On the heels of the brutal stabbing of an Indian student working as a part-time cabbie, Indian taxi drivers in Melbourne have claimed that they are frequently assaulted and cheated but they did not report the incidents because they had no confidence in the police.
Gul Dhillon, 22, from Melbourne's north-west, said he believed the attacks on the city's cabbies were racially motivated. "They think, he is from another country and they can do whatever they want. The police don't do anything," Dhillon said.
Most of the cabbies in Australia's Victoria state are young men from India studying at the university and driving taxis on weekends to earn a living, the Melbourne Leader said.
The taxi drivers came out in protest demanding more security after 23-year-old Jalvinder Singh was stabbed and left to bleed on the roadside on April 29 allegedly by a passenger who claimed he was under medication and had no memory of the incident.
Sony Malhotre, 29, who has been driving cabs for over two years, says he had been set upon three times by passengers but stopped contacting the police after the first incident in North Melbourne.
"The police showed up after an hour, I went home and didn't work for a week. I don't do the night shift any more. It's not worth the risk, I have a child," Malhotre said.
J Singh, 23, said he had been involved in numerous such incidents in the past year but never reported them to the police because he felt "they don't care". "I've had rocks thrown at me and people running away without paying their fees," Singh said, adding that it "was typical for the police to show up late."
John Collins, a driver of 15 years from Caulfield, also believed the attacks on cab drivers were racially motivated. "I was never involved in any serious incidents. I'm a white guy you see, that way I'm in a privileged position," Collins said.
Melbourne East inspector Paul Pottage, the police negotiator at the protest, said an education campaign for taxi drivers focusing on dealing with violent passengers would include a component on improving their confidence in the police. "Certainly, a percentage of problems that some drivers have, is the interaction with the police," he said. "A lot of it is perception but there are probably instances where both sides can improve." Pottage said a lot of the issues arose because taxi drivers wanted to continue working instead of taking time out to make a police report.
Victorian taxi directorate general manager Peter Corcoran said drivers were encouraged to report all instances of crime to the police.
