Courtney Love, the 50-year-old rock singer and widow of Kurt Cobain, was today held hostage with her driver during a taxi drivers’ demonstration in Paris. Claiming to be “safer in Baghdad” Love witnessed angry protestors she likened to a “French Taliban” disrupting traffic and slowing access to airports near Paris, in their protest against the American online ride service UberPOP.
In the tweet she sent before escaping, Love berated President Hollande for the inaction of authorities, asking: “François Hollande where are the f***ing police??? is it legal for your people to attack visitors? Get your ass to the airport. Wtf???” Luckily for Love, chivalry has not completely deserted the French capital as she managed to secure an escape by motorbike:
Love posed with her rescuers to give credit where it’s due:
It would appear that Love was a lucky escapee. The protests against UberPOP, the ridesharing service that allows vehicle owners to register their car and pick up passengers, are part of a nationwide strike which follows weeks of rising tension.
Police estimate 2,800 taxi drivers were protesting across the country but Uber say the number is smaller, telling CNN:
“There’s 50,000 taxis in France, only roughly 1,000 are demonstrating today and the violence is just unacceptable. We’re talking about a small minority, totally reluctant to (accept) any sort of change.”
Although the UberPOP app was ruled illegal by the French government last year, the company is yet to exhaust all legal recourse insisting that a court must rule their actions illegal and order them to cease operating before the ban becomes enforceable. Despite this CNN reports Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve today asked the Paris police authority to issue a decree banning UberPOP as has already happened in other major French cities.
Taxi drivers claim that their prices are unfairly undercut by Uber drivers, ultimately driving them out of business. G7 taxi firm head Serge Metz told CNN affiliate BFM TV:
“We are faced with permanent provocation (from Uber) to which there can only be one response: total firmness in the systematic seizure of offending vehicles. We are truly sorry to have to hold clients and drivers hostage. We’re not doing this lightly.”
The Mirror reports that in recent weeks nearly 100 Uber drivers have been attacked, sometimes while carrying customers. In one case a taxi passenger was left with a broken face and black eye after he dared to praise Uber.
Follow Sarkis Zeronian on Twitter: Follow @SarkisZ or e-mail to: szeronian@breitbart.com
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