Location: Indianapolis. Crime: Cab driver refuses to give a woman a ride because of her unusually large size of 650
pounds. Result: Woman is planning to sue even after cab driver loses his license for six months.
The woman in question, Maraika Parker, said this to support her case: “Overweight, handicapped, blind, whatever: Just
don’t take it sitting down, because you don’t have to.” I’m not going to discriminate against the obese but I think
there must be a difference between being too large and having a handicap like blindness. The Ford Crown Victoria the
cabbie was driving was shown to accommodate Parker so he was definitely in the wrong. Another tidbit: Parker has lost
110 pounds since starting a weight loss regimen in June. Wonder what spurred the desire to lose weight? Maybe being on
TV battling a cabbie spurred it, but that’s just a guess.