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If the taxi industry was already headed toward extinction, on Wednesday morning in Toronto, it squashed its own queen bee.

As part of a protest against Uber, the ridesharing service that has claimed a good chunk of the cartel’s clientele, disgruntled taxi drivers managed to piss off just about everyone in the downtown core.

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It wasn’t simply that taxis deliberately clogged up a number of major routes — such as the Don Valley Parkway, the Gardiner Expressway, Highway 427 and an assortment of downtown streets — but that they did so with such unabashed arrogance, such haughty disregard for the commuting disaster they were intentionally creating for the thousands of would-be customers who just trying to get to work.

Worse yet, when those people finally did get to work, they had to listen to taxi drivers honk their horns for hours: outside of Queen’s Park, in the Financial District, outside City Hall and by Hospital Row. At least one police officer on a bicycle was sent to hospital after being stuck by a cab during the protest, and another taxi driver was captured on video banging on the window of a suspected Uber vehicle and hanging onto the car as the driver attempted to drive away. Taxis drivers claim to be against Uber in part because of the dangers associated with unregulated rideshares, but they seem to show a striking disregard for public safety when they hurl themselves on moving vehicles and slam against strangers’ windows.

This is why taxi drivers are losing the PR war: it’s impossible to sympathize with people who are acting like thugs.