Friday, March 11, 2005 | 5:52 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
March 12 - 13, 2005
When he's not driving his Checker cab around town, you can find Phillip Alexander at his restaurant, The Don's Pizza, inside the Flamingo Stop convenience store across from the Rio hotel.
The Don's Pizza, a name the 57-year-old Alexander borrowed from Mafia folklore for its advertising appeal, isn't just any local pizzeria.
It has become a popular hangout for Alexander's fellow cabbies in the shadow of the Strip, where they do most of their business.
At any hour of the day, you'll find a half-dozen taxis, sometimes more, parked outside the busy Flamingo Stop. Inside, near The Don's ordering counter, you'll see drivers seated at small tables drinking coffee or eating a slice of New York style pizza.
Lately, however, the pizza joint has been more than just a convenient pit stop for cabbies.
It has been the hub of Alexander's activism within the taxicab industry -- which has intensified in recent months amid a wave of violent crimes against drivers and the failure of their companies and industry regulators to protect them.
This is where Alexander helped raise money for the teenage son of Nellis Cab driver Pairoj Chitprasart, who died four days after being doused with gasoline and set on fire in an Aug. 20 robbery attempt.
And this is where Alexander just finished collecting 500 signatures from drivers on petitions urging Metro Police to work harder to solve the Aug. 11, 2003, slaying of Western cabbie Aberga Yerga Asmamaw. The 39-year-old Ethiopian immigrant was found strangled in his taxi with his own radio cord in the parking lot of Smith & Wollensky, a Strip steakhouse.
The Don's Pizza also is the site of Alexander's latest project -- a drive to raise money for Yellow Cab driver Sunny Kim, who's recovering from a dozen stab wounds he suffered in a vicious March 1 attack.
Alexander has a glass container marked "For Sunny Kim" next to his cash register to accept donations from his patrons.
On a nearby poster soliciting contributions is the motto, "We take care of our own."
And they need to.
The five-member Taxicab Authority Board, the public body that's supposed to regulate the industry, sure isn't taking care of them.
The board hasn't even been able to enact a simple regulation requiring all companies to install digital cameras in their cabs. This is a popular safety measure in other large cities that gives cabbies the comfort of knowing their lives mean something.
No wonder Alexander and his fellow drivers have begun to take matters into their own hands.
On Wednesday the cabbies who frequent The Don's Pizza are holding a news conference to present the Asmamaw petitions to police in the hopes of drumming up more public interest in the murder case. They also plan to urge District Attorney David Roger to press hard in the prosecution of Kim's reported attacker, 17-year-old Raymond Lee Medina Jr.
Roger hasn't needed any prodding. He has charged Medina with attempted murder, as an adult, and has assigned the case to his elite Major Violators Unit.
As for the investigation into Asmamaw's death, Metro homicide Lt. Tom Monahan says the case has been frustrating to police, who have no witnesses and little physical evidence.
"We don't have any avenues to pursue at this point," he says.
Now guess what's missing in the Asmamaw investigation and the two other brutal attacks on drivers? Photographic evidence from a camera inside the cabs.
Monahan says photos from a camera in Asmamaw's vehicle long ago would have given police the kinds of leads they're missing in the probe.
"In all likelihood, it would have captured the crime in progress and maybe even prevented it," he says.
Too bad the folks at The Don's Pizza didn't have Monahan's voice earlier in this camera debate.
But now that it's there, maybe it will get the do-nothing state Taxicab Authority to do something.
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