Taxi Driver

A taxicab driver was robbed in the middle of the afternoon Tuesday on Eloise Lane in Edgewood. The driver told police he was called to pick up a fare in the 1800 block of Eloise Lane shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday and when he arrived was approached by a man wearing a brown hooded sweatshirt with a white dragon print on the back and black jeans, according to Harford County Sheriff's Office incident report. The man told the victim he was the one who called for the cab, then demanded all the driver's money, which the driver handed over, according to the report.

A 64-year-old man was robbed and beaten with his own walking stick after a group of six teenagers and young men attacked him in a parking lot at the Glen Burnie Towne Center late Tuesday night, according to Anne Arundel County Police. The incident was one of two robberies reported in the area within several hours of one another. The man flagged a patrol officer down about 11:15 p.m. to report the incident near the Toys R Us store in the 6700 block of Ritchie Highway, police said.

Samuel Renard Queen, of the 3500 block of Elmley Ave. in Baltimore, was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for rape, kidnapping and related offenses this week for assaulting a woman at knifepoint in his unlicensed taxicab, the Baltimore state's attorney's office announced. The victim hailed the “hack” taxi after work on Dec. 6, 2010, prosecutors said. Queen picked her up on Belair Road and agreed to take her downtown, but instead took her to Clifton Park, where he forced her to engage in sexual acts and raped her. A jury convicted Queen in the attack on April 12, and he was sentenced Wednesday.

Earlier this year, I saw a powerful play set in Zimbabwe in the 1890s (when it was called Rhodesia) that brought back some disturbing memories of my visit there about 15 years ago. "The Convert," the first in a trilogy being written by Zimbabwean award-winning playwright Danai Gurira, ran from mid-February to March 10 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. The play centered on Jekesai, a young girl from a rural village, who moved in with an aunt who worked for a Zimbabwean Catholic priest.

A taxi driver was stabbed by a fare early Saturday in Bel Air, according to the Harford County Sheriff's Office, sending the driver to the hospital. Police said Robert E. Donley, 53, or Aberdeen, had picked up and driven a man to the intersection of Crescent Knoll Drive and North Fountain Green Road. when the unidentified man demanded money, assaulted Donley and fled. Police were on the scene around 1:35 a.m. Donley, who drives for ABC Company, is in serious condition at the Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, police said.

A man with a rifle robbed a taxi driver of an undisclosed amount Sunday as he arrived to pick up a fare in the Warfield Townhouses community in Severn, county police said.Carl S. Davis, 42, told police he was called to the 8300 block of Flintlock Court about 10 p.m. for a fare. When he arrived, a man opened the rear passenger door, pointed a .22-caliber rifle at his head and demanded cash.Davis complied and the gunman asked if that was all the money. When Davis told him it was, the gunman fled.

A Baltimore taxi driver was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money Wednesday at a Brooklyn Park Pizza Hut, county police said.Allen Wheeler, 24, told police he had parked his cab in the side lot of the restaurant in the 5000 block of Ritchie Highway about 11: 30 p.m. When he got out of the cab, a man approached him, pulled out a black handgun and demanded money. Wheeler complied, and the gunman ran toward Morgan Road, police said.Police logBrooklyn Park: Someone broke into an apartment in the 5000 block of Brookwood Road between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 5 a.m. Wednesday and stole a $300 jacket, a $48 money order and keys.

Jodie Foster was attracted to The Brave One partly because it resembled Taxi Driver, the Martin Scorsese masterpiece in which, at age 13, she played a prostitute. She told Newsweek, "When I first read the script, honestly, it didn't remind me enough of Taxi Driver. That was one of my issues with it." Right there, Foster indicates what's gone wrong with her new movie. It's an attempt to re-create artificially the power of a movie that was intensely organic. Critics have interpreted Taxi Driver as a response to the violence of the Vietnam War era and a reaction to a New York City that seemed on the eve of self-destruction.

An Annapolis man accused of having sex with a 12-year-old girl at his apartment several weeks ago was arrested and charged Monday with second-degree rape and a third-degree sex offense, Annapolis police said yesterday. An arrest warrant for Abdul Aziz Diagne, 44, of Thom Court was issued Monday after detectives investigated claims by the girl's mother that her daughter was having sex with an adult, according to Officer Hal Dalton, a police spokesman. Diagne, a taxi driver, became acquainted with the girl after giving her several rides to and from her grandmother's house late last month, Dalton said.

Three teen-age girls who confessed to police that they planned on kidnapping and robbing a taxi driver near Annapolis Mall were arrested Tuesday after the plot failed when one of them could not find the hair spray she planned on using as a weapon.The three Dorchester County teen-agers, one 14 and the other two 15, were charged with attempted robbery, attempted kidnapping, conspiracy to kidnap and battery. They were being held yesterday at the Waxters Children's Center, police said.The girls told investigators they had run away from home and planned to go to Florida.

Lois W. Uram, a retired Mercantile-Safe Deposit & Trust Co. accountant, died Oct. 9 of complications from dementia at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. She was 82. The daughter of a certified public accountant and a homemaker, Lois A. Weidemuller was born and raised in Bellevue, Pa., where she graduated in 1949 from Bellevue High School. She studied bookkeeping at night in Pittsburgh while working for the Federal Reserve Bank there. In 1955, she married John Uram, who taught in Baltimore County public schools, and the couple moved to Arbutus.

A taxicab driver was robbed in the middle of the afternoon Tuesday on Eloise Lane in Edgewood. The driver told police he was called to pick up a fare in the 1800 block of Eloise Lane shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday and when he arrived was approached by a man wearing a brown hooded sweatshirt with a white dragon print on the back and black jeans, according to Harford County Sheriff's Office incident report. The man told the victim he was the one who called for the cab, then demanded all the driver's money, which the driver handed over, according to the report.

The National Labor Relations Board has sided with about 350 taxi drivers at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, ruling that they should be classified as employees, not independent contractors, by the company that holds the state contract to operate cabs at the airport. The drivers, who work for BWI Taxi Management Inc., have said for years that they should be treated as employees and given access to benefits such as unemployment and workers' compensation insurance.

Samuel Renard Queen, of the 3500 block of Elmley Ave. in Baltimore, was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for rape, kidnapping and related offenses this week for assaulting a woman at knifepoint in his unlicensed taxicab, the Baltimore state's attorney's office announced. The victim hailed the “hack” taxi after work on Dec. 6, 2010, prosecutors said. Queen picked her up on Belair Road and agreed to take her downtown, but instead took her to Clifton Park, where he forced her to engage in sexual acts and raped her. A jury convicted Queen in the attack on April 12, and he was sentenced Wednesday.

The Maryland Public Service Commission turned down a request Wednesday that would have allowed taxi companies to put security cameras instead of bullet-resistant shields in Baltimore cabs as a form of protection. Baltimore Taxi Affiliation Services, which has 100 taxis under the Arrow Cab and Baltimore City Taxi names, asked the PSC in December to change a state regulation that requires protective guards in city cabs. Shields became mandatory in Baltimore in 1995. During an administrative meeting Wednesday, Norma Reyes, a senior executive vice president with Baltimore Taxi, said the shields make the smaller, more fuel-efficient cars now being leased to drivers cramped and uncomfortable, especially during 12-hour shifts.

A taxi driver was stabbed by a fare early Saturday in Bel Air, according to the Harford County Sheriff's Office, sending the driver to the hospital. Police said Robert E. Donley, 53, or Aberdeen, had picked up and driven a man to the intersection of Crescent Knoll Drive and North Fountain Green Road. when the unidentified man demanded money, assaulted Donley and fled. Police were on the scene around 1:35 a.m. Donley, who drives for ABC Company, is in serious condition at the Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, police said.

Robert Archie Bunn, a retired taxi driver and Air Force veteran, died of lymphoma Sunday at Northwest Hospital Center. The longtime West Baltimore resident was 71. Born and raised on East Biddle Street, Mr. Bunn was a 1953 graduate of Dunbar High School. He lived on Elgin Avenue for 35 years. A trombonist, he played in an Air Force band from 1953 to 1957. After being discharged from the Air Force, he returned to Baltimore and worked as a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier for several years.

Paul Schrader, the screenwriter of Taxi Driver (1976), once asked Martin Scorsese, its director, "This privilege we have of creating unreal images, things that we make up, that never happened - does this privilege, this freedom, allow you to live vicariously? To what extent does it relieve sexual tension?" Scorsese answered, "None" - and a minute later added, "I was crazier when I finished Taxi Driver than when I began." A new 35mm print of Taxi Driver premieres Monday at 9:10 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring - and this story about a violently alienated Manhattan cabbie is still crazy, and harrowing, after all these years.

A Baltimore jury convicted a 27-year-old man of first degree rape for using a rouse to lure a woman into his car and then raping her at knifepoint. Michael D. Glenn was found guilty of first-degree rape, first-degree assault, use of a deadly weapon and other sexual offenses in the May 8, 2011 incident, the Baltimore City State's Attorney's office said Friday. Prosecutors say Glenn posed as a hack taxi driver and picked up a woman, offering to transport her to her destination in exchange for a fee. But he drove her to Leakin Park instead, and put a box cutter to her neck, repeatedly threatened to kill her and raped her. Glenn will be sentenced on April 4. He faces a maximum of two life terms plus 38 years in prison.