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Rideshare driver charged with raping passenger
By adamg on Sun, 03/18/2018 - 11:22pm
Boston Police report arresting an Everett man in the Fenway on charges he picked up a woman in his rideshare vehicle, then raped her.
Police say Northeastern University Police noticed the car on Hemenway Street around 1 a.m. and called in Boston officers. Ranjan Thapa, 26, of Everett, was arrested on a charge of rape; his passenger was taken to a local hospital for care.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
Why doesn’t the...
.... police report identity the name of the ride share company the driver works for?
Publishing the corporate name
would give the company more incentive to screen their drivers.
But if a company can get away with starting a taxi service while ignoring the taxi regulations, they can get away with anything.
Because those taxi regulations give the public
such law abiding drivers, such clean and minimally polluting cabs, and such courteous and thoughtful service from taxi drivers, amirite?
Your options include:
My enemy's enemy is my friend?
I don't love the Uber guys, but on the other hand, they have done a lot of damage to the medallion racket. Hey, we even had Josef Stalin as a military ally one upon a time.
99% of them have Uber AND
99% of them have Uber AND Lyft identifiers in the window.
Sometimes they aren't 100% sure.
Maybe he works for several companies, or wasn't working when he picked up this fare, or doesn't work for a company at all but was doing illegal pickups.
Not sure if the BPD is liable if they say an UBER driver raped someone when it turns out that might not be true.
If you request the actual report yourself (which you might not get if it is a sexual assault or they may just black out the victim's info, you might get that info.
"identified himself as a rideshare operator"
Is it confirmed he was actually working for Uber/Lyft and that wasn't just the excuse he gave the officer for having a woman in his car? Was he the driver the woman ordered via a rideshare app?
Uber
Globe headline is Uber driver charged with raping woman in car in Boston
Solutions?
Are there any? I mean, is there anyway to stop things like this from happening? We hear of these stories to often not to try and figure out away to deal with it.
We know how to fix it...raise
We know how to fix it...raise men who do not rape.
I assume
No one raises their son to be a rapist so that's a rather silly point to try and make.
Not a silly point at all
Classic example: Brock Turner
Men and boys are raised to think that forcing themselves on women is a right, and that calling it something else is a privilege.
You are a blind fool or an enabler or both.
When did your parents ever talk to you about what constitutes consent? If not, they enable you.
As a man
I most certainly was not raised to think any of that. I heard the 'No means NO' talk plenty of times, so what is your point? Obviously rapes happen, so not all boys grow up to be upstanding men, but I have never not one time met a boy, man, or parent who told their kid they have a right to force themselves on anyone, let alone a woman.
Scauma, how were you raised?
you seem to have it all figured out, did your parents teach you that all Irish were racists?
No, but my experiences did!
Haha I'm joking, somewhat. But no I don't have it all figured out, I just try to use common sense and rational thought. And I try to remember that not everyone will think like me. But I feel pretty confident in saying that some guys who grew up to be rapists came from decent home, they were just bad people who went on to become rapists.
And no I don't think all Irish people are racist but yea, a lot of them are.
Scauma
you are an idiot.
Not the first time I've heard that here
But care to expound on what exactly makes me an idiot? Did I say something incorrect?
*Society* tells them it's OK,
*Society* tells them it's OK, though not usually so explicitly. The parents then fail to counteract this.
It's the whole culture my
It's the whole culture my friend and we should be past having to say "not all men rape." We know this but our culture as a whole values women less and doesn't give them the right to their own bodies.
Here are just a few examples - there are plenty more:
Girls not allowed to say no to boys if they ask them to the school dance. (Utah)
Girls/young women being sent home from school because their clothes are deemed too distracting to boys...cuz you know... yoga pants and t-shirts. Send the girls home and not telling the boys to cut the shit.
"He hit you? that just means he likes you."
Electing someone that admitted to sexually assaulting numerous women and also has 16 women stating he assaulted him.
" I was raped." "What were you wearing?"
Laws being passed that you can't revoke consent if you are in the heat of the moment (North Carolina)
Parents not talking about consent and what that means. All.the.time.
Literally taking away women's rights to their autonomy and healthcare choices.
Not making the same amount of money for doing the same job.
Men stopping something they see as inappropriate whether that is with your friends or something you see on the street. Call out your damn friends when needed.
Lastly...and I am not trying to flame you...but your comment. Immediately "not all men rape."
Lots of people do
Do they instruct them to rape? no.
Do they raise them in a manner that devalues and objectifies women and teaches them that women do not deserve control over their own bodies? absofuckinglutely.
So, no, I don't think it was a silly point to make.
Nature vs nuture
Some people are just bad apples, regardless of how they were raised. Your statement is overly broad, general, and frankly wrong. Unless of course you're saying EVERY man who has ever raped a woman was raised in a household that objectified women and basically said women deserve whatever comes to them. Which sounds ridiculous even typing.
More pathetic excuses
For rapists.
Oh, gee, just can't help themselves. Everyone watch out!
Somehow he grew up to be entitled, viewing women as mere objects
He said he did it because he hadn't "been with a woman in several years," and "couldn't help himself." Makes me sick to my stomach.
via the Globe
If I raised a hundred men who
If I raised a hundred men who don't rape, it would pull down the percentage of rapists slightly, but it wouldn't solve the problem.
There are literally millions
Hundreds of millions of men who don't rape, never would rape, and would never condone someone they know raping a woman. So what's the point your making? Do we think all, or even most, men are rapists?
New approach to reducing the crime of rape
Raising people not to rape is targeting rape culture. The idea is to teach the opposite of victim blaming, and be clear that the offender must change not everyone else. The idea is that when you give advice to people to protect themselves, you are creating a shared responsibility for the crime.
Doesn't always hold up in theory though.
You probably don't raise your son to be a hijacker, but it doesn't matter because we can preventing hijacking by protecting victims better and show those victims how to protect themselves from hijacking.
There are many theories on why criminals act the way they do. Being a good parent and setting a good example for your children is helpful, but in the end there are so many other factors that go into whether or not someone will rape, steal, assault, kill, etc.
So stop flying?
How does a person protect themselves from Hijacking?
airlines....
metal detectors, don't allow weapons on flights, lock the cockpit, etc.
All sorts of things you can do to help victims of hijacking besides actually addressing the hijackers themselves.
you are talking about preventing hijacking.
Preventing a hijacking by maintaining adequate security does not "help victims."
If you want to apply this theory to the crime of rape, then taxi and ride share services can put back seat camera's in the cars of drivers. Like an airline, the commercial entity takes responsibility instead questioning the victim's actions.
Again, the victim is the airline (or the pilot)
And the action is hijacking planes. The hijacking stops when the victim takes some sort of action.
The larger point here is that raising kids not to rape people is silly. Being a good parent is certainly important in making sure their kids become responsible adults, but there are so many other factors involved it makes it just a snarky comment.
I get that we want to avoid "victim blaming" in many situations, but sometimes it gets illogical. If you died in a car accident because you didn't wear a seatbelt, I'm not going to tell your parents at your funeral "geeze it is a shame cinnamngl didn't wear her seat belt huh?", even though if you did wear a seat belt you would be alive.
Nice talk around
Now go learn what consent and no mean, as well as the definition of "enabler".
Sorry pops, but the days of men getting excused and women getting blamed are OVER.
The airline is never the victim
The airline has insurance. In the end, the airline makes money no matter what happens.
Raising people not to rape is about responsibility. The person that commits rape is the only person that needs to do things differently. By calling it silly, you are saying that it is impossible to live in a culture free of rape.
I'd bet you most rapists.....
Were raised by someone who told them that raping is wrong. So in the end it is not a good,strategy or solution to stopping rape.
Stopping rapists would be a start, but the snarky "rapists need to stop raping" isn't helping anything.
There is nothing snarky about "rapists need to stop raping"
Teaching victims how to avoid rape instead of teaching perpetrators to not rape is rape culture. How can you assume that a person was told that rape is wrong? It is not snarky to believe that is possible to live in a society without rape.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaclyn_Friedman
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system
Not saying one is more important than the other.....
Just saying that "don't raise rapists" is too simplistic and won't get anywhere. Most rapists probably have a mental disorder that needs to be addressed as a young adult, not as a kid by their parents.
And being held accountable has to do with our justice system, not the rapist. Do people rape because they know they can get away with it? That is a totally different branch of science.
Ever read a rape victims initial statement? I've read hundreds of them. I'm going to say the majority of them start with some sort of consensual sexual activity and involve alcohol or drugs. Those cases rarely go into the court process because the rapist or defendants attorney gets to ask the victims questions. Then a jury has to decide if it's actually rape or not. Before this happens of course, the DA wil tell the victim how good the case will go if it gets to a jury. These cases all get lumped into the stats on the article you linked below. Rape is not as concrete as a robbery, theft, or assault.
how can you fit so many myths into one response
"Don't raise rapists" is simple concept that requires a complex execution to work. No one thinks that it is simple. The point is to sweep away all the distractions, and focus on the rapist.
For all of the experience you describe, you don't know much about rape.
The fact that rape victims suck at being victims is not relevant to whether or not they were raped. People like you that insist that "Rape is not concrete as a robbery, theft or assault" are the problem. In fact in dealing with all of these crimes every day I can tell anecdotally that in fact theft, assault and robberies are also just as likely to happen as part of a consensual activity that involved drugs and alcohol. If a person is robbed by some that they invited into their home, is it not robbery? Years of psychiatric study show that rape is not caused by a mental disorder, but you ignore that?
You have a problem reading....
You cited crime statistics that included conviction rates. I pointed out why there are differences between those rates and the crimes listed. I never said any of my or your above points were relevant to one another. You are the one who linked the study. I'm not ignoring years of psychiatric studies, it goes to my larger point that there is no "main reason" why rapists rape. But not raising rapists is probably in the same category as "mentally imbalanced" people raping.
Don't raise rapists is the same as not raising (insert crime here__________). Don't raise arsonists, or robbers, or thieves, or illegal gun traffickers, or drug dealers, or liars, or murderers. I get that victims aren't to blame for being raped, but the simplistic approach of targeting rapists (which is pretty obvious anyway) doesn't work.
And please tell me how theft, assault and robberies are as likely to happen as part of consensual activity. I'd love to hear this one.
Your example or robbery makes no sense. A jury would hear testimony of the home owner telling them how something was stolen from their house. Friends rarely steal from friends, and when they do it rarely goes to court. Those that are invited into a home to steal usually attempt to commit their crime under some sort of false pretense. Again, totally different mindset between all of those crimes.
? Friends steal from friends
? Friends steal from friends all the time. What kind of experience do you have that you haven't dealt with a crime and victim and perpetrator have history?
With kids it is practically every incident. I can't count how many times one friend uses another friends phone and then a case is filed because the phone is not returned.
Remember CEX in Boston? Do you think all those phones were stolen in stranger robberies? No, mostly kids and drug addicts stealing from family members.
We are talking about the statistics you cited
Go sit in any Boston court room for any robbery or lacrceny case. 99% of them are strangers committing crimes against strangers. The point of this conversation again was in regards to your link which showed the difference between rape vs theft/robbery convictions. Ok, I understand that friends steal from friends and family, but those rarely get reported to the police and when they do and someone finds out who did it, the "friend" rarely gets charged. Usually the friend agrees to pay the person back and the victim agrees.
you are proving my point
Just like rape, other crimes are under reported. That is because Rape is just like every other crime, it is the way society treats rape that is different. You willfully ignore the facts presented to you.
PS. Sitting in a courtroom is something i do everyday, and I will tell you that very little detail is generally presented on the record in open court. Only when an actually trial goes forward do you get much detail about the event in question, and even then a lot is left out.
I am not sure where you get your information, but if you want to learn something start with police reports and then read the court file. Make a list of all the parties, their addresses and the people that live at those addresses. I guess you will be very surprised to see all the connections. Stranger crime is far from 99%
I've worked in law enforcement for over 20 years.
I've written thousands of police reports, read tens of thousands, worked in the Sexual Assault unit for over 5 years, spoke with hundreds of victims, arrested dozens of rapists, interviewed hundreds of suspects, testified in court hundreds of times in sexual assault cases, had dozens of advocates thank me and recommend me as a referral for victims, had 50 or so victims write me thank you notes. I've been to at least 300 SAIN interviews, I've gone to graduation parties and other functions for dozens of kids and people who I've helped through sexual assaults, received 12 commendations for excellent police work (5 in the area of sexual assault specifically, including 2 awards from federal agencies). etc, etc.
I get it. Your a court advocate or intern or interpreter. It doesn't sound like you have spoken to many victims which is fine Your new and want to get involved and help people. Thank you for that.
The point of under reporting crimes isn't the issue of your stat, hell it even includes those that aren't reported! The issue was people going to jail for those crimes.
Of course stranger crime is far from 99%. I said friends rarely steal from friends and then go to court over it.
If what you say about your
If what you say about your experience is true, why do you believe rapist are mentally ill? The facts don't back that up. I have been in the court house for 20 years as well. I have to say that I am seriously concerned that a person in your position would think that
Especially assault. We both that know that people don't come to blows randomly. I have worked on many assault cases when the victim did something that while nonviolent was awful, but that doesn't excuse assault, does it? Why can't you see that rape is the same. I'll say it again. Saying that rapists need to stop raping focuses the responsibility where it belongs. I never said it was easy or simple. I don't need you to agree, but you are wrong about this. You could have just ignored me many responses ago, and I don't understand why with all of your experience you are not more secure in your opinion.
Patriarchy Contortionist
Wants power and control over everyone, especially woman, as the only answer
God forbid that we not have a security theater solution to everything.
lol
lol
Strawman
Apples and oranges, etc.
But, hey, holding men accountable and teaching them that no means no doesn't make for victim blaming of women or $$$$$$$ security jobs for former cops, does it?
You really are a paternalistic piece of work, ain't ya?
lol
lol
Most people are raised to
Most people are raised to tell the truth. How's that workin' out for ya?
not really a solution but...
I wish these companies would give you the option of choosing the gender of your driver. You could choose "male, female or first available." Again, not really a solution, but I think most women would feel less anxious with a woman driver.
Speaking of..
Wasn't there a company that tried to do only female drivers and passengers, but from what I remember the company got sued for discrimination.
Yes, it's called Safr. It's
Yes, it's called Safr. It's still operating now, as far as I can tell.
How are they getting around the law?
Isn't it illegal in this state for an employer to refuse employment or for a "place of public accommodation," which arguably includes livery services, to refuse a customer, based upon membership in a protected class, which IIRC includes sex?
Men can sign up as drivers or riders
It used to be Chariot for Women, which was going to be female only. I don't really know anything else about it.
A female rideshare ...
... might be less likely to harass or assault a passenger but they are under the same pressures to speed, make sudden U-turns, park illegally, keep motors running, etc as male drivers and therefore are not much less a danger to the public.
The topic is that a woman was
The topic is that a woman was
raped by a rideshare driver!
Point being?
Ohhh, you're one of those bike people. Got it.
As a woman, I like this idea
As a woman, I like this idea in theory. I prefer using public transit whenever possible, instead of taking a cab, Lyft, or Uber (I've actually only used the latter when traveling home late at night with my husband, because I don't feel comfortable). However, the flipside is that male passengers could use that system to select and target women-only drivers.
Also, what about the Theys?
No offense meant to anyone but I met a person who was born a woman, identifies as a man, and like to be referred to as They as opposed to any male or female term.
Does Uber currently require drivers to declare their gender?
This would seem to be a necessary prerequisite to the implementation of formalized gender-based pre-emptive strikes.
Yes, any such system should
Yes, any such system should also allow someone to not declare, or to declare as non-binary, etc.
You can sort of do that aleady, can't you?
Don't they show you the name and even a photo of the driver, and don't you have a certain window to cancel, either based on that information or for any other reason? Whether choosing drivers (or passengers) based on demographic characteristics is exactly fair or right is another question, of course.
They show the first name and the photo
and you can cancel within a short timeframe without a cancellation fee, maybe 2 minutes?
I think if the rider cancels,
I think if the rider cancels, as opposed to the driver, they are charged a fee. Not sure if that's the case across platforms but I'm pretty sure that's the case for Uber.
My girlfriend often takes Lyfts late at night and she'll either stay on the phone with me until she gets home, or share her location so that I could track her whereabouts if needed.
Why stop at gender?
Maybe they could let you choose the race of your driver too?
How much does it happen?
There are many, many instances of attempted rape and actual rape across the city. We hear disproportionately about the ones involving Uber/Lyft/etc drivers because the medallion racket (including the medallion owners, the city regulators, the lenders, and the entire financial ecosystem that had a good thing going upon the protection racket) are good at PR and are fighting back against having their cartel threatened.
The good news is that the value of taxi medallions continues to dwell in the cellar. Poor Eddie Tutunjian; my heart bleeds for him.
Half-right
You hear about the rideshare rape attempts more because of the inherent fraud. Somebody bought transportation service, and got diddled.
The dude in the Fenway a couple of weeks ago who got his photo posted on UH just straight up broke into a lady's place and went to town. There was no fraud there.
The Medallion Cartel
I work in the news. I just wanted to say that the taxi industry, with a minority-majority workforce, invisible except to be hated and insulted, run by people whose capital you yourself admit is in the toilet, is not secretly "good at PR."
When you call your local news station with a tip? This is why they hang up on you.
Speaking just for myself
I have never said a word against taxi drivers, most of whom are hard working people starting out pretty low on the economic ladder and looking to work their way up. Taxi drivers do not own or, for the most part, even participate in the medallion racket; they are victimized by it.
I can't make head or tail out of your last line. To what are you referring?
Ah yes
Someone has never taken a cab in this city.
Here's a news story for you: Hail a cab and try to get to an address in East Boston at 10pm on a Saturday night. Use a credit card, too.
South End?
An aside - some other news outlets are reporting this as happening in the South End.
I always wonder if it's an honest mistake (reporter is just not familiar with Boston neighborhoods, misplaced a street, etc.) or if news outlets have an investment in saying a crime happened in the South End versus Fenway/Kenmore.
How that happened
The BPD blog post about the incident is headlined "BPD Officers Arrest Rideshare Operator in Connection to Sexual Assault in the South End," probably because the arrest was made by D-4 officers, whose station is in the South End. BPD does this occasionally and reporters working the late shift (the item popped up late Sunday) didn't bother to check or didn't know where Hemenway Street is and so went with the BPD headline. So no malice, at worst some laziness.
Lord knows I've made neighborhood mistakes over the years, but, um, yeah.
major media outlets
the major media outlets in Boston don't even realize that the Fenway is a different neighborhood than the South End - they all live in the burbs I guess
Or new...
... to Boston and rushing to get a story in.
Hemingway is part of Symphony
Hemingway is part of Symphony. its not really Fenway or Kenmore.
Is anybody shocked?
You folks saw the MIT thing where these folks make three bucks and change an hour, right? At that rate, the incentive to drive is access to women, not cash.
Yes. I then read the follow
Yes. I then read the follow up sorry about how MIT said they were wrong about that.
"Hourly rate" varies widely
Time of day, day of week, area...but usually one makes between $10 and $25 an hour doing this, at least in Boston metro. Gas isn't all that cheap, and it can take a toll on your car. It can be fun. It can also be stressful and aggravating. Like anything else I guess.
Between $10 and $25 hourly?
Then why is the turnover so high? Or did MIT foul that up too?
Maybe those poor souls leasing from uber?
Which seems more like indentured servitude, although i cant speak from experience on that.
They'll be out of a job soon anyway
Once Uber figures out how to roll out driver-less cars without killing innocent people, those drivers will be out of a job anyway.
When I started Ubering in 2014
I sent the following email. Unfortunately, I'm not certain that many other people who endeavor to drive rideshare ask similar questions:
Thank you RoseMai for sharing
Thank you RoseMai for sharing info on Safr all women ride share. I was not aware of this service. Is it a viable option in Boston? Any input from all would be helpful.
Tried it a few months ago
Using the no preference option (you can choose male, female, or no preference for your driver) and no one was nearby. I don't think many drivers use it. I do use Uber/Lyft every week and have seen an increase in female drivers lately though.
It seems to me that ride-sharing is safer than taxis in
this regard, assuming the person confirms that the car and driver matches the one they summoned before getting in, because of GPS-based tracking. It's hard for an on-duty driver to deny where they and their car were at the time of an alleged incident.
This doesn't entirely eliminate the risk, obviously, but it seems like you have to be a pretty dumb criminal to drive a ride-share car while committing a crime.
It's not a rational behavior though
So while what you are saying is correct, the sad reality is it doesn't matter to the victims if their rapist was dumb or not.
I'd also disagree that a cab driver with a credit card machine, cell phone records, etc... isn't equally easy to track and to boot has a specific local corporate entity who is going to be held liable for any criminal activity done by that employee (I think?)
Might be possible to track a taxi in some cases,
i.e., if a cellphone were used in dispatch (it's usually radio-based, with nothing like cellular call logging), if a credit card is used (it's not always, drivers often discourage its use, and at the end of a ride, an attacker isn't likely to ask for a card to run), etc. It's comparatively quite difficult.
By contrast, every Lyft and Uber ride is automatically cataloged by pickup time, exact route, and dropoff time.
Far, far, far, too many taxi drivers
Far, far, far too many taxi drivers are NOT the person shown on the ID that is supposed to be hanging in the cab. I'm not talking about minor differences like long hair vs. short hair or beard vs. clean-shaven.
I have gotten into far too many cabs over the years where the driver is obviously a completely different person than the one shown on the ID prominently hanging from the mirror. Different age, different height or weight, different ethnicity (with a markedly different skin color) and even a different gender than the person whose picture is on the ID.
This does not make me feel safe.
On the other hand, there was one time I booked a ride with a ride-share company, and the driver who arrived did not look anything like the person in the photo that the ride-share company gave me when I booked my ride. The car was also a different color, make and model, even though the licsense plate number matched. I declined to get in to the car.
I contacted the company and told them about it, and? They APOLOGIZED, refunded my fare, and gave me a significant discount towards another ride of my choosing.
Try THAT with any of the traditional cab companies. I doubt any of them would care, never mind issue a refund.
Great points
I stand rebutted.