Driver kicks 7 year old special needs kid out of taxi, leaves him on street corner alone

[Liberal_in_LA]

Driver kicks 7-year-old out of taxi

By Marina Landis, CNN
October 13, 2010 6:11 p.m. EDT


New York (CNN) -- A driver for the Valentine Cab Co. in Roosevelt, New York, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after he kicked a young boy out of his cab Tuesday for not having any money, police said.

Nassau County Police detectives say a 7-year-old boy with special needs was put into a cab in Freeport, New York, by his grandmother and was supposed to be dropped off at his residence in the neighboring Long Island town of Roosevelt.

After picking up the child, the driver of the cab, 66-year-old Roy D. Sutherland, asked the boy if he had money for the fare. When the child was unable to provide any information, Sutherland told him to get out of the cab, police said.

Sutherland left the boy on a street corner in Freeport by himself and drove away, police said.

Sutherland was later arrested and issued an appearance ticket, police said. He's scheduled to be arraigned at the First District Court in Hempstead on October 25.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/13/new.york.taxi.child/index.html?iref=obnetwork

[stray cat]

1. The taxi driver is not a guardian-a 7 year old carted into a random taxi cab is also endangerment

[ljm2002]

10. Bullcrap.

The cabbie accepted the fare. The time to ask for money is after you have deposited the fare at their destination. It is not at all unusual -- especially when the rider is a child -- for the person at the destination to pay the fare.

He had a choice to refuse the fare. He could have asked about money and what the arrangement was to be, before he agreed to take the child. Once he agreed to take the child he had no business whatsoever in kicking the child out of his taxi at some random place.

By the way, when is a taxi NOT "random"? I mean, do you get to pick your driver when you call a taxi? Really?

[Statistical]

11. Does that apply to planes also?

Is the guardian of every single child sent to fly unaccompanied also guilty of child endangerment?

Sorry. If the cabby didn't want to provide safe passage he should have declined the fare. You accept a fare then you are accepting responsibility for that fare.

Had the cabby kicked a drugged woman out of the cab onto the street he would be guilty of endangerment also.

[WI_DEM]

12. Oh come on! You don't just kick a 7 year old (special needs or not) on a street and drive away

He should have turned around and gone back to where he picked him up--his grandmother's house, and I'll bet it was a case of forgetting to give him the money.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. Cabbie should have dropped him at police station.

[marybourg]

3. It may or may not signify, but Roosevelt is essentially an all-black

and low income town where cabs are the predominant means of transportation.

edit-spelling

[lightningandsnow]

4. Often, people see crimes against people with disabilities as isolated incidents,

rather than part of a system that sees people with disabilities as lesser than those without.

That's called ableism. And it's a societal problem.

I feel so bad for that boy. And it could have ended a lot worse.

[SoCalDem]

5. Cab drivers are not babysitters.. Grandma's at fault here

The little boy is lucky that no harm came to him..

[MedicalAdmin]

6. Gotta disagree

The second that cabbie, an adult, accepted that fair to transport that kid by common carrier, which said license carries certain responsibilities, then he was responsible for that kid to the extent that he had to make sure that kid was either transported back to grandma or the proper authorities.

He screwed up, and in doing so endangered the life of a disabled child . That's fucked up.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. agreed. +100

[w4rma]

7. No. He accepted responsibility when he picked up the child. (nt)

[HEyHEY]

8. Sorry, but in taking the kid the cabbie agreed to be his temporary gaurdian

In the same way a teacher is.