Taxi Driver Convicted for Ferrying Bomber
This story is just scary. It didn't happen here in the U.S. and I don't think something like this ever would, at least I hope not, but you never know. U.S. Courts and juries have made stranger decisions than this before.
It just confuses me how any court in any country could hold a taxi driver accountable for a terrorist's act just because the terrorist used the driver's taxi service to get where he was going. How in the world is the taxi driver supposed to know anything about the customers who ride in his cab? How is it possible to "use caution" in circumstances like this? Even if taxi drivers questioned every single passenger before accepting their business, which wouldn't be at all practical, it still wouldn't do them any good. It's not like a terrorist bomber is going to admit that he's on his way to bombing someplace. Being "aware of the dangers of his actions" makes absolutely no sense. A taxi driver can't possibly be expected to know what one of his customers is planning to do and then be held responsible for it. Criminals don't wear signs announcing who they are.
If a murderer takes the bus to get to his victim's home, should we then convict the bus driver of accessory to murder? If a rapist targets his victim on the subway and follows her home to commit the crime, do we charge the subway driver with rape? If a bank robber plans out his crime while sitting in a restaurant, do we charge the waitress with conspiracy? Or should the bank teller who gets robbed be convicted of robbery because she had the misfortune of being chosen by the bank robber that day? No! Of course not! Because we know it doesn't make any sense, just like it doesn't make any sense to convict this taxi driver of "causing death by negligence." HE didn't cause anyone's death, the bomber did, and HE wasn't negligent. He performed his duty as a taxi driver, to get his passenger from one destination to another safely. What the passenger does once he gets there is the passenger's business and the passenger's responsibility. Period.
There's a lot of terrorist activity going on in the world today and the United States is no longer safe from it. We learned that lesson the hard way on 9/11. A lot of people are scared and people want to hold someone accountable. That's human nature. The problem is we can't hold the bombers accountable for what they do because they kill themselves in the act of their crime. So it leaves us feeling angry and helpless. Who do we blame? Who do we punish? For Jerusalem, they chose to punish the taxi driver. We Americans think we would never do something so foolish, but wouldn't we? If the people in this country get scared enough or angry enough or hurt enough, you never know what we might do. We might start looking for scapegoats, too. And that's just scary.
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