Adelaide taxi drivers protest against violence

TARUN KAPOOR reports on the November 16 Indian taxi drivers assault

History repeated itself in the fateful early hours of ovember 16, 2013, wh en mulitple fodian origin taxi drivers were assaulted by imoxicated men in separate incidents in Adelaide. The previous taxi driver attacks o ccured in 2008 and 2009. This month, M.--inbic Singh, a 24-yearo ld taxi driver who hails from Punjab, India and currently res iding at Torrence Vil.le in Adelaide, suffered a blow to his left eye while trying to protect his fellow taxi drivers statio ned at Henley Beach square, who refused to take tl1e fare of five intoxicated passengers, in a taxi wh id1 could nor sear more than four peop le and one driver. As a resul t of the b low, Manb ir has lost the v ision in his left eye and has been left unable co work as a taxi driver. Doctors who attended t o Manbir have said that tl1e chances of recovering his vision are extremely low and he may now have to the injury for the rest of bis life.

According to Manbir, t here were around l 0- 15 taxi drivers stationed at Henley Beach Square and a g roup of intoxicated men approached the fuse taxi driver in che queue, but were refused as

INDIAN LINK they were heavily intoxicated and because the munber of p assengers were more than tl1at taxi could carry. On being refused multiple rimes in th e queue, the group reached Su.nit's taxi, and then they started tO punch and kick his ta.xi. Concerned about the group's violent actions to his ta.xi, Sunit who had so far remained inside h is taxi, got om co cry to pacify the group and stop the damage being inflicted upon his vehicle. However, this d id not have the i.ntemed result, as instead he was pushed to tl1e ground and attacked. Seein g this incident, fellow taxi drivers including Manbir rnshed to stop the violent attad, upon Sunit. It was during th.is rim e tbat Manbir was punched so violently tl1at he was blinded in the Ieft eye.

According to Jujhar Singh, an Indian origin taxi driver who was present during tl,e actack, the intoxicated group of five men were furtber joined by another five-six m en, wh ich futber fuelled the intensity of the altercation.

Several emergency messages were sent fro m ta.xi drivers co ask for help from operators of othe r ta.xis during dus, as well as calling che police. Police arrived 20-25 minutes later. B y thi s rime,

Kuna!, another Indian taxi driver sustained injui:ies to b is throat.

Kuna.I has now recovered his vo ice after the attack and remrned to India Acco rding to Jujhar Singh, Klll1al had experienced a sinular incident arotmd a year ago

"No" was v ictim Manbir Singh's respo n se to being asked if he thought the attacks were raciall y motivated He also pointed our tl1at since d1egroup were heavily incoxicated, it wouldn't have mattered who was at the receiving end of their wratl1.

There are questions over tl1e treannem of this crime by Adelia.de police, who reportedly allowed some of the attacke rs to Aee on the night of the incident.

\X'hen tbe Indian ta.xi drivers requested to lodge a formal complaint they were refused by tl1e officer on duty, w ho stated that he couldn't tal,e so many com p laints at d1ar tin1e, and they should report the incident in tbe morning to their local police station. As per a witness account, the ouly person whom the police arrested was one of the accused who was so heavily intoxicated that he could not move on.

However, tl1e c o mments that fuelled frustration amongst d1e ta.xi drivers was from the police officer on duty, tl1at the only arrest made was due to the ir disp lay of public disorderly behaviour, rather than because of tl1e incident which occured. This was despite the fact that tl1e incident left one person blind and aootl1er without speech in hosp ital lo a se parate incident, anomer Indian origin ta.xi driver, Inderjit Jassal was attacked at Port Adelaide. He was repeatedly punched in the face aod is now recovering "I'm not going to drive taxis any more. Driving a bLxi at night is very dangerous," Inderjit

Manbir Singh

said Maninder Jassal , tl1e victim's wife, is reluctant for him to keep driving. "I would say don't touch the ta.xi again, for (the) fam.ily's sake". In anotl1er incident, police have charged a man for allegedly robbing a taxi driver at kiufepoinc at suburban The Barron last Thursday 21 Novembe r, 2013.

In the absence of a fonnal association co represem them, victimised local Indian taxi drivers called for a ' Dri ve r Safety Awareness Campaign' which was held on November 26 The y walked from Elders Park to Parliamem in order ro draw the attention of the SJ\ government to di e safety of ta.xi drivers in general. The protest bad the participation from around I 00 taxi drivers from the Indian c o mmuni ty who marched peacefully and presented their concerns to the Minister of Transport Services, Ms C loe Fox Ms Fox promised to en.force r eforms to sup port me safety of taxi drivers and subs idise drive r safety shields However, on being questioned about the police behaviour in the recent attad<s, as well as t he lack of T axi Cou ncil su pport, she said she was not ) ' et aware o f the facts an d would investigate

Will the law makers really take action this rime to support taxi drivers? lf taxi drivers take us home safely, do they not have the right to go home safely coo?