Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.

At yesterday’s extremely chaotic D.C. Taxicab Commission meeting, which was attended by over one hundred city cabbies, a driver without copies of his testimony for the commissioners was told he could not speak.

“The reason we are asking for written testimony is because a lot of our cab drivers have difficulty with our language,” Paul Cohn, a commission member, explained. “It’s very difficult for us to understand some of the people that testify.” A driver without prepared testimony, who told the Commission he speaks “clear and well enough English to convey my thoughts,” was later allowed to speak. Cohn said that because the driver had appeared before the Commission before and “we do understand you” he could speak.

The Teamsters, with whom over 1,800 D.C. drivers have formed an alliance with, immediately picked up on this comment, calling the barring of speakers an “illegal practice” that “is applied in a shockingly discriminatory manner” in a letter addressed to Mayor Vince Gray.

“The Commission’s explanation that it requires written testimony in advance because it is ‘difficult to understand’ them is abhorrent, discriminatory and unlawful,” Ferline Buie, president of Teamsters Local 922, said in the letter. Buie called on the mayor’s office to direct the DCTC to end the practice and to apologize.

Gray’s spokesperson referred our request for comment to the DCTC, as “we don’t manage their day to day activities or set their policies.” A Teamsters representative said they have not received a direct reply from either DCTC or the mayor’s office.

“Commission meeting rules pertaining to testifying are an administrative action,” DCTC spokesperson Neville Waters said in an email. “Speakers are advised to provide written testimony when they register to testify. The Commission may elect to waive the condition.”

When asked if it was the Commission’s discretion to tell the driver who did not bring testimony he couldn’t speak, Waters replied affirmatively: “And it was the Commission’s discretion to allow another driver to speak who did not bring written testimony.”