Amsterdam taxi driver kills potential client over fees

DutchAmsterdam.nl — Just days after local Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool published an article about the gangster-like practices of taxi drivers stationed at Leidseplein, a taxi driver killed a potential customer after an argument about fees.

44-year-old Rob Sitek was hit full in the face, after which he fell to the ground. Two police officers witnessed the attack and immediately arrested the 37-year old taxi driver Sidi Mohamed B., who together with four other Moroccans runs Taxi City Amsterdam.

The drivers of TCA, Amsterdam’s largest and most professional taxi firm, have attached black or grey ‘mourning ribbons’ to their cars in solidarity with the murdered man.

Meanwhile, Mayor Job Cohen has announced that police officers will stationed at the taxi rank starting as early as tomorrow.

However, in online forums and elsewhere many Amsterdammers blame Cohen for what more and more people view as his weak, spineless approach to the problem of aggression amongst the mostly Moroccan taxi drivers.

Critics of the mayor want him to forsake his trademark approach (which consists of his suggestion that we need to get to know the aggressors by drinking tea with them…) and instead apply the full force of the law to those who choose to engage in criminal behavior.

In a feature article Het Parool last Friday highlighted the problems at the taxi rank:

• murderous competition leads to frequent fights amongst the — for the most part — boorish drivers.
• Customers who ask for drives to nearby locations are quoted exorbitant rates, or are flat-out refused.
• Groups of drivers, mostly Moroccans, spend more energy trying to intimidate potential customers than they do on working.
• The cabs of drivers who do want to accept short drives at reasonable fees are blocked and prevented from leaving the rank.

Such problems in the taxi branch have existed for years, and thus far all attempt by the government to do something about it have failed.

Amsterdammers have for years referred to the taxi rank outside Central Station as ‘the Gaza strip‘ – and Amsterdam’s largest taxi firm avoids the rank because it does not want to be tarnished by the ongoing problem there.

• More about Amsterdam Taxis

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