Live data from Hacker News

Baltimore sues Hyundai, Kia over spike in car thefts

thebaltimorebanner.com

301–310 of 670 posts

Re: Baltimore sues Hyundai, Kia over spike in car thefts

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, just to get this clear, you are likening an argument over a manufacturer creating defective products with arguments that might come from a rapist's defense attorney?

The argument isn't comparing the manufacturers liability, but that of the people choosing to steal the cars in the first place - why is it relevant how easy the cars are to steal?

Because human nature is a bit more complex than "car thief or not."

Re: Baltimore sues Hyundai, Kia over spike in car thefts

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels bizarre to make appeals to a foreign society with a history, culture, government, and demographics which are utterly alien to the situation in the west. We don't live in China. Are you so sure that our situation SHOULD be that of China that you'd be willing to risk you or a loved one being victimized by a violent thug? It always confused me that people would side with criminals over the innocent.

The massive incarceration rates in the US don't seem to be solving anything, although you don't think they're enough. The US has the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world yet in your view it is barely incarcerating at all. If China is too different, look at western Europe. England's incarceration rate is less than one third of the US's. Canada is on sixth of the US's. These countries have lower incar…

There are short-term solutions and there are long-term solutions. What is your long-term solution?

Re: Baltimore sues Hyundai, Kia over spike in car thefts

#303
post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If China executes prisoners who would be imprisoned in the US, is it a fair to compare the number of incarcerated in the US and China [1]? In the US they get a lengthy prison sentence, increasing the moving sum of incarcerated for the US, in China they are shot, decreasing the moving sum of the incarcerated for China. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_offences_in_China

~10,000 executions a year¹. It would take roughly 5 million people for China to match the US incarceration rate. So it's probably fair enough to compare incarceration rates and numbers. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_China#Ra...

From your link:

> The exact numbers of people executed in China is classified as a state secret;

In addition to executions, China has been clamping down on entire populations, therefore, preventing future incarceration.

> Uyghur birthrate fell by almost half between 2017-2019, research finds, adding to evidence of coercive fertility policies

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/12/chinese-uyghur...

Re: Baltimore sues Hyundai, Kia over spike in car thefts

#304

I should point out to those not from the US that this is how Americans view the US. There is a lot of crime, the government and NGOs are on the side of the criminals etc. It is up voted to the top as well, with agreement in the replies, this is how Americans view the US. The US incarcerates more people than China, despite China having more than four times as many people, but the view obviously is the incarceration ra…

The previous poster didn't really say anything about incarceration. They didn't say anything about any solution – they just said there's a serious problem. You're reading far too much in to their comment.

Re: Baltimore sues Hyundai, Kia over spike in car thefts

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You left your house unlocked? It's your fault" "You dressed like that? It's your fault"

Sorry, just to get this clear, you are likening an argument over a manufacturer creating defective products with arguments that might come from a rapist's defense attorney?

[dead]

Re: Baltimore sues Hyundai, Kia over spike in car thefts

#306
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There will always be a most popular car to steal as long as there are car thefts. Maybe the problem is the thieves?

If it were possible for two problems to exist at the same time, I'd say one problem is a product defect reducing the barrier of entry so low that car theft is accessible to bored teenagers. But of course you are right, only one problem can ever exist and the problem is car thieves.

[dead]

Re: Baltimore sues Hyundai, Kia over spike in car thefts

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, just to get this clear, you are likening an argument over a manufacturer creating defective products with arguments that might come from a rapist's defense attorney?

If I buy a front door lock that has a systemic manufacturing problem and someone breaks into my house, I might want to sue the manufacturer. But if someone breaks into my house--regardless of whether it was unlocked, the lock was defective, or they broke a window--and the police are negligent or incompetent in investigating or prosecuting the perpetrators, in what world is that a) not the police's fault? and b) an op…

If you make a lock that is recognizable and easily broken to the extent that B&Es double nationwide, I don't see a problem with cities suing you over it.

I don't know why you want to try and link the idea of a cultural movement? There's very clearly a difference between a defective product and a deliberate decision.

Re: Baltimore sues Hyundai, Kia over spike in car thefts

#309
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There will always be a most popular car to steal as long as there are car thefts. Maybe the problem is the thieves?

If it were possible for two problems to exist at the same time, I'd say one problem is a product defect reducing the barrier of entry so low that car theft is accessible to bored teenagers. But of course you are right, only one problem can ever exist and the problem is car thieves.

This just kind of ignores how one of those things wouldn't even be a problem without the other.

Re: Baltimore sues Hyundai, Kia over spike in car thefts

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1.) Though this is becoming an increasingly popular viewpoint in many of the American cities that are experiencing these problems right now, it’s far from universally held. 2.) The U.S. is not a monolith, so looking at the prison population of the United States as a whole doesn’t tell you about what’s going on in an individual state or city. 3.) The number of people incarcerated has a long tail. In the U.S. in partic…

I consider myself a liberal, but while I think pretty much all drug possession charges should be dropped and decriminalized, violent crime? Robbery? Those folks should absolutely be in jail. I don't care if we have to build tent cities to incarcerate them. You hurt someone intentionally, you should not be breathing free air for a while.

The fundamental problem is that the misguided attempt to criminalize drugs destroyed respect for the law for generations. Once you're at risk of being locked in a cage for decades for engaging in behavior that would otherwise just be called running a small business, then robbery isn't a huge leap. Especially after your industry ends up creating its own parallel justice system because the usual courts have been made unavailable.

So yes, while drugs should be deillegalized and those crimes expunged, this is only but a first step on a long road to repairing the severe damage that was done to actual law and order by the very people fallaciously rallying behind "law and order" in the 80's and 90's.

Post reply on HN