HACK TALK: Taxi-union boss Fernando Mateo speaks in Queens after driver Trevor Bell (above) was shot Saturday and his attacker was caught on video, as covered in yesterday’s Post.
The head of a city taxi-drivers union is urging hacks to use “racial profiling” when deciding whether to pick up passengers, after a Queens livery driver was shot by an apparently Hispanic gunman over the weekend.
The brutal attack was captured by the vehicle’s security camera — which yesterday led to a tip that helped cops ID a suspect, who has not yet been caught. He was not identified, but a source said he’s 22, from Queens and has a sealed police record.
“Profile your passengers; it’s very important,” said Fernando Mateo, president of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, after Saturday’s shooting of Trevor Bell, 53, in South Ozone Park.
Mateo spoke at a press conference Saturday outside Jamaica Hospital, where Bell is in serious condition.
“I don’t care about racial profiling. You know, sometimes it is good we are racially profiled, because the God’s honest truth is that 99 percent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these drivers are blacks and Hispanics,” said Mateo, who is Hispanic and has a black father.
“So if you see suspicious activity, you know what? Don’t pick that person up.”
The NYPD did not immediately respond to requests for racial statistics on livery-cab robberies.
But Mateo’s comments drew immediate condemnation.
“Choosing which passengers to serve on the basis of race is illegal, downright wrong and simply unacceptable,” said Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky.
City Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) added that Mateo was “just talking foolish out of . . . desperation because he doesn’t know what to do about a very serious issue.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton called Mateo’s remarks “absurd.”
But Mateo told The Post, “I’m asking black and Hispanic people to profile their own, so how the hell can this be racist?
“It’s our own committing these crimes against us. It’s weeding out the criminal element.”
The video from Bell’s car shows his passenger, who was sitting in the front seat, pulling a gun and shooting him when he resisted demands for money.
Bell, a father of two working an extra shift to buy Christmas gifts, was hit with six shots in his neck and legs.
The gunman fled with less than $100.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona