Having seen Illinois Governor Gary Pritzker sign a bill two weeks ago that permits victims of “gun violence” to sue gun-makers, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said three words: “Hold my beer.”
Led by Johnson, the City of Big Shoulders has sued two automakers for making cars that are too easy to steal.
Having dispatched the previous crazy mayor, ghoulish lesbian Lori Lightfoot, Chicagoans elected Johnson, whom one internet site labeled a buffoon.
Buffoons everywhere are insulted.
The Lawsuit
And no wonder. Instead of blaming Chicago’s growing legion of car thieves, Johnson thinks Kia and Hyundai are the real malefactors responsible for the Windy City’s rocketing numbers of car thefts.
“Unlike the movies, hot-wiring vehicles is far harder than it appears — unless that vehicle was manufactured by Hyundai or Kia,” the lawsuit amusingly begins, which might mean the city attorney is a bigger buffoon than Johnson.
Anyway, Kia and Hyundai are the real villains because the cars don’t have anti-theft devices called engine immobilizers, a “critical defect”:
Kia and Hyundai knew that engine immobilizers were effective at preventing car theft. Kia and Hyundai had the capability to provide immobilizers, as they were routinely installing them as standard equipment in vehicles sold outside the United States. Both companies also knew that failing to install immobilizers would increase crime and threaten public safety. Yet they failed to install them. Moreover, they failed to disclose this lack of anti-theft technology clearly and conspicuously to consumers.
Kia’s and Hyundai’s unlawful and reckless actions have caused a car theft crisis. In 2022, more than 8,800 Kia and Hyundai vehicles were stolen in Chicago alone. This figure represented 41% of Chicago’s car thefts, even though Kia and Hyundai vehicles made up just 7% of the vehicles. Unfortunately, that trend has continued into 2023 and does not appear to be slowing.
And, of course, the defendants’ actions have “disproportionately impacted low-income Chicago residents.” The lawsuit complains that thieves stole a woman’s car twice in one day, while another victim was left continuing to make payments on a stolen vehicle the thieves nearly destroyed.
The lawsuit observes that car thefts jumped 767 percent because of the TikTok Kia-Hyundai car-theft challenge. When Chicago will sue TikTok isn’t known.
“In October 2022, Chicago set a new record — more than 3,100 vehicles were stolen, the most in any month in the past 20 years,” the lawsuit says. “By the year’s end, Chicago had experienced a 55% increase in vehicle thefts — up more than any other city in the U.S.”
But, again, Kias and Hyundais are the problem, the lawsuit alleges:
This rise in vehicle thefts is largely attributable to a massive surge in stolen Kias and Hyundais. More than 500 Kias or Hyundais were reported stolen in the first half of 2022; over the second half, the number had skyrocketed to over 8,350. In December 2022 alone, Kias and Hyundais made up 60.9% of the 2,700-plus car thefts in Chicago that month.
“The impact of car theft on Chicago residents can be deeply destabilizing, particularly for low- to middle-income workers who have fewer options for getting to work and taking care of their families,” Johnson said:
The failure of Kia and Hyundai to install basic auto-theft prevention technology in these models is sheer negligence, and as a result, a citywide and nationwide crime spree around automobile theft has been unfolding right before our eyes.
Reaction
Yeah, well, the failure of Johnson to enforce the law is “sheer negligence,” which even a city Democrat observed on Fox News.
“Clearly, we don’t have a crime problem. We have a Kia problem in the city of Chicago, according to Mayor Johnson,” Alderman Raymond Lopez mocked. “The numbers speak for themselves — 104% increase from last year, a 234% increase in vehicle thefts from two years ago — but yet it’s the car’s fault.”
If a Chicago Democrat weren’t behind the lawsuit, the story might be impossible to believe. But, alas, this is the city whose voters elected leftist Lightfoot, who resembles Michael Keaton’s Beetlejuice and once had the bright idea to ban white reporters from interviews.
Continued Lopez:
It’s the fact that they are so easily taken by criminals who run rampant in the city of Chicago, but we have yet to hear our mayor say anything, one word, about the criminals running rampant in our streets. And all he does in turn is lambast the media, lambast those who try to hold criminals accountable by playing word games.
Maybe Lopez doesn’t know it, but his party is anti-cop and pro-criminal. Democrats have pushed defunding the police for years. One result: A seemingly unstoppable crime wave in major cities.
And car thefts are nothing compared to the city’s regular weekend shootings. During the past two weekends, 64 Chicagoans were shot, 16 fatally. So far this year, 396 people have been killed. In 2022, the figure was 692; 2021’s tally: 794.
What Johnson plans to do about that is a mystery, but one might surmise that the city will sue gun manufacturers next, pursuant to the unconstitutional law the state’s leftist governor just signed.
