A 61-year-old livery driver posted on Facebook early Monday that city and state politicians were to blame for his financial ruin — then pulled up to the gates of City Hall and shot himself dead with a shotgun, authorities said.
The driver, identified by sources as Douglas Schifter, blamed Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo as well as former Mayor Bloomberg for making it impossible for him to earn a living behind the wheel because of an increasing number of taxis and black cars in the city, and because of over-regulation of his industry.
“Now the politicians have flooded the streets with unlimited cars and some 3,000 new ones every month still coming. There is not enough work for everybody that pays a living,” Schifter posted around 4:30 a.m.
“This is SLAVERY NOW. … I don’t know how else to try to make a difference other than a public display of a most private affair.”
Schifter then drove a black Nissan Altima that he rented in Pennsylvania to the front, east gate of City Hall near Spruce Street and Park Row, stopped the car and shot himself with a shotgun around 7:10 a.m., police said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, an FDNY spokesman said. Police sources said he was from Pennsylvania.
“I have no more health insurance and am not enjoying good health,” Schifter wrote in his online manifesto. “No more vehicle as my GM engine failed twice this year as well as the transmission. No more income to pay bills and maxed out credit cards I cannot pay. I will lose my house and everything else. I see no point to continue trying.”
Schifter – who wrote that he worked 100-120 consecutive hours almost every week for more than 14 years — said in his lengthy suicide note that de Blasio, Cuomo and Bloomberg “each had their part in destroying a once thriving industry.”
“There are over 100,000 of us suffering daily now. It is the new slavery. The politicians flooded the streets with Black Cars and Taxis,” he wrote.
“I warned of the impending collapse of the yellow medallions more than a year before it happened. No one stopped it. That old law was working and it was there to prevent exactly what Cuomo Allowed,” he continued. “The control of the numbers of taxi medallions was never supposed to return to the Mayor.”
Schifter blamed Bloomberg for “appealing to Albany to remove the law limiting taxis in NYC.”
“It was in place for over one hundred years and worked! It was there for a reason. It took away control from local politicians. It limited competition so in bad times everyone still made a good living,” he wrote.
“Now there are too many feeding off the same pie and there is not enough for every one,” he said, adding that Bloomberg “added 18,000 unneeded green cabs.”
“That took more business away from Black and Yellow Cabs. He mandated a freeze on processing replacement Black Cars just as I had to replace mine,” Schifter wrote, explaining that he had to buy and insure his car before he could register it.
“TLC would not process my application because they wanted their $75 inspection fee for a brand new car out of the showroom in addition to the state inspection already performed,” he said.
“That cost between $20,000 and $30,000 and was a serious loss,” he said.
The driver also said de Blasio and Cuomo have shown a “bias” toward Uber.
“De Blasio stopped a traffic study on the impact of Uber. That would have revealed the true traffic impact of so many cars and shown the need to freeze car levels,” Schifter said.
“Cuomo allowed the removal of controls and allowed unlimited cars on the road. Cuomo also placed State Troopers in NYC to patrol and issue moving violations. This never happened before in my lifetime. He has turned the city into a police state.”
The disconsolate driver also took aim at the “treasonous Republicans.”
“I hope with the public sacrifice I make now that some attention to the plight of the drivers and the people will be done to save them and it will have not have been in vain and also that we must stop what is happening to Government while we still have one we can vote out,” Schifter said.
“There is no choice. America is under attack by Russia. They do not need weapons. They bought their influence.”
A City Hall spokesman responded to Schifter’s comments by saying: “It’s incredibly sad. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones in what is undoubtedly the most painful of times.”
De Blasio, meanwhile, lamented the driver’s death in an interview on NY1 with host Errol Louis.
“It’s a horrible tragedy, first of all, Errol,” the mayor said. “This man was obviously going through a lot.”
De Blasio defended his record on the cab industry, saying he tried to put in “common-sense caps” on Uber and similar companies, but got opposition from the City Council.
“There’s more work to do for sure on that front but no, I mean, this is a tragic act that obviously reflects on one individual’s distress,” he said.
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Douglas S. was the third NYC driver we know of to commit suicide in as many months.
well the mayer get paid off by uber the governer all so .and the t l c all are corrupt .there is no one fiting for the taxi drivers .the madallion price is going down .now one is givin out loans to drivers.maby in the futher lomto may give out loans cred union cab drivers do not stick to gether like years a go. and every one know it. no more demostration with large group of cab drivers.cab drivers can not mack there pay ments there selling the madallions get little money for the madallion drivers are killing them self becous of little pay lousing to uber .
Every driver should watch this video!
https://youtu.be/QWdW9iwwp54
mc donald & carvel uber delivery food .kings auto group .com uber special whan are the taxi cab drivers going to stop the ads.??
De Blasio is killing honest working men and women of NYC.
Disgusting.
If you believe you came to this country for better life, you should change your mind and pack your bag home. Nothing would make you happy anymore. Taxi is over you like it or you don’t, the reason is not about uber or lyft, the real reason is about control, money machine, the government has the tool to count every cent and transaction, before the medallion was a way of stealing money and send it overseas. Garages used double plate and put to work 5 cars under one medallion, drivers didn’t pay taxes, most of them make 30k cash but file 7k in taxes only. Other garages take advantage of fake parts and never cleaned their cars. Cabs used as bathrooms by drivers. Medallion owners take money but don’t contribute or drive for the business and ship money to Turkey, Africa, mid east, Europe. Most of the medallion owners have realestate back home, as many as 10 houses and never paid taxes but they collect food stamp and child credit and ship money overseas… The only victims in taxi industry are drivers who pay lease weekly …taken advantage of and put to work to death ..TLC MUST REFUND DRIVERS WHO GAVE THEIR LIFE TIME FROM 5 YEARS TO 40Years for taxi …they must help drivers adapt to new technologies…Tlc must provide free car and free tlc plate to taxi drivers to work for ehail app tech companies!
Uber killing people… TLC sleeping.
come to the hearing monday at city hall 10am
how else is going to the hearing .beside taxi dave
i watch the hearing on tv this cowboy so call chearmin i hope he know how to line dance than to be a chair man i like the way he close the hearing it 315 time to go .the guy from taxi dave was good .shood have sad more .2 other owners cab drivers wear great what they sad about the t l c you get a 100 dollar ‘ticket in the the tlc send you a nothe ticket fot the same ticket for 1,000 cab drivers get ticket i think there wear more cab drivers to talk at a nother meeting down the road 2 years from now now we have a crazy cow boy to run the show with his 10 gallon hat .
we should form a demonstration in front of the TLC and demand that TLC should be closed and investigated for unlawful conduct.
What I see every day cabdrivers are always being ticketed somewhere in the city. Unfortunately none of the cabbies doing anything. Compared to any other group of motorist and road users, yellow taxi drivers are much better and safer, than any other group. How many bicyclist getting tickets? What about the MTA bus drivers? It’s time to video tape everything, Question everything, you see something, say something, post it on the internet.
Big scam. Attentions All driver.
Do not unclude lease money on your gross income ..that income belongs to the medallion owner not the driver…
The gross income on your 1099 form is the gross income for both medallion and driver..
Lease plus gas plus ezpass are medallion expenses…After transactions with garage that your gross income then you can enter you personal expenses as driver to perform your job…
If you unclude medallion lease on your tax return you will loose health care medicaid.
The medicaid don’t understand taxi driver job snd they deduct only 15 percent oas your expenses..
Uber should not unclude their commission on your 1099 form …the commission is uber income not driver income ..and is not an expense for drivers..don’t be scammed…
if you don’t like uber . if you wish to file a complaint with uber please send an email costomercomplants @ uber .com
i am the only one that talk about the hearing – ‘ why? ‘
waymo is readying a ridehaling service.thatcoud directy compete with uber . robotaxi permit get ARIZONIA ‘sok waymo will start service in 2018 waymo will be operating in five states . good bye uber.
Taxis following DOT rules dropping/picking passenger in bus lanes. NYPD is ticketing taxis. How would taxi drivers survive driving in the city.
Joshua Thiede 29year old uber & lyft driver missing in Los Angeles 2014 NISSAN ALTIMA WITH THE LICENSE PLATE 7CSD450
joshua thied from l a was found in.a hospital uber & lift driver….on chan 7 news reliance livery drivers .are not geting paid by there passingers .there running out of the car and not paying the fair to the driver they want the p d to get in involved also how many taxi drivers does it happen to .?
uber offically launches uber express pool a new twist on shair riding . uber express is like a minibus with cheaper rides . uber has lunched uber express pool start to day it’s comming to DC,LA,MINAN, PHILADELPHIA, SAN DIEGO, DENVER AND MORE more city over the nex frew weeks . …UBER DREVERS WILL MACK LESS MONEY WAKE UP UBER DRIVERS UBER WILL MACK THE MONEY NOT YOU.
ON TV CAR CALL BACKS ALL CARS . DRIVER ARE NOT BRING CARS IN TO BE FIX UN SAFE CARS FOR PASSINGERS TO RIDE IN PLUS THE DRIVER . DRIVERS LOUSE TO MUCH TIME TO HAVE IT FIX COST NOTH TO THE DRIVER TO HAVE IT FIX THE T L C WAS TOLD ABOUT THIS SEE IF THEY TACK ANEY ACTION ON THIS
an uber eats driver accused of fatally shooting a customer.has turned himself in.ROBERT BIOINES ATLANTA POLICE DEPARTMENT.
nissan will launch a self .driving taxi service nrx month.
UBER HEALTH CAN HELP YOU GET TO DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENTS.UBER IS A OFFICAL PARTNERSHIP WITH HEALTHCARE .ORGAUIZALION.OVER 100 HEALTHCARE COMPANIES HAVE SINED ON TO WORK WITH UBER HEALTH …LYFT EMBARHED .ON A SIMILAR VENTURE WITH HITCH HEALTH ……GOOD BY ACCESS A RIDE.
Starting today monday in the city of new york blocking the box will cost you 2 points, and 125.000 ticket with 50 brownies giving out tickets every day.
DO NOT BLOCK THE BOX! Police and Video Cameras are everywhere!
Thousand of Uber and Lyft cars will be outfitted with video screens that cannot be turned off.
In New York City, advocates for taxi workers say an immigrant cab driver committed suicide as he faced financial ruin due to a shift away from yellow cabs and toward ride-hailing app-based services like Uber and Lyft. Sixty-five-year-old Nicanor Ochisor, who drove a New York City yellow cab for nearly 30 years, was found hanged to death from a wooden beam in a Queens garage last Friday. Ochisor owned a taxi medallion and shared driving duties with his wife, who picked up morning shifts, while he worked evenings, in an unsuccessful struggle to make ends meet. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance says Ochisor’s death is the fourth such suicide of a driver in recent months!