Kia Isn’t Responsible for Chicago’s Car Thefts

Chicago has decided that the best way to stop car theft and the resulting downstream crime is to sue the manufacturers of the cars most likely to be stolen, namely, those from Kia and Hyundai. (A true Pinky and the Brain move — if you sue cars out of existence, then they can’t be stolen, now, can they?) This tack is as absurd after 15 minutes of consideration as it is after five seconds. These cars are not driving themselves off of their own volition (a manufacturing defect if ever there were one); rather, the theft takes a criminal breaking into a vehicle, busting up its ignition, and then using a USB charging cable to turn the engine over.

But being the progressive sort of city administrators they are, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and District Attorney Kim Foxx are incapable of directing the police force to do what it ought: arrest and incarcerate the criminals stealing cars. So, with car thefts having increased 139 percent in three years with only a 4 percent solve rate, Johnson and Foxx filed frivolous suits against the car companies that make vehicles inexpensive enough for overtaxed Chicagoans to afford.

Absolutely insane: "Chicago sues Kia, Hyundai over 'Kia Boyz' thefts, says automakers must shoulder blame, pay up."https://t.co/NXQ2Td96OL

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) August 25, 2023

A city government that fails to protect the lives and property of its citizens does little more than maintain a quasi-anarcho-tyranny where the wealthy and connected can defend themselves, and the lower and middle classes are left to fend for themselves while paying dearly for city services that either don’t exist or are inaccessible.

That Kia and Hyundai eschewed an immobilizer on budget vehicles shouldn’t be a big deal, and it wasn’t for years. That “security concern” has existed in the companies’ cars since 2011, but it wasn’t until the rise of TikTok and decarceration movements that the know-how and permissiveness combined to popularize indiscriminate burglary. Until governments and voters force the judicial system to do its job, no number of lawsuits will do anything other than signal to companies that they’d be better off taking their wares elsewhere.

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