Admit it, now: when you learned that Kiefer Sutherland had been arrested, you thought, as I did, “Ah HA! I always suspected that guy wasn’t acting when he played those evil characters in “Stand By Me,” “A Time to Kill,” “The Lost Boys”and “Eye for an Eye.” He didn’t fool me by playing good guys and heroes since “24”!”
Today the reports are that the actor threatened to kill an Uber driver. He had ordered an Uber Black (What the hell is an “Uber Black”? Is Uber like Johnny Walker now?) after having dinner with a friend, or so law enforcement sources told TMZ. When the late Donald Sutherland’s son asked the driver to pull over and let him out, the driver wouldn’t, and after the third request, Sutherland threatened to kill him if he didn’t do as he asked. The driver phoned 911 for assistance, and requested a translator when the police showed up. The police then requested a Russian or Armenian-speaking translator.
What the hell?
The driver did not allege an injury, so Sutherland was arrested on suspicion of making felony criminal threats. He was released on a $50,000 bail, and has a February 2 court date.
When I was reading the account, I thought, “This sounds like a big misunderstanding.” After I finished it and learned that the Uber driver needed a translator, I thought, “No wonder there was a misunderstanding!” I also marveled, not for the first time, at how often companies (I’m looking at YOU, customer service lines) irresponsibly hire non- or barely-English speakers in jobs requiring English fluency.
For an Uber driver, the inabiity to communicate with a customer is even more inexcusable than at the McDonalds Drive-Thru. I imagine this scene….
Sutherland: Pull over, I need to get out.
Driver: “Eh?”
Sutherland: I said, “Pull over, I need to get out”!
Driver: “Uh?”
Sutherland: Dammit! PULL OVER YOU ASSHOLE! I NEED TO GET OUT!
Driver: “[Unintelligible]”
Sutherland: IF YOU DON’T STOP THE CAR, I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!!!!!
I can understand losing one’s temper when a car you are riding in as a passenger won’t stop when you require it to. Uber, Lyft and cab drivers—Hmmm, what other jobs? Are there 911 dispatchers who can’t understand English?— should be required by law to possess basic English proficiency.
Ethics Alarms 
So, in this scenario, the only thing Sutherland said that the driver understood was the threat?
That’s convenient.
I’ve had customer service experience in the past. It’s not unusual for customers for whom English is a second language to speak and understand the language perfectly well until you tell them something they don’t like and, all of a sudden, they don’t comprehend what you’re saying.
But a driver who only understands death threats? That’s a new one.