Thursday, November 2, 2023

Car Culture was a Mistake Part 1: Cars facilitate crime

See the U-S-A! In your Chev-ro-let! 

Cars allow you a freedom to go almost anywhere you'd want to in the Western Hemisphere.  That freedom of movement is a double-edged sword as criminals use cars to facilitate their sprees and expand the scope and range of their targets.

Dillinger Alleyway 
This should have been obvious since the rampages of the notorious Texass duo of Bonnie & Clyde and the roguish 20th century "Robin Hood" John Dillinger and the less scrupulous Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis, both of whom died in gunfights in Illinois, after being declared Public Enemy #1.  Stolen vehicles and car chases figured prominently for each and everyone of the famous outlaws.  100 years later not much has changed.  

Thieves and criminal gangs (mainly comprised of juveniles) leave Chicago and descend upon the suburbs to steal any that are unlocked.  Everyone uses the vernacular "Break-into" when describing these thefts but, 95% of the time the vehicle is unlocked and the ones which are stolen have the keys left inside.  The pattern is as predictable as it is infuriating.  The gang of thieves drive down a side-street and check every car parked on the street or driveway.  If the car is locked they move on, if it's open they try the push-button starter to see if the keys were left inside, if the keys aren't inside, they root around and may take a wallet or cash.  But, their goal is to steal a car whose registration checks from a suburban address (to allay suspicion) in which they conduct further crimes and then often dump after crashing it.

There are several other issues; one is the so-called "Kia Boys", who learned to exploit an unforgivable loop-hole in the manufacture of Hyundais and Kias in which a simple USB could be used to start the cars.  The car makers settled a $200 million class action lawsuit in May this year.

From the Wild West to Bootlegging,
Dodge has always been synonymous with Crime
Unlike, the "Kia Boys", joyriding antics the thieves who steal cars under the MOPAR umbrella; Jeeps, Chryslers, Dodges, often use them in the commission of higher level felonies.  MOPAR appears to be susceptible to cloning or hacking of their on-board computers/electronic keys.

Chicago police say that five-to-six suspects used a pair of vehicles to smash through the front door of a River North business early Tuesday during a smash-and-grab burglary.
According to authorities, the theft occurred in the 700 block of North Franklin just before 6 a.m. Tuesday.

The suspects used two vehicles, a pickup truck and a white sedan, to break through the front of the building. The suspects then entered the business, stole an unspecified amount of merchandise, and fled the scene in the pickup truck.
Police say the white sedan was left at the scene.

Of course, much of this non-stop rash of stolen cars could be mitigated by people locking their cars and the smash-and-grab of purses from front seats stopped by simply not leaving your purse in the driver compartment of the vehicle, but that would be victim-blaming.  Instead we let the worse demagogues engage in contemptible racist demonization of those people and engaging truly dangerous authoritarian undermining of Constitutional protections in the name of Safety and Law&Order

A wave of progressive prosecutors have won office across the country. Now, Republican-controlled state legislatures and governors are trying to curtail their power, or strip them of it altogether.

It must never be forgotten that Republicans full-heartedly believe in a Two-Tier Justice system and the unequal application of laws, which is why they are so mad that justice is blind and being applied to Traitor Trump and the Jan6th criminals for instance, instead of "rightly" being used to harass an punish minorities.  

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