A Seattle councilor who backed calls to defund the police has a new idea to cut car thefts – ban the cars.
Tammy Morales is among a group of progressive lawmakers from Democrat cities who have blamed car makers Kia and Hyundai for soaring rates of auto crime, demanding they make their products harder to steal.
The Washington State capital launched a lawsuit against the manufacturers last year after videos of car thefts trended on TikTok, and is now calling for federal regulators to enforce a nationwide recall.
But the socialist leader had little to say about the city’s soft-on-crime policies that have seen car thefts more than double in the last five years.
‘I won’t speak to the motivations of young people, except to say that they are young people and when issued a challenge, especially on something like social media, they like to take it up,’ she said.
Seattle socialist councilor Tammy Morales has demanded a total recall of Kia and Hyundai models as the city faces a doubling in car thefts
Teenage vandals known as the ‘Kia Boys’ gained a following on TikTok after video tutorials showed viewers how to bypass the cars’ security systems
But the cars are being increasingly used as mobile battering rams by thieves targeting stores
The Seattle police department has lost around 600 police officers since the City Council began defunding the department in 2020.
In that time car thefts have jumped from fewer than 4,000 to the record 8,379 recorded last year.
The funding cuts began with the riots that rampaged across the city in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis by a white police officer, riots that Morales was accused of defending.
‘What I don’t want to hear is our constituents told to be civil, not to be reactionary, to be told looting doesn’t solve anything,’ she told a council meeting at the time.
‘It does make me wonder why looting bothers people so much more than knowing that across the country, black people are being killed around the country.’
Thefts of the two car brands began to soar the following year after online tutorials on how to bypass their security features went viral.
TikTok videos then showed cars being stolen and driven haphazardly by joyriders through major Midwestern cities like Milwaukee, Chicago and Columbus.
The vandals behind the viral carjackings, some of whom were as young as 12, branded themselves ‘Kia Boys’.
The car thefts were sparked by a Tik Tok trend in which users showed off how to steal Kia and Hyundai vehicles that lack basic security features
Four teenagers were killed after a Kia Sportage they allegedly stole crashed (pictured) in Buffalo, New York
The trend went national and in 2022, four teenagers including a 14-year-old mother were killed after a stolen Kia Sportage was crashed in Buffalo, New York.
Last month two self-declared Kia Boyz were charged with robbery and vehicle crimes after using a stolen Hyundai to target gas stations in the Seattle suburb of Eastgate.
Ralphe Manuma and Ardrell Davis, both 18, are thought to have targeted six garages in the space of one night in September.
In one attack the pair held an employee at gunpoint and made him open a cash register.
When he was unable to open a second, one of the suspects struck the employee in the back of the head with a pistol, King5.com reported.
Between 2011 and 2021 nearly 10 million Kia and Hyundai cars sold in the US were not equipped with immobilizers and could therefore be started easily and primitively with just a flat head screwdriver and a USB cable.
The two manufacturers settled a $200 million lawsuit brought by owners last May and pledged to install new security software on 8.3 million existing cars while paying drivers up to $300 for steering wheel locks and other theft prevention devices.
But that has not stopped the Councilmembers Against Car Thefts, from Baltimore, New York City, Seattle, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Austin from demanding a total recall.
‘The issue reverberates beyond just an inconvenience; it traumatizes our communities,’ Baltimore City Councilmember Zeke Cohen told KomoNews.
‘The failure of Kia and Hyundai to install industry standard theft prevention technology on their vehicle has left our cities to clean up the mess.’
Thefts of Kias increased by 363 percent in 2021 alone according to the Seattle Police Department while thefts of Hyundais went up a whopping 503 percent.
And they have increasingly been used as disposable mobile battering rams for a wave of thieves targeting stores in the coastal city.
‘I haven’t heard that these stolen cars are being used for smash-and grab’ Councilor Morales said.
‘The resolution and the lawsuit are really about corporate responsibility.
‘It is young people who can very easily access these cars and who are stealing them.’
The Democrats hold all nine seats on Seattle’s city council where salaries average $218,000 – half as much as the nationwide figure.
Morales who was previously the city’s Human Rights Commissioner is the joint-longest serving member having been elected in 2019.
But her latest comments have not been well-received residents in a city plagued by homeless drug users and suffering its highest murder rate in 30 years.
‘How about we focus on arresting and jailing the thieves? KIA can worry about their own car issues,’ tweeted one on X.
‘Using taxpayer dollars to sue a car company for damages done by criminals and not do anything about the criminals because it’s corporate greed that is causing teens to steal cars? Is that right?’ asked another.
‘Morales is an enabler for all car thieves and doesn’t care about the victims,’ wrote a third.
‘She wants to punish Kia/Hyundai, not the actual thieves. She’s a disgrace.’
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