Cabbie Residency Law Hauled Into D.C. Court

Schwartz said she has asked Witt and Toney to investigate the issue further, looking to see what other metropolitan areas, including New Jersey and New York, do.

But as Haile Alemseged, a cabdriver who lives in Silver Spring, stood in the crowd yesterday, he said the District is not like New York and New Jersey -- nor should it be.

"This is a federal city. It belongs to all of us," said Alemseged, 45. "Why do they have to pick on us?"

Many others who work in the District don't live there, he said, mentioning police officers, firefighters, lawyers and government officials.

Alemseged, who has been a taxi driver for 17 years, said he doesn't like the option of affiliating with a D.C.-based company. There is a psychological freedom that comes from not working for a company, the Ethiopian emigrant said. "They are trying to make us slaves."

Alonzo Broadus, 80, is a D.C. native who lived in city 75 years before moving. During that time, he put four sons through Catholic school on his cabdriver's salary. He left only because he believed that crime was swallowing his neighborhood. He now lives in Centreville.

"And I'll never come to Washington again. They can take my damn cab," he said, obviously shaken. "Instead of me getting to see two-legged animals where they shoot and kill me, I get to see four-legged animals that run away from me."

Most cabbies yesterday spoke with similar emotion, telling of wives and children and mortgages. Whenever the question of a strike arose, they raised their arms in support.

Weaver promised those gathered: "They will not take your business. They will not take your freedom. Your dignity will not be taken. You will not be forced to work for someone else.

"The more they come at us, the more they attack us," he said, "the more unified we will become."