The guy recording this video says he is an Uber driver who received a citation earlier from undercover cops who begged him to pick them up even though their phones weren't able to run the Uber app. When another Uber driver comes to pick the undercover cops, the man recording the video warns him it's a trap and the Uber driver takes off before he gets busted. The undercover cops pretend they aren't cops but seconds later a patrol car arrives and uniformed officers get out and warn him that he is interfering with an "active investigation."
This kind of thing isn't new. The LAPD and Los Angeles' notorious taxi industry have been enriching one another by entrapping Uber and Lyft drivers. Here's a 2017 article from KPCC public radio headlined Uber, Lyft drivers nabbed in LAPD stings funded by taxi industry:
For years, the Los Angeles Police Department has set up these stings to catch so-called "bandit taxi drivers." Police describe these bandits as people who illicitly pose as cab drivers, sidestepping regulators and taking cash fares.
That hardly fits the description of Uber and Lyft drivers, who are background checked and state regulated. But Uber and Lyft drivers are also prohibited under city law from accepting fares in cash, and they are increasingly being caught in bandit taxi stings.
The woman who flagged down Vanessa was an undercover cop working overtime with about a dozen other officers. The LAPD and Los Angeles Department of Transportation spend about $800,000 annually on these operations – all of it paid by the taxi cab industry.
So far this year, the LAPD has nabbed more than 200 ride share drivers in these stings, including Vanessa. KPCC is only using her first name because she fears the charge will prevent her from working.
Say what you want about Uber as a company, but their drivers are risking catching a deadly disease to earn an honest living. It's a really rotten thing for the police department to entrap the drivers by appealing to their sense of humanity. Shame on them.
