
She Reported Being Assaulted by Her Uber Driver. He Was Allowed Back on the Road - electic
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/claudiakoerner/uber-driver-sex-assault-woman-victim-investigation
======
big_chungus
Wait a second, there hasn't been a finding yet, even from the police
investigation. While this lady seems like she went through an awful
experience, we _have_ to maintain our standard of innocent until proven
guilty. There's a reason we try to abide by Blackstone's Principle. It
wouldn't make any more sense for Uber to just fire the guy without any proof.

That said, this seems like an open-and-shut case. God willing, they'll find
this guy guilty and lock him away for forever-and-a-day.

~~~
roywiggins
People get fired for misconduct all the time without being "found guilty".
Corporate HR does not have a "presumption of innocence".

Uber drivers aren't even employees, they're contractors. You can literally
just decide to terminate a contract for any reason as long as you fulfill the
terms.

~~~
big_chungus
And companies get sued all the time for doing it. Regardless, it's still
morally gray to fire someone for an allegation alone.

I'm not saying Uber can't legally do it, I'm saying it is of questionable
morality.

------
duxup
>Uber spoke to the driver and temporarily suspended him, according to a
spokesperson, but said they had a hard time following up with the woman.

>Meanwhile, police are conducting a criminal investigation into the assault,
but Uber said they didn’t know about it. Police didn’t seek evidence from
Uber, and Uber didn’t ask police what was going on. The driver's suspension
ended, and he returned to carrying passengers.

Later:

>But ahead of formal charges, the company depends on victim reports or for
police to contact them. Uber doesn’t proactively communicate with police about
alleged incidents, a policy based on advice from experts on how to respect
victims' privacy, the Uber spokesperson said.

I'm really not sure what Uber is supposed to do here. Fire the drive based on
an assault claim that both the driver and the rider claim? They have no other
info to go on...

~~~
allana
They suspsended the rider's account, the very least they could do is suspend
the driver's account till the matter is resolved (Seattle Police Dept lists
cases online FYI). Without suspensions, your letting two people who have been
in a violent altercation continue to put the rest of your drivers & riders in
jeopardy.

~~~
true_religion
Sometimes police cases drag on for months, or years without closing, so Uber
waiting would essentially put people out of work.

I don’t think it’s their responsibility. It’s the governments. If police do
not think he is a danger to society that must be arrested, then he should be
treated normally by his employer.

------
esotericn
Surely if someone sexually assaults you and the justice system confirms it
beyond a reasonable doubt, they should either be locked up or under house
arrest or something like that, and so the issue of whether they're driving
again is irrelevant?

After their punishment is served and they're re-integrated into society I
think they should be able to take up their previous employment?

I mean, imagine a situation in which Uber didn't exist, say there's some magic
decentralized app, and individuals were actually _real_ free contractors.

It's a policing issue no? I can see that Uber can be more or less helpful, but
ultimately a crime is a crime regardless of whether an employee does it, a
contractor does it, whatever?

~~~
chrischen
San Francisco has a weird justice system:
[https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/08/14/victim-
outraged...](https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/08/14/victim-outraged-man-
attacked-san-francisco-home-released/)

------
allana
Note: The south end of the bridge the Uber driver sped across is the most
ticketed intersection in Seattle.

I had a very similar experience on OfferUp, where a person threatened to kill
me via OfferUp Messages after I wouldn't meet him in the middle of a protest
(he had driven into the protest, right past the starbucks where I was waiting
for him).

OfferUp ignored my report in app, emails and calls, this user has kept
accreting more reviews since.

Craigslist has been far safer for me, OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace seem to
have peeled off the hot headed 15 to 30 year old user demographic, leaving
40+yo buyers that have been straightforward to deal with.

~~~
xenihn
I expected Craigslist to be made irrelevant by FB Marketplace and apps like
OfferUp, but for me, it's still the most reliable for buying and selling. I
don't understand it at all.

~~~
allana
Yeah, OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace have taken many of the flaky people off
Craigslist, improving CL's reliability.

------
Causality1
Uber and other ridesharing services should require back-looking dash cams that
stream directly to company servers and be accessible and downloadable by both
customers and drivers.

~~~
munk-a
But this would be common sense and in-line with the fact that this setup is in
nearly every confederated cab company in Canada and, IIRC, the US.

------
qzygr
>After BuzzFeed News began asking questions and Uber learned about the police
investigation, that changed. The driver is now off the platform and will
remain off unless authorities determine the matter should be dropped, a
spokesperson for the ridesharing app said.

So the guy loses his income until the police determines if he's actually
guilty or not. Guilty until proven otherwise. Oookay.

~~~
vkou
Try physically assaulting someone at your office, and you'll probably lose
your income _long_ before the justice system determines you to be guilty.

I don't need a jury of 12 peers to voluntarily choose to stop associating with
you, and neither does your employer. Unless, of course, you think that every
firing should be done by a jury trial..?

~~~
chrischen
The jury isn't there just for show you know, or to give a semblance of
credibility.

~~~
vkou
The jury's not for show, but their decision has no bearing on whether or not I
want to employ a contractor in an at-will capacity.

