Taxi Drivers Defend Their Own
"An eye for an eye" is the only law "taxistas" (taxi drivers) know when someone perpetrates an attack against one of their own. And this has police worried.

This year to day, there have been four lynchings registered by taxistas against their assailants. And police, when called in, are not only there to arrest the assailant but to save their life from the mob of taxistas after the "call for help" goes out.

Taxistas are most vulnerable to attempted robberies and other attacks, especially at night and in isolated areas. The early morning hours are the best for would be robbers, since the taxista is in possession of a large quantity of cash and is winding down his shift. In the San José Metropolitan Area, 4am and 4pm are the traditional shift change times.

When an attack occurs, taxistas, by way of their radios and/or cellular phones, send out a call to other taxistas, who for a short time transform into a "posse" to chase down the criminal and take justice into their own hands.

One taxista who asked to remain anonymous said that they can't count of the police to react quick enough and need to send a message to criminals not to "****" with us. They want the criminals to know that if they attack one taxi, they have thousands out there to look out for. "We have to take of ourselves", our taxista said.

Police, however, say that they will arrest and prosecute any and all taxi drivers who participate in any lynching. They are worried and it has happened before, that in a mob fury, common sense is not used and the wrong person is beaten or could be killed. Police say they have several complaints of these types of occurrences but would not elaborate on the details.

Reynaldo González, regional director of the Fuerza Pública, believes that the taking of the law into one's own hands as the taxistas do, is a disrespect to the laws and is punishable from a 2 to 10 year prison sentence.