Portland, Maine: White cabbie files discrimination lawsuit against city, all airport licenses went to Somalis and Iranians

More refugee-related problems coming to light in Maine (see yesterday Lewiston Somali arsonist).  If the facts are true, it sure looks like an open and shut case of discrimination.

Somali cab drivers protesting in Portland in 2011. New city rule said they must apply in person for licenses (not with power-of-attorney while in Somalia!). There is clearly a heck of a lot going on with this licensing program and don’t you wonder why Somalis are so organized at airports around the country? http://bangordailynews.com/2011/12/05/news/portland/somali-taxi-drivers-say-new-portland-policy-aims-to-shut-them-down/

From the Portland Press Herald (emphasis mine):

A white taxicab driver has filed a lawsuit accusing the city of Portland of racial discrimination for denying him one of 45 permits to work as part of the Portland International Jetport’s taxi pool.

The driver, Paul McDonough of South Portland, said in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland that the city’s current jetport taxicab permit system is “blatantly discriminatory” because it has issued permits only to people of Somali or Iranian descent or nationality.

“How does it happen that 45 licenses all go to one racial group who just arrived in this country?” McDonough’s attorney, David Turesky, said in an interview after filing the lawsuit.

Turesky said that in 2008, the city granted all of its then 50 jetport licenses to Somali or Iranian immigrants without opening bidding to the general public. The city reduced the number of available jetport licenses in July 2013 to 45, “grandfathering” in those license holders, again without opening the bidding process to the public.

“It was done in a way that was never publicized,” Turesky said. “Our supposition is something was done to benefit these gentlemen or this particular group. But we don’t know how. We don’t know precisely what the motive was. We don’t know who paid for the licenses.”

The city’s attorney, Corporation Counsel Danielle West-Chuhta, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit originated from a complaint that McDonough and another white male taxicab driver filed in June 2013 and brought before the Maine Human Rights Commission. State investigators found that the complaint by McDonough and Raymond Chasse of Scarborough has “no reasonable grounds.” Chasse has since died.

Turesky said the Maine Human Rights Commission did not investigate the background of how the city’s permitting practices began. He expects that those details will be ordered to be disclosed through the court process.

Turesky expects that even if the court finds that the city did not intentionally commit racial discrimination, it did discriminate.

 There is more, read it all.   Be sure to see the comments.  See Debba Curtis who says the Somalis don’t allow her seeing-eye dog in their cabs at the airport.  Another discrimination case?

Why did so many Somalis go to Maine?  See one of our top posts of all time—Somali migration to Maine–its the welfare magnet stupid.

See our extensive archive on Maine refugee problems by clicking here.

Update January 15th:  I see a Maine blogger has written more on the story, here.

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