Illegal UBER Driver Stephanie Franz, courtesy CBS Boston
The protectionist racket will continue on unabated after Monday night’s city council meeting, where there were people who testified in favor and against driving freedom. Christopher David had a volunteer read his letter to the council, as he could not attend due to his wife having a baby. Here’s the feed from the council chambers, starting with the people addressing the council:
The second speaker is a taxi company owner who accuses UBER of “stealing” money from him, since he’s obediently jumped through the city’s hoops. However, he does suggest (perhaps sarcastically) to repeal all ordinances so his companies can lower their prices, which I think most libertarians would love to see. After him is a former fireman who suggests that UBER drivers could be a danger to passengers due to misdemeanor convictions which the city’s regulations prohibit within seven years of the background check. He also claims that the state background check is more thorough, but the Free Uber page on facebook says otherwise:
The background check Uber performs does the following: SSN trace, sex offender search, national criminal search, county criminal search, and even a terrorist watchlist search.
I looked at the release for Portsmouth, it is the state form for a CHRI. The state check doesn’t even check for convictions from OUTSIDE NH. Nor is a fingerprint required. So in actuality, Uber performs a BETTER check since Uber does a national check associated with your name and SSN.
The council did vote 7-2 to send the proposed changes to deregulate ride-sharing to the “transportation committee” for further review. Meanwhile, the current ordinances will continue to be enforced. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest.
