaching the destination, the two started cursing Mr. Rashid and yelling that they would not pay the fare. Even while Mr. Rashid called 911, the two continued to curse him. Then suddenly, the female passenger started punching Mr. Rashid. The male passengers then stuck his arm and head out of the partition, held Mr. Rashid's head in a chokehold and then bit into the back of his ear. The police arrived at the scene soon after. Stunningly, the police officer threatened a bleeding Mr. Rashid that if he made an arrest, it would have to be of him also. A fearful and shocked Mr. Rashid, weak from the bleeding, said he just wanted to go for treatment to stop the bleeding. The police officer let both assailants go and drove away himself. He never even called an ambulance for the bleeding taxi driver who had just been repeatedly punched and bit behind his right ear. Mr. Rashid then drove himself to the hospital and was released hours later.

NYTWA plans to seek legal counsel to help Mr. Rashid hold the officer accountable.

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Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Taxi driver
• NYTWA
• Haroon Rashid
• New York Taxi Workers Alliance
• Taxi Driver Protection Act
• TDPA
• police negligence
• worker safety
• worker rights
• union
• assault
• attack
• bitten
• NYC
• cab