As crime soars in the Democrat-run city of St. Louis, Missouri, city officials have decided someone needs to be held accountable: Korean automakers.
On March 27, they announced a federal lawsuit against Hyundai and Kia because some of the companies’ vehicles have become a target of car thieves spurred by a TikTok video trend demonstrating ways to commit the thefts.
“Big corporations like Kia and Hyundai must be held accountable for endangering our residents and putting profit over people,” Democratic Mayor Tishaura O. Jones said in a statement. “St. Louisans should not be forced to bear the cost of their negligence.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, says, “Defendants’ careless disregard for the safety of the public has created a public nuisance in the City of St. Louis, resulting in an explosion of auto-related crime that is injuring citizens, taxing St. Louis’s resources, and jeopardizing the public health, safety, and peace of all who live, work, and visit St. Louis.”
Certain models made by the two associated car companies have been the target of an epidemic of thefts after being subject to social media posts showing ne’er-do-wells how to steal them using readily found tools, according to KSDK-TV.
The auto theft is made easier because some models do not have engine immobilizers in the ignition key slot.
The lack of the immobilizer is not entirely Kia and Hyundai’s fault as there are no U.S. regulations requiring the devices, although most of the rest of the industrialized world does require them.
Authorities in St. Louis in particular claim police saw a 1,300 percent increase in thefts of Kia and Hyundai cars from 2021 to 2022, KSDK reported. The city said the two makes accounted for more than half of all car thefts this year.
“From a law enforcement perspective, Kia and Hyundai’s negligence with their products have created a public safety hazard for the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department and we’re working every single day to address it,” St. Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy said, according to KSDK.
St. Louis Lawsuit by The Western Journal
In a statement March 27, Tracy said, “This lawsuit is an important step to make our streets safer for residents and visitors alike.”
Jones raised the specter of a lawsuit in August and demanded the car companies recall the affected models to have them retrofitted with theft prevention systems.
Now those threats are a reality after city attorney Sheena Hamilton engaged with the law firm Dowd Bennett to file a lawsuit in federal court.
“Simply put, by refusing to follow industry standards, making their cars so easy [to steal] that a child could do it, Kia and Hyundai created a public safety hazard in cities across the country and put a target on the backs of their customers,” Jones said, according to KSDK.
“It’s clear Kia and Hyundai’s negligence is not just a St. Louis problem. It is a nationwide public safety crisis,” she added.
Other Democrat-run cities also have seen upswings in car thefts and carjacking, and some of them — including Milwaukee, San Diego and Seattle — have launched lawsuits against the automakers.
In addition, several large U.S. car insurance companies have stopped taking new policies for customers who own the models targeted by the online theft craze.
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For their part, the automakers offered a free software upgrade to help address the theft issue, but they said they do not intend to initiate any recalls.
The companies said they aren’t to blame for a social media campaign targeting their vehicles; the thieves are at fault.
According to KSDK, Kia spokesman James Bell said in a statement, “Lawsuits against Kia by municipalities are without merit. Kia has been and continues to be willing to work cooperatively with law enforcement agencies in St. Louis to combat car theft and the role social media has played in encouraging it.
“Customers should visit https://ksupport.kiausa.com/ConsumerAffairs/SWLD for more information on their eligibility for the upgrade or to learn more about directly obtaining a steering wheel lock.”
About 3.8 million Hyundais and 4.5 million Kias are eligible for the software update, the report said. The update lengthens the time alarms go off and also requires a key to be put in the ignition lock to start the car.
The companies also have sent tens of thousands of steering wheel locking devices to various police departments across the country to be given to drivers to help prevent car theft.
In February, St. Louis was labeled one of the “most dangerous cities in America” with a per capita crime rate exceeding most cities in the U.S.
Last year, CBS News proclaimed it to be the murder capital of the U.S. with 64.54 murders per 100,000 residents, which the news outlet deemed the “highest murder rate for any major American city.”
In the end, Kia and Hyundai have a point.
How is it a failure of a car manufacturer that St. Louis is riddled with crime? If the city wants to see fewer car thefts, perhaps its officials should be a bit tougher on criminals.
This is at least as much a failure of liberal “values” as anything else.
