Last week, an Uber driver caught University of Michigan student Jake Croman verbally harassing him on tape.
Croman, who is a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, yelled homophobic, demeaning and profane remarks at the driver, Artur Zawada.
“You’re an Uber driver. Go fucking drive, you little fuck,” he said at one point in the video.
The rant has now been viewed over 650,000 times on YouTube. According to the Huffington Post, Zawada claimed that Croman had harassed him three times before. Zawada tried to get him banned from using Uber, but unfortunately, the app makes it easy to use friends’ accounts.
The video shows that Croman was not provoked before he made the homophobic and insensitive comments, but he says otherwise. In a statement released on Buzzfeed and Michigan Live, he apologized, but not before saying, “What you don’t see in the video is that the driver had made a number of offensive anti-Semitic remarks that provoked my response.”
Uber to the rescue. A spokesperson of the company recently commented, “Any type of aggression or harassment is simply unacceptable and violates Uber’s code of conduct for riders and drivers. We are looking into all the details as we investigate this incident and are in touch with everyone involved.”
Tau Kappa Epsilon has been looking into the situation and said that Croman’s actions may lead to expulsion from the fraternity. Additionally, local Ann Arbor police are aware of the situation and are investigating it.
As a final comment, Zawada told The Tab, ““I have lived in this country for 30 years. To see someone have complete disregard for another human being — to be abused just because they overloaded the car or they are mean or rude, I have to put a stop for it. I was shocked. I was just in disbelief.”
Just when we thought people were becoming more tolerant of those different than them.