Brandon Scott Gives Up
The Mayor of Baltimore has abdicated his responsibility to Baltimore by lawyering up instead of cracking down
Baltimore has been in the midst of a crime wave for years. It is a crime wave that Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has seemed incapable or uninterested in solving.
Today instead of introducing new measures to actually stop crime, Scott decided to file a lawsuit in a headline that seems like it is ripped straight from The Onion instead of the Mayor’s Office:
City of Baltimore Files Lawsuit Against Hyundai, Kia Over Car Thefts
Today, the City of Baltimore joins Seattle, St. Louis, and a number of cities nationwide by filing a lawsuit against Hyundai and Kia for failing to equip their vehicles with industry-standard vehicle immobilization technology. Without this feature, vehicles can be started without a key, a flaw that has been the subject of numerous TikTok videos demonstrating the ease with which these cars can be stolen. This has led to a rash of thefts of these vehicles not only in Baltimore City but nationwide. Five hundred seventy-seven Kias and Hyundais have been stolen in Baltimore so far this year, a pace that will likely result in a year-end total that more than doubles that of 2022.
"These cost-cutting measures employed by Hyundai and Kia at the expense of public safety are unacceptable," said Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott. "They have left our residents vulnerable to crime and are significantly burdening our police resources."
The lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. The City is represented by Richard Gordon and Martin Wolf of Gordon, Wolf & Carney, and Sara Gross of the Baltimore City Department of Law.
"The Baltimore Police Department has tracked the striking increase of auto thefts of Kia and Hyundai vehicles throughout the city. Year-to-date, auto thefts are up 95%, with Kia and Hyundais representing 41% of all stolen vehicles," said Commissioner Michael Harrison. "We must demand more from these manufacturers in addressing this increase in vehicle thefts, which put victims and residents in harm's way. This lawsuit represents a first step in holding these manufactures accountable and establishing necessary safeguards to improve the quality of life for our residents."
So to recap here, Mayor Scott and the City Police Chief have decided that instead of doing more to arrest criminals and fight crime in Baltimore City, that the solution is to hire an outside law firm that seems to focus more known for suing over Social Security and hernia mesh to sue car companies that have little or nothing to do with the stealing of a car.
While the Hyundais and the Kias are indeed more vulnerable to car thefts than other cars, the cars aren’t exactly stealing themselves. Real criminals stealing real cars hurts real people. The criminals are the ones stealing the cars. And through this action, Brandon Scott has decided that he is no longer interested in actually fighting crime (if he ever really was) and instead will do what Democrats do best; try to solve problems in court.
The city can win as much in damages from Hyundai or Kia as they want, but neither company is going to arrest the perpetrators of these crimes and get them off the streets. And, based on their failures so far, neither is Mayor Scott or Commissioner Harrison.
It has become quite apparent that Brandon Scott is merely the latest in a line of failed Baltimore Mayors more interested in publicity and achieving high political office than he is in saving a city desperately in need of saving. Like virtually all of his predecessors, Brandon Scott has just plain given up on Baltimore and its people.