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China Crime Transportation

Rideshare Boycott Sparked By Murders In China (theatlantic.com) 76

Posted by BeauHD from the enough-is-enough dept.
Following a string of murders by drivers of China's top ridesharing app, Didi Chuxing, users are deleting the app in large numbers and calling for others to boycott the service. According to The Atlantic, "the hashtag #BoycottDidi on Weibo has garnered more than 1 million views." From the report: Over the weekend, the driver confessed to local police to raping and stabbing his 20-year-old passenger on her way to a friend's birthday party. The murder is the second in three months -- this May, a young flight attendant was killed by her Didi driver. It is the third in a year -- last May, according to Caixin Global, another woman was strangled and killed by her driver. And it is the fourth in two years -- the year before that, a female teacher was robbed and killed after threats from her driver.

"As a platform, we have disappointed the public's trust in us and cannot shirk this responsibility," Didi said in a statement, admitting to failing to react quickly to another passenger's complaint filed against the driver the day before the murder. The rideshare company has suspended its Hitch services (as it did after the last murder) and fired two senior executives, one in charge of Hitch, its intercity carpooling service, and the other in charge of customer service. The Didi president, Jean Liu, oft-regarded as a hero for Chinese women in business, issued an apology on Tuesday. China's government is now cracking down on reform across the transportation sector.
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Rideshare Boycott Sparked By Murders In China More

Rideshare Boycott Sparked By Murders In China

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  • They allowed drivers to rate passengers appearance (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ritual ( 944936 ) on Thursday August 30, 2018 @05:21AM (#57223352)
    I heard that the problem came down to drivers being allowed to add notes to each customers profile of how attractive they were. Predator drivers would then selectively choose passengers based on their appearance score, and then rape them. After it happened the first few times the company did not make any changes to their app, and I guess it started to become a repeat problem. Something tells me because its China that there are probably a lot more rapes and murders that don't get reported on because of the whole cultural thing of trying to keep up appearances. I don't know how much rape and sexual assault occurs in China, but it must be pretty bad if this started a rebellion against the company because that in itself is pretty rare in a country like China. Usually dissent is not something allowed.

  • never crossed my mind, that ridesharing could bring you in contact dangerous people like rapists and murderers, which was perhaps naive of me.
    however, i wonder why this is such a big problem in China, i never hear about uber rapes/murders in US/EU.

    must admit that i've never used these services, so can somebody explain how they prevent these things from happening?

    • however, i wonder why this is such a big problem in China, i never hear about uber rapes/murders in US/EU.

      I've heard of rapes and murders related to Uber, taxi services, and the like, before in the USA. It's usually the driver that's the victim though. You can run the drivers through a background check but the passengers then become the unknown factor.

      It's not like background checks are infallible. I've heard of people passing background checks only to buy guns and shoot up schools and churches. I've seen outright criminal behavior, or just plain creepy behavior that might not technically be illegal, by pol

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dryeo ( 100693 )

        Your guesses don't cover the EU or other places like Canada that don't have such high prison populations and women aren't usually armed.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Oh, and often I hear people mocking the USA on its high prison population. Well, the tendency for the USA to put criminals in prison, and keep them there for a while, might be why such incidents are rare. Think about that.

        Except they aren't. The US murder rate is amongst the highest in the world (as is the suicide rate), especially in the big cities. Compare it with other western nations, even Canada (who is probably the closest culturally to the US) and obviously something is wrong.

        The prison population is

        • Agreed. I have been to prison, for a violent crime. I did my time I learned my lesson. However I met a lot of people that should not have been to prison. One instance is a celly I had that happened to be a Limo/Taxi driver, he occasionally did meth. He got divorced from his wife before that happened(or so he says, there's a saying you can look it up). He was in a custody battle, and his ex wife found out about him doing drugs. He got drug tested and failed, The child was out of state, He had a shitty lawyer

    • Re:Why only in China? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Thursday August 30, 2018 @08:21AM (#57224056) Journal

      never crossed my mind, that ridesharing could bring you in contact dangerous people like rapists and murderers, which was perhaps naive of me. however, i wonder why this is such a big problem in China, i never hear about uber rapes/murders in US/EU.

      Is it a big problem?

      It is the third in a year

      How big is this rideshare service in China? How big is China? What is the murder rate overall? What is the murder rate from taxi drivers?

      I mean, it might be a big problem (relative to other problems; obviously all murder is a problem). It would take some context to know if it is though.

    • I seem to recall India having serious issues with this too though...

  • This is the kind of outcome I would expect in an unregulated industry. That doesn't mean we need government involvement, but it does mean some kind of assurance to the customers of a product that is safe.

    I remember a short anecdote of a vegetable farmer being interviewed on the topic of government inspectors. He said the government inspectors he could handle, it was the inspectors from the restaurants and grocers that were brutal. Where's the equivalent on this new trend in taxi services? Is there a way

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      After enough murders and rapes people will stop using the service (as they are now) - the free market works!

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Meanwhile, in the US, we are attempting to prevent women under 21 from obtaining firearms and concealed carry permits.
      I'll leave it up to you to figure out why some people think that is a good idea.

      • Yes because the moment a woman feels threatened by you she has every right to turn around and shoot you.

        Guess what when more people walk around with weapons everybody is less safe.

        If you are a rational thief and you think the person you are robbing has a gun you shoot them, if you think they are unarmed you let them live because its less of a crime.

        Same with rape, if you think the person are raping may have weapon, and you are more likely to get a weapon and use it if you feel threatened, you clearly don't

        • Sorry, I used to rob drug dealers.. The ones without guns were an easy lick, I didn't want to have to shoot anyone. But things happen.. And the self preservation part of a human stopped me from robbing known armed drug dealers when I didn't have to.

    • "Unregulated" taxi services do as much vetting of their drivers as regulated ones do: not much.

    • Re:As a free market capitalist... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Thursday August 30, 2018 @08:24AM (#57224080) Journal

      I do see free market forces at work. If this company can't get it's act together and make people feel safe using their services then I can expect them to go out of business. If you want a cheap ride then you can take your chances with a company that doesn't check out their drivers before sending them to pick you up.

      I do wonder about these stories ... I mean, murder is obviously already illegal.

      Do taxi medallions have some special anti-murder properties, to make regular taxis safer than these services?

      • I do wonder about these stories ... I mean, murder is obviously already illegal.

        And people do illegal things. When it comes to women getting abused and murdered it may be wise for women to protect themselves against law breakers. I suggest getting one of those noise makers that can get people's attention. I understand Smith and Wesson makes a nice one, called the "LadySmith". It can carry 5 noise making cartridges in a compact and simple to operate device. It's not exactly cheap but I have seen it get very good reviews.

        Do taxi medallions have some special anti-murder properties, to make regular taxis safer than these services?

        Yes, and no. Nothing "magical" about them but the government

        • You don't really think the medallion holder is actually DRIVING the car do you? Get real. The owner is just that. The owner. They pay some slob to drive and then rake in most of the profits.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dryeo ( 100693 )

      This is the kind of outcome I would expect in an unregulated industry. That doesn't mean we need government involvement, but it does mean some kind of assurance to the customers of a product that is safe.

      I remember a short anecdote of a vegetable farmer being interviewed on the topic of government inspectors. He said the government inspectors he could handle, it was the inspectors from the restaurants and grocers that were brutal. ...

      The government inspectors are probably looking at health concerns such as bacteria, easy to pass by being clean, whereas the grocers etc are probably looking for blemishes, size and colour, something harder to pass. The free market often decides that looks are more important then other things and the same thing is likely to happen with ride sharing, more important to have a nice car and be clean cut and not look like a criminal. Things like this boycott will hopefully change what they inspect for.

  • You call that a string of murders? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sabbede ( 2678435 ) on Thursday August 30, 2018 @07:08AM (#57223692)
    Four in two years? Given that they have two million drivers, for only four murderers to have slipped through isn't that bad. Relatively.

    As a comparison, http://www.whosdrivingyou.org/... [whosdrivingyou.org]

    • "An initiative of the Taxicab Association to 'highlight' the risks of Uber and Lfyt". AKA they're intentionally not listing taxi incidents, because they don't actually give a damn about rider safety, just protecting their own members.

  • My kids will never be using one of these illegitimate "services".

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by 110010001000 ( 697113 )
      Yeah, good idea. That way they don't run a 0.000000000000001% change of getting murdered by one of the drivers.
  • Surely you mean "taxi"?

  • No surprise here. For ages China and India have treated women as second and third grade citizens to the point that anyone who can afford it aborts pregnancies with female babies, because the dowry and other duties coming with female offspring are a measurable burden on families.

    China has a male to female ratio of two to one in some places due to the one child policy having everyone aim for a male son.
    Same thing in India.

    I've seen this coming for decades and it's going to get worse. A lot worse, amplified by

    • For ages China and India have treated women as second and third grade citizens

      Sure. But NOT treating women like 2nd/3rd class citizens (or chattel) is a recent development. At least when you start talking about "ages". Remember that whole "witch burning" phenomenon in Europe? But now they have rights and can vote and stuff. Just not in China, that'd be silly, none of them vote over there.

      China has a male to female ratio of two to one in some places due to the one child policy having everyone aim for a male son.

      China, at birth: 1.15 male(s)/female (2015)

      In the USA, 2010, At birth: 1.048 male or female

      America has a male to female ratio of about 15 to 1 in some places due to the fact none of them want to be

  • Subtracting the emotional aspect (which I myself find non-trivial), I wonder what the actual risk of death is versus, say, death by auto accident, particularly if drinking is involved. I'm not trying to present this as a dichotomy ... you could also, say, take a regular cab, or not drink to excess before driving, or walk, or ... There's never a good control group around when I need 'em :-)

  • Hmmmm, "activism in China".... That historically hasn't gone very well. At least any time a story got news worthy enough to jump the ocean so we actually hear about it. But this isn't against the government, but rather against a chinese company. And the government is, essentially, participating with regulation lockdowns as you'd expect a functioning government to do when there's troubles.

    But it'll be interesting if the masses start to realize that they have power and can change things.

  • Sounds like Kalanick found a new place to work... for a while.

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