Who’s right (and wrong) here? The cab driver? The two ladies who kissed each other and filed a report about the cab driver? Or the policeman who gave the cabby a $15,000 fine?
A cabby who claimed he had a “no-kissing policy” in his yellow taxi was hit with $15,000 in fines for ordering two female passengers to stop smooching — and then shouting vulgar epithets at them when they got out. TV producer Christina Spitzer and her actress girlfriend, Kassie Thornton, said they barely exchanged a peck in the back seat early into their ride when hack Mohammed Dahbi became enraged.
As John Hawkins points out, liberals will undoubtedly be torn in this case because the driver is a Muslim (and therefore supposedly deserving of preferential treatment) while the women are gay (and therefore also supposedly deserving of preferential treatment). However, that isn’t what this issue is really all about.
The question is: whose rights triumph in this particular case? Do the women have the “right” to do as they please, to show affection to each other wherever they go and whenever they want? Or can a cabbie say that he doesn’t want any kissing in his car? Would he have dealt differently with them if one of them was a guy? If so, does that matter?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DZmmGWM6Cg
As I see it, this boils down to property rights. When the women entered Dahbi’s taxi they had to adhere to his rules, no matter how bigoted and backwards they are. He’s clearly a fundamentalist who deserves no sympathy whatsoever, but that doesn’t mean his right to property doesn’t exist. Don’t like it? Get out of his taxi and find another one — preferably one driven by a man (or woman) with at least something approaching a modern worldview.
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