Pittsburgh adding white supremacist gangsters downtown. We don’t know where they’re coming from

Gilead

Police White supremacist gangs

Fig. 1. Photograph by Lorie Shaull, April 1, 2021, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey promised to triple the number of white supremacist gangsters downtown. He did not address^[1] Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s offer of county gangsters,^[2] so, given the Pittsburgh gang’s alleged understaffing,^[3] we have no idea where Gainey expects to get the gang members from.^[4]

Megan Guza, “Activists seek Pittsburgh police changes after Tyre Nichols’ death in Memphis,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 30, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/30/pittsburgh-police-tyre-nichols-stop-and-frisk-pretext-traffic-stops-tim-stevens-black-political-empowerment-project-bpep/stories/202301300065

Mark Belko, “Fitzgerald offers county police support to help address Downtown Pittsburgh safety concerns,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 31, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/30/crime-in-pittsburgh-downtown-allegheny-county-fitzgerald-mayor-gainey-safety-shootings/stories/202301300084

Justin Vellucci, “Pittsburgh police staffing shortage at ‘tipping point,’ officials say,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 31, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-city-council-tackles-police-staffing-pay-in-special-meeting/

Megan Guza, “Officials look for answers to Pittsburgh’s police staffing shortage,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 1, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/31/pittsburgh-police-bureau-staffing-levels-recruitment-officers-retirement-union-allegheny-county-safety/stories/202301310109

Mark Belko and Megan Guza, “Gainey pledges to triple the number of police officers Downtown to address safety issues,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2023/02/02/pittsburgh-mayor-ed-gainey-downtown-public-safety-police-allegheny-county-executive-rich-fitzgerald-public-works-violence/stories/202302020094

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So-called ‘ridesharing’

Drivers

Fig. 1. Yeah, this is me. The sign says, “If you’re whining about a labor shortage, STOP ignoring my job applications!” And the QR-code leads here. Photograph by author, January 16, 2023.

This morning, I wrote that I was going to work today.

Thanks for your patience as we’ve conducted our investigation regarding the reported service denial. Your account has been reactivated and you should be able to resume taking trips, effective immediately.^[5]

Instead, I have a story to tell, that underlines the precarity—drivers are, by design, considered infinitely expendable and infinitely replaceable—of my situation and, really, the situation of any Uber driver.

Yesterday, I got an order to the Sam’s Club at one of several shopping centers collectively known as Pittsburgh Mills. The passenger wasn’t there but at the Wal-Mart next door. I figured this out, but he was upset that I had gone to Sam’s Club first and he was upset that he’d had to wait 30 minutes, he said, for an Uber. He was berating me as he loaded his groceries in the back of my car.

None of this is my fault. He’s responsible for putting in an accurate order. I got to the pickup location as quickly as I reasonably could. I’d driven a long ways for this pickup; he’d have waited longer if I hadn’t accepted his order.

But I’ve learned not to tolerate this kind of abuse and so I told him to take his stuff because I wasn’t taking him. I canceled the order, citing passenger behavior.

He decided to get revenge, accusing me of discrimination, which is kind of interesting because he was a white guy and I’m a white guy and he wasn’t obviously LGBTQ+. I don’t know what form of discrimination he could be accusing me of.

Shortly after I published the Irregular Bullshit this morning, Uber tried to call me—I know better than to answer a potentially hostile phone call unprepared—and I found a message from Uber demanding I call them. But I had enough of a clue as to what was going on that I was able to prepare before I did. Apparently, I was sufficiently persuasive that I have kept a job I don’t even want and in fact utterly despise.

But I had a day off I really can’t afford while they “investigated.” And their email informing me of my reinstatement contains the usual threats.

I’ve updated my information with Lyft; it’s been a while, so they’ll have to run a background check. I just might go with them for a while, at least until they piss me off, which, given time, they surely will. I really do not appreciate being treated this way, either by that passenger or by Uber. But it’s all part of gig economy worker abuse.

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1. ^[1]Mark Belko and Megan Guza, “Gainey pledges to triple the number of police officers Downtown to address safety issues,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2023/02/02/pittsburgh-mayor-ed-gainey-downtown-public-safety-police-allegheny-county-executive-rich-fitzgerald-public-works-violence/stories/202302020094↩
2. ^[2]Mark Belko, “Fitzgerald offers county police support to help address Downtown Pittsburgh safety concerns,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 31, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/30/crime-in-pittsburgh-downtown-allegheny-county-fitzgerald-mayor-gainey-safety-shootings/stories/202301300084↩
3. ^[3]Mark Belko and Megan Guza, “Gainey pledges to triple the number of police officers Downtown to address safety issues,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2023/02/02/pittsburgh-mayor-ed-gainey-downtown-public-safety-police-allegheny-county-executive-rich-fitzgerald-public-works-violence/stories/202302020094; Megan Guza, “Officials look for answers to Pittsburgh’s police staffing shortage,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 1, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/31/pittsburgh-police-bureau-staffing-levels-recruitment-officers-retirement-union-allegheny-county-safety/stories/202301310109; Justin Vellucci, “Pittsburgh police staffing shortage at ‘tipping point,’ officials say,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 31, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-city-council-tackles-police-staffing-pay-in-special-meeting/↩
4. ^[4]Mark Belko and Megan Guza, “Gainey pledges to triple the number of police officers Downtown to address safety issues,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2023/02/02/pittsburgh-mayor-ed-gainey-downtown-public-safety-police-allegheny-county-executive-rich-fitzgerald-public-works-violence/stories/202302020094↩
5. ^[5]Uber Support to David Benfell, “A message from Uber,” February 2, 2023.↩