Why is Brandon Johnson trying to distract Chicagoans?
Lawsuit is latest signal the mayor is lost
After you read this sentence, please stop and silently identify what you see as Chicago’s three biggest problem areas. Are you finished? Now, silently name three more problem areas.
Odds are of the six areas you identified not one of them was anti-theft systems being absent from cars you don’t own. That is correct-vehicles you do not own.
Ahead of crime, ahead of downtown office vacancies, ahead of general unemployment, ahead of the city’s budget deficit, ahead of Chicago’s unpaid pension contributions-which is larger than 44 states; someone convinced Mayor Brandon Johnson it would be a good idea now to file suit against two automakers - Hyundai and Kia - because their vehicles don’t have state-of-art anti-theft systems.
Specifically, the lawsuit maintains the automakers failed “to include the industry standard engine immobilizers in multiple models.” The City added that this failure facilitated the rise in car thefts in the city.
The city is suing these two companies because car thieves do what car thieves do-steal cars. The overarching question is why now. Is it because New York, Milwaukee, St. Louis and a handful of other cities too the same action a month or two ago?
The prudent thing to do would be to wait to see what the outcome of that litigation is before going after the automakers. Given the host of financial and societal problems, including a migrant crisis, the city is using this lawsuit to deflect attention from the pressing issues the Johnson Administration is not tending to. At best, the move can be classified as nothing more than subterfuge, and according to Oxford Languages Dictionary, subterfuge is defined as “deceit used in order to achieve one's goal.”
Recent news outlets that graded Johnson on his first 100 days in office gave him “grades” ranging from incomplete to C-. When asked about his administration’s plan to address Chicago’s myriad problems, the mayor’s answers were lengthy and evasive.
News of this lawsuit certainly will not improve these grades. The car theft situation is akin to the perspective he took when hundreds of teens and young adults created havoc and damaged businesses on two occasions downtown. Johnson criticized citizens who complained about the behaviors, and essentially defended the lawbreakers.
Here, he is not addressing the actions of the thieves, but trying to shift the blame on the makers of the vehicles. The irony is that of the 39 Honda dealers in the state, and 35 Illinois Kia dealers, the majority are not located in the city limits. This lawsuit is tantamount to the City suing a home security company because burglars get into residents’ homes.
Should this lawsuit advance through the courts, it likely will cost tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars that aren’t budgeted for. There is no doubt corporation counsel will have to interview and hire outside lawyers or a law firm to represent Chicago. When we look at the financial pinch the City is in, those dollars certainly can be used in a wiser fashion.
According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, 27 months is the median length for civil cases from filing to trial. Approximately 10 percent of cases have been pending for more than three years.
The pressing question becomes why is the Johnson Administration initiating this kind of case now when there are so many other key issues that need the team’s full attention. In approximately one month the mayor’s office is scheduled to release its FY 24 budget forecast. To date, Johnson has not raised the $800 million he identified during the campaign as needed to implement his new programs. COVID is creeping back in the picture and the city is without a permanent commissioner of public health.
Absence of the system identified in the lawsuit is common knowledge. Local owners of Kias and Hyundais haven’t coalesced to file a class action lawsuit. That is the group that should try to remedy the situation through the courts, not the City of Chicago.
...still trying to pick my jaw up off my chest!