CBS News found the swastika-wearing cab driver whom the Taxi and Limousine Commission suspended for 30 days on Friday. His name is Gabriel Diaz, and when he was interviewed outside his Bronx residence last night, he confirmed that, “I’m a National Socialist — what you guys call a Nazi. I am. I’m a believer of it.” So, that’s out of the way.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the interview was a question Diaz, who is not white, posed to reporter Lou Young. “Who says you have to be white to be a National Socialist?” he asked. Diaz then provided his own answer: “You don’t have to be white, it can be anybody,” he explained. The forward-thinking National Socialist also went on to explain, “I don’t hate Jews. I’m critical of them, but I don’t hate them. That doesn’t mean that I’m anti-Semitic. That don’t make me a hater.”
The cabbie also said, “I don’t want to apologize” for wearing the offensive armband. Meanwhile, Anti-Defamation League spokesperson Evan Bernstein suggested that Diaz might use his forced time off to “learn from his mistake.” But, in order for that to happen, it seems that Diaz will have to learn some other stuff first.
