Friday, Sept. 24, 2004 | 4:20 a.m.
Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4067.
WEEKEND EDITION
September 25 - 26, 2004
Excitement is mounting. People can hardly contain themselves.
UNLV professor Keith Schwer has completed his taxicab company-financed safety study and is ready to reveal his results to the do-nothing Taxicab Authority Board on Tuesday.
And guess what? Schwer has concluded that the majority of drivers favor installing some form of cameras in cabs, either still or video. They want more protection. His findings are backed up by a scientific survey he conducted of 400 drivers.
But there's more.
Focus groups led by Schwer also found that passengers were comfortable with increased security in cabs, including cameras.
And one more thing. In cities such as New York, San Francisco and Toronto, where public officials have had the foresight to install cameras, crimes against cabbies have decreased.
Is anyone surprised by the results of this $16,000 study? Of course not. Any tourist on the street could tell us this.
It's something the five-member Taxicab Authority Board knew back in February, when it was bullied by insensitive and greedy company owners into putting off a decision on ordering cameras in cabs to do this meaningless study.
Seven months later we're back to where we started. More talk, but still no action.
In the meantime, because of a lack of cameras and other safety features in cabs, a driver has been murdered. Pairoj Chitprasart, a Nellis Cab driver who doubled as publisher of a Thai language newspaper, died several days after being doused with gasoline and set on fire in an Aug. 20 robbery attempt.
Instead of showing some leadership and speaking out on the need for improved safety within the tourist-oriented cab industry, Taxicab Authority Board members have clammed up and seemingly gone into hiding. They even have gagged Taxicab Authority Administrator Yvette Moore, who has been pushing for cameras in cabs, from talking to the media.
This has not been one of the taxicab industry's shining moments.
But on Tuesday the board members, all political appointees of Gov. Kenny Guinn, have a chance to redeem themselves. They have a chance to do something instead of nothing.
Maybe this time, after Schwer tells them what they already know, they'll get the picture.
Steve Miller led the media around by the nose again last week.
The local gadfly portrayed himself as an expert on the legal system and the Ted Binion murder case even though he is neither.
He is not a lawyer, not a judge and has had nothing to do with the Binion case other than to write for a weekly newspaper joined at the hip with the Binion defense team.
Yet some reporters ate up Miller's words last week as if he was the sole authority on the Binion case.
Miller said he filed a complaint with the super-secret Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline against District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, who presided over the first Binion trial. His claim is that Bonaventure was biased against defendants Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish because he attended one of my book signings for "Murder in Sin City," a true crime paperback.
Though Miller has demanded the judge be removed from presiding over next month's retrial, neither defense lawyers nor prosecutors have voiced any such concern. Everyone who has a standing in the case is happy with the judge.
What's more, even if the Judicial Discipline Commission were to question Bonaventure's appearance at the book signing, it has no authority to remove the judge from the Binion case. That's up to the chief judge of District Court, who's not likely to take any action if both sides want Bonaventure there.
If only the media would get wise to Steve Miller.
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