Missouri Senate Candidate Eric Schmitt Blasts St. Louis Leaders for Blaming Crime on Car Manufacturers

State Attorney General Eric Schmitt speaks at an election-night gathering after winning th
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Hannah Knudsen

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the Republican candidate for Missouri’s Senate seat, blasted St. Louis leaders on Tuesday for blaming the city’s crime issues, in part, on car manufacturers — not poor Democrat policies.

“St. Louis has a violent crime problem. What’s causing crime in the city? The Mayor’s war against the police? The prosecutor letting criminals run wild?” Schmitt asked.

“Evidently city ‘leaders’ think it’s….the cars. Yes — car manufacturers are to blame not criminals,” he said. “You can’t make this stuff up”:

Indeed, Schmitt attached a letter from the City of St. Louis Law Department — Mayor Tishaura Jones and City Counselor Sheena Hamilton, the latter of whom wrote the letter. It is addressed to Hyundai Motor North American Chief Legal Officer Jason Erb and Kia America, Inc. Executive Vice President and General Counsel John Yoon regarding a “public nuisance” which Democrat leaders believes caused by “defective Kia and Hyundai vehicles.”

That, the city leaders believe, is causing too many car thefts in the city.

“Kia and Hyundai admittedly failed to install engine immobilizers in many of their vehicles, and the respective failures have caused an epidemic of car thefts throughout the nation,” the letter reads, noting that St. Louis, specifically, has “experienced a surge in the number of Kia and Hyundai vehicles being stolen” in recent months.

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2020 file photo, St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones speaks during a news conference in St. Louis. Whichever candidate St. Louis voters pick in Tuesday, April 6, 2021, mayoral election will face daunting tasks, including a declining population and one of the worst murder rates in the nation. City Treasurer Tishaura Jones and Alderwoman Cara Spencer, both Democrats, advanced to the general election by finish 1-2 (Jones was first) in a new nonpartisan primary format in March.(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson File)

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones speaks during a news conference. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

“For example, in July, the City averaged 21 Kia and Hyundai vehicle thefts per day, and that rate is only increasing as the days and weeks that Kia and Hyundai both fail and refuse to remedy this public nuisance march on,” the letter continued, explaining that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department “received report of 356 thefts or attempted thefts of Kia or Hyundai vehicles from August 1 through August 13, 2022,” alone.

Further, the city contends, that represents over three-quarters of car thefts in that specific timeframe. In the letter, leaders wholly blame this phenomenon on the car manufacturers — not poor Democrat policies on crime.

“Kia and Hyundai’s failure to install engine immobilizers enables thieves — often juveniles — to steal those vehicles in a matter of seconds, and, because of this failure, the City is on pace to surpass the total number of vehicle thefts for the entire 2021 calendar year by end of August 2022,” they revealed.

But it did not stop there, either, as the Democrat city leaders stated that these stolen vehicles are “being used in the commission of violent crime throughout the city.” In other words, Democrat leaders appear to be accusing the car manufacturers of facilitating violent crime, providing an example of a stolen Kia Optima and Hyundai Sonata being used in a “mid-day shootout.”

The city’s Democrat leaders ultimately threatened to take legal action if the car manufacturers “fail to make satisfactory progress to mitigate the public nuisance” which the Democrat leaders say the car manufacturers — not poor Democrat policies — have “created.”

This is not the first time Schmitt has highlighted the poor consequences of Democrat leadership.

“The St. Louis mayor is an unserious person seeking to score political points at every turn while turning a blind eye to the ceaseless murders plaguing the city,” he said in July. “Sadly her tenure is synonymous with forced masking, crime, defunding the police & now illegal taxpayer funded abortions”:

Wednesday’s RealClearPolitics average shows Schmitt leading his Democrat opponent Trudy Busch Valentine by an average of 11 percent.

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