Counter-Currents
1,850 words
Last month my car insurance went up by 30%. Nothing at all had changed regarding my policy or use of insurance, so I called my insurance company to ask about the abrupt change. “Our costs have gone up, and we had to make the decision to raise premiums across the company,” is the answer I was given. I asked why their costs had risen so dramatically, and was told that “car thefts are really high right now.”
I suddenly connected the news stories I had seen and the “Kia Boys” social media trend to the sharp ascent of my insurance premium.
Black teenagers stealing cars in cities across the United States made my insurance jump 30%.
Enter the Kia Boys. A Kia Boy is any vibrant American who participates in stealing Kia and Hyundais. Kia and Hyundai are targeted because some of these urban youths figured out that you can easily steal specific models made in the past ten years with little more than a USB cable.
All one needs to do once one gets inside the car is to rip out a piece or two of the plastic panels, which are only secured by plastic clips; break off the ignition lock cylinder; insert the end of a USB cable over the ignition switch; turn; and you’re off with a new (stolen) car. Videos of primarily black teenagers instructing others on this procedure can be found all over the Internet.
Car thefts are up nearly 60% and rising across 30 major US cities. While some news reports call the Kia Boys a gang, that implies a certain level of connectivity that does not in fact exist. It’s more of a trend linked via social-media hashtags and something fun for a particular demographic to do more than anything organized like what gangs tends to do.
“Gang” is often applied to black crime even when the term is inappropriate. It makes the uninitiated think that criminal behavior is something only a tiny portion of the black teenage community is involved in — those in “gangs.” In reality, it is merely blacks behaving normally. For example, I heard there was another “gang fight” at my local mall, but it was simply two groups of blacks who disliked each other — run-of-the-mill young black behavior.
There has been an 85% increase in the theft of the two car brands in Los Angeles over the past year. In Columbus, Ohio, car thefts went up by 22% for the year, with 45% of all cars stolen being either Kias or Hyundais; the theft rate of those particular cars increased by over 450%. That’s about 17 cars a day. The two brands make up 65% of all stolen cars in Milwaukee.[1]
The Kia Boys often leave graffiti or inscribe “Kia Boys” into the car seats or armrests, and when the vehicles are recovered, they usually come back to the owners with extensive body and mechanical damage. Videos of the thieves hitting parked cars, driving over curbs at high speeds, and running into each other for fun explain how this happens. According to the victims, the average cost of repairs in these cases is around $2,500.
It was clear from news reports, social media videos, and interviews that most of the Kia Boys are black.[2] Some are stealing cars to use in serious crimes, burglaries, and drive-by shootings. Others seem to be doing it simply for fun, racing each other around the block and picking up their friends for a joyride.
Several cities are suing or plan to sue Kia and Hyundai over the thefts, blaming the manufacturers for producing cars that lack adequate anti-theft protections. Columbus’ city attorney said that not including anti-theft technology is the “direct cause of the recent explosion of thefts,” and that “Kia and Hyundai’s negligence in pursuit of corporate profit is unconscionable. It’s time we held these automakers accountable for cheating consumers and passing the buck and responsibility to clean up the mess they made onto the rest of us.”[3]
You can buy Greg Johnson’s The Year America Died here.
Seattle has likewise filed a lawsuit against Kia and Hyundai. Like the others, it alleges the companies “cut corners” on the cars, leading to the thefts and causing millions in damages. The city saw an increase of 363% in Kia and 503% in Hyundai thefts.[4]
Milwaukee, where 10,000 cars were stolen in 2021, is also considering a lawsuit. A city council member said the car manufacturers are not operating as they should, and that the city wants to hold them accountable.[5]
After some research, I found that my insurance company is not the only one raising its rates due to the increasing number of car thefts. Some have decided to no longer accept new customers who own models of cars that are being stolen at high rates. It seems this has become an industry standard in 2023.[6] Millions of people’s insurance rates have gone up — another cost-of-living hike we all pay for the sake of diversity. This one, like many others, is a direct result of living around blacks. I do not own a Kia or Hyundai, but the insurance companies decided that they need to spread the costs among everybody.
Victims of car thefts are upset and feel the courts are doing nothing because of how softly they treat the criminals, many of whom are young and only receiving probation. One judge in a juvenile court stated,
People are looking to place the blame — well, I’m not going to deny it. A little bit of blame can probably go on all of us. But we aren’t here to point fingers. We are here to work forward and work together.[7] [Emphasis added]
A witness to the proceedings said she felt there was a blatant disregard for the victims of the thefts and that judges are blaming the Covid lockdowns for the increasing rate of such crimes, citing a lack of social services. One judge said he would not order restitution to be paid by the black teenage defendants because he would be “practicing prejudice.”[8]
Blaming the automakers is a common theme in this story. When people talk of “holding people responsible,” they seem to mean people other than those actually stealing the cars. We see this in the lawsuits against the automakers, not the teens and their parents.
Kia claims they were trying to reduce costs to make more affordable vehicles, spending the money on reliability instead of anti-theft measures. Instead of finding it laudable that a car company is making decent cars for people who do not have much, they are punished because criminal black teens are taking advantage of them in a low-trust and diverse society.
Kia owners are now concerned about leaving their car anywhere — at work, in their driveway, at the grocery store, or wherever. This is one of the many “taxes” we pay as a society to live alongside non-whites. It seems there is nothing one can do to escape them. You can move away from them, but your insurance rates will still increase to pay for their crimes, and your taxes will nevertheless go up to pay for their welfare. The actual “hidden figures” are the endless costs of having a diverse society with no material advantages to compensate for them.
Blaming the car companies seems tenuous, however. The same liberals who are reluctant to fault the actual criminals and hold any of them accountable are attributing malice to Kia and Hyundai, when in fact it may simply be that they were trying to produce affordable and reliable cars for a demographic that needed both. If I were a juror, it would be difficult to find that it was reasonably foreseeable to Korean car companies that teenage blacks in America would create a viral social media trend that would lead to the stealing of their cars. Society seems to want to have it both ways. They do not want to blame criminal blacks for their stereotypical criminal behavior, but they also do not want to draw any attention to the fact that it is happening, all while expecting that the car designers should be held responsible for not realizing that anything that is easy to steal that winds up near blacks will be stolen.
Not only are black teenagers directly responsible for my own and millions of others’ insurance rates going up, but blacks are a problem on the roadways themselves.
There is a longtime trope about “driving while black.” The liberal argument goes that police pull black motorists over for no other reason than they are black — never because they are violating traffic laws, driving poorly, causing accidents, stealing cars, or the like. Studies such as the now-infamous New Jersey Turnpike Study from 2001 found that blacks were 64% more likely to be speeding than white drivers.[9]
Blacks have a higher vehicle fatality rate than whites by 73%, meaning they are involved in — and thus likely responsible for — an outsized share of fatal car crashes, according to the National Safety Council.
A rather extensive study out of the New York Law School called “Driving While Black and Latinx” found over and over, throughout the entire country, that blacks are pulled over more often for traffic violations, driving with a suspended license, and not having insurance than any other racial group. The report, part of a “racial justice project,” framed all this as discriminatory action by police and, more broadly, systemic discrimination. The study is still useful. Instead of assuming blacks were ticketed for speeding and violating other traffic laws because they were black, but because they were speeding and driving recklessly or without a license, we see a much different story emerge. I’m not sure how much of my total car insurance costs are directly associated with living in the same country as blacks; at least 30%, that’s for sure. But it seems to be far more.
Some years ago, after a night out in a very “vibrant” part of town, I wrote, “If you can’t walk into a convenience store at 2:30 AM to get a snack on a Friday night while leaving your car running and unlocked with your girlfriend waiting in it, you don’t live in a free country.”
That has never been truer than it is today — but it now costs even more than it did a few years ago.
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Notes
[1] Jack Fitzgerlad. “As Hyundai/Kia Thefts Grow, 2 Victims of the TikTok Trned Show Us What Happened to Their Cars.” Car and Driver. August 27, 2022.
[2] Tommy G. “Kia Boys Documentary (A Story of Teenage Car Theft).” YouTube. May 31, 2022.
[3] Chris Rosales. “Columbus, Ohio City Attorney Says It’s Suing Hyundai and Kia over the Easy-To-Steal Cars.” The Drive. November 9, 2022; and Adam Conn & Mark Feurborn. “Kia and Hyundai now face a lawsuit over stolen cars from Columbus.” NBC 4. November 7, 2022.
[4] “Kia, Hyundai Face City of Seattle lawsuit over rise in car thefts.” King 5 NBC. January 25, 2023.
[5] Adam Rife. “City of Milwaukee considering lawsuit against Kia and Hyundai tied to the rash of car thefts.” CBS 58. January 20, 2023.
[6] Jamilah Muhammad. “State Farm, Progressive restrict coverage for some Kia, Hyundai models.” Spectrum News 1.
[7] Cole Behrens. “Citizens demand action by Franklin County justice system about rising youth vehicle thefts.” The Columbus Dispatch. October 21, 2022.
[8] Interview on file with author.
[9] “N.J. release controversial racial speeding study.” CNN. April 2, 2002.
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22 comments
I guess it’s time to update the classic joke.
Q: What do you call a black kid driving a Kia?
A: A thief.
This just happened to a friend’s Hyundai shortly after Christmas. When they found it, it was completely trashed. No word though of a calling card that I know of.
I feel your pain. My insurance rates also made the same jump and I was given the same explanation. The Kia and Hyundai thefts have been regular segments on local news here in northern Ohio. A lot of municipalities have been passing out “The Club “ to owners of these makes of cars. I don’t know for sure who’s paying for these Clubs but my guess is that it’s just another diversity tax passed on to the citizenry.
I was wondering if robbing the mailman of his keys was becoming a common occurrence in other parts of the country? Apparently stealing the mail for checks that can be altered and cashed is another growing fad. Local newscasts warn us to take all mail inside the post office. We become more and more third world by the day.
I know, the situation sucks. Still, I have an idea to make the insurance payment go down. Call them up and tell them you identify as a woman now, so they’re going to have to start giving you the reduced female rate. Make woke work for you!
Worth a shot
Open borders = ethnic cleansing of European Peoples from Europe to Australia.
White genocide.
Good stuff, Rich. Maybe Kia could work something out with this dude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDrzMGdYWZc
Great idea. I wonder what excuse the left would use to make that unlawful.
Yes, of course — something like that is only as good as the law that allows its use.
The response of the cities is a level of malicious corruption that makes the blood seethe. Perhaps they could not foresee the thefts. Perhaps we live in a Batman movie where Soros paid people to teach them how to Hotwire those cars then will pocket the lawyers fees and lawsuit money. It is very cynical to say the least.
Perhaps Korean and Japanese companies will fund our revolution. Black criminality is something that is paid for on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. What an achievement.
They know alright. Not only do they not care but they are proud of it.
“Blacks have a higher vehicle fatality rate than whites by 73%, meaning they are involved in — and thus likely responsible for — an outsized share of fatal car crashes, according to the National Safety Council.”
Another reason to start worrying when you see more and more blacks at the supermarket in your neighborhood.
This is true of a supermarket I used to go to around my area. I experienced a situation where a black lady in her SUV refused to slow down for me as I was crossing the crosswalk with my shopping cart. She literally pulled all the way up to me to make it clear that I was inconveniencing her travels, even though I had the right away. I simply looked at her and called her a stupid B**** and went about my business as she began yelling in her car and sped off. I’m sure the situation could have escalated after that but it didn’t and now I take my business elsewhere.
Kia’s are the Timexes of the car world but I noticed something funny with my 2013 economy model in 2017. Few features were included on this 13,000 dollar car. For example, as standard on most cars from before computers you had to walk around and turn the keys on all the doors to get them to open.
It wasn’t supposed to but once the radio stayed on after I removed the ignition key. Only lasted a few seconds but it was the suggestion that the car was receptive to hot wiring potentially that you’re now verifying.
Pardon my tangential and joking comment, but who on earth could possibly be so insensitive, senseless or obtuse aesthetically as to ever consider purchasing a car of such a glaringly inauspicious brand named “KIA”? Aren’t people feeling it a big, bad, sinister omen? Yes indeed, meet your death in a traffic accident on highway aka. K(illed) I(n) A(ction). What a poetic car brand! Good luck to all KIA drivers~ Perhaps selling it to a second-hand car dealer in the neighborhood is a better option.
And yet we are supposed to pay them reparations.
Don’t forget other “Third World Types” who somehow manage to pass the driver’s test. Many of these folks come from poor countries where cars are not common. Their culture hasn’t figured out plumbing, let alone traffic systems. Somehow they get into the USA and manage to get vehicles, which makes you wonder how many DMV instructors take bribes.
I’ve seen people confused at four way stop signs like they are solving a Raiders of the Lost Ark puzzle. Some just blatantly running stop signs and lights they clearly didn’t even notice. Or others driving slow in the bicycle lane with their four way blinkers on as if they are an emergency vehicle, and you look over and it’s an old East Indian lady in sari costume focused like a laser just to go slow in a straight line. They typically drive mini-vans.
I’ve also seen a swarthy guy side swipe a line of cars parallel parked in absolute perfect driving conditions. Another urine colored guy in a Mercedes AMG SUV somehow hitting the barrier wall going in a straight line on an on-ramp with his children in the car. Another young Asian bimbo trying to pull an illegal U turn only to get high-centered and stuck on the center median curb she clearly didn’t see. Things so stupid in perfect weather you can’t imagine how it’s possible.
Of course insurance companies can’t “discriminate” on race so they charge more for zip codes where these horrible drivers live. If you live in a zip code with Third Worlders, you pay more for car insurance.
I’ve heard it said that in the US you don’t have anything that Brits or Germans would recognise as a driving test. And this is why American teen movies are full of kids driving cars to school (I await correction).
All states have different laws, but to get a driver’s license for the first time in the U.S. you will have to take a written test plus a driving test with an instructor or evaluator as the passenger. It isn’t rocket science but they can tell if you know what you are doing.
Many states have eliminated the lame written test if you are just renewing your license. Arizona eliminated the requirement that you have to renew every four years, which suits me just fine, but increasingly people are going to complain that Boomers have not had their eyes tested at the DMV in awhile.
In High School I remember exchange students telling us that the minimum driving age in Germany was 18, which was also the drinking age there.
In the U.S. the minimum drinking age is now 21 but mostly it is over 16 to drive.
A few years ago a friend got his driver’s license in Germany and he said the test with the instructor was pretty much the same as in the U.S., but the instructor was impressed that he could actually speak German. The instructor said that most licensees were Kebabs that didn’t know a word of German and expected the officials to accommodate them.
I got my drivers license at age 14 in Idaho. The requirement was a nine-week driver’s education class, plus several hours driving on the street with an instructor, followed by a written exam and then an actual driving test, and then an eye exam. It was a daylight-only license limitation until you turned 16.
I suppose the reason for the young age in those days was because so many kids drove farm trucks. They actually let school out in the Autumn for a bit during potato harvest and hunting season. Before taking Driver’s Education, I learned how to drive operating an old truck ─ not exactly legally but with another adult watching. The minimum driving age in Idaho now is 16, and this reflects that the traffic is not what it was like in the 1970s.
The metro Phoenix area is astronomical for the number of car thefts, and it is no surprise that my insurance rates went way up this year. Some vehicles like pickup trucks with four doors that seat more than two or three are irresistible to thieves ─ and “the Club” (the device locked over the steering wheel) only delays the theft of a new rig for about a minute. Then the police will find the stolen vehicle abandoned in the desert after about a month, thoroughly trashed, and obviously having made incessant off-road trips across the border. This from the personal experience of my neighbors.
Another big “business” here is stealing catalytic converters from cars and trucks just parked overnight. It is amazing how fast they can do this.
The metro Phoenix area now has some excellent state freeway systems, and the speed limits are not too stringently enforced. The flow of traffic is easily 80 mph, which I like since I remember Nixon’s 55 mph speed limit abomination in 1973, which lasted forever because no state wanted to risk not getting any more Federal highway funds. So about as soon as Eisenhower’s Federal Interstate Freeway system was nearing completion, you could no longer travel at highway speeds.
With the State built controlled-access highways, the legislature first tried to enforce speed limits with traffic cameras, but the backlash was impressive.
One very common accident here always involves South of the Border types who don’t understand the concept of divided traffic lanes and always wind up entering the wrong way against traffic.
In Arizona, getting a driver’s license has traditionally required documentation like a birth certificate and a Social Security card. This means that illegal aliens drive without driver’s licenses, which is why they will do a runner on every traffic stop. This is because, by law, once the officer determines that the driver has no license, the person will immediately be arrested.
However, they can’t be brought into the Federal system and deported as Illegal Aliens after the original traffic infraction is settled due to rulings from the Obama courts, so it is a catch-and-release situation.
🙂
Thanks for the interesting and detailed reply!
It’s beyond disgusting that expectations of this are how we’re “living” in society now. The judges, lawyers, and especially the media who enable this dystopia are far worse criminals than the blacks. Maybe that’s why WN’s feel-wrongly, I hope-that defeat is inevitable because the jewiship’s sacrality of negrophilia is inviolable.
“In reality, it is merely blacks behaving normally” cracked me up.
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