In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed three bills into law to address the problem of catalytic converter theft from vehicles.
Assembly Bill 1653 expanded the scope of the California Highway Patrol Retail Crime Task Force to include theft of auto parts. The bill analysis for the legislature stated, “The goal is to help local law enforcement agencies successfully combat the theft of catalytic converters” after these thefts were “up by 400% in 2020” in Los Angeles and “over 900%” in Fresno County between 2020 and 2021.
Assembly Bill 1740 prohibited recyclers from purchasing catalytic converters from anyone except a licensed commercial enterprise or lawful owner. “Catalytic converters are an easy and popular target for theft,” the legislative analysis stated. “With a battery-powered saw, a catalytic converter can be detached from a vehicle in less than a minute.”
Senate Bill 1087 prohibited the purchase of a used catalytic converter from anyone except certain specified sellers, who maintained proper documentation to show lawful ownership. The bill analysis for the legislature explained that the price of the precious metals in a catalytic converter had risen due to scarcity during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Metal theft generally becomes an issue on a broad scale when the price of metals themselves increase, usually coupled with hard economic times,” the analysis noted.
None of these pathetic regulatory tinkers were sufficient to save the life of actor Johnny Wactor, who returned to his parked car on a downtown L.A. street just in time to witness the theft of his catalytic converter in progress. He was shot to death by one of the thieves.
“Hard economic times,” according to the California legislature.
Wactor had just finished a shift working as a bartender when he was killed. The acting business is no stranger to hard economic times, especially during industry slowdowns due to strikes or a pandemic or other states passing new film and TV production incentives.
People do a lot of different kinds of work to pay the high cost of living in California, but the range of legitimate choices does not include stealing catalytic converters with a battery-powered saw, or killing witnesses with a handgun.
In April 2023, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance to make possession of a detached catalytic converter illegal without proof of ownership. Something much stronger was needed, but even that weak measure was opposed by Councilmembers Heather Hutt, Nithya Raman, Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Eunisses Hernandez.
Hernandez said the misdemeanor crime would disproportionately target low-income residents, and also Black, Latino and Indigenous people. She told the Council that a criminal conviction could “damage someone’s life forever.”
Harris-Dawson said the ordinance would cause more Black and Latino drivers to be stopped by police to see if they have detached catalytic converters in their possession.
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, who had earlier opposed the measure, said it would be better for the city to help people buy protective steel cages to prevent the thefts.
Raman explained her vote by blaming Toyota. The company had made the catalytic converter on a Prius “super easy to remove,” she complained, suggesting that the solution might be to require automakers “to manufacture a car that actually is not so easy to be stolen.”
Pathetic.
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The people of California are being abused by elected officials who act as if crime is a problem of public perception, while criminals are just misunderstood individuals who shouldn’t be further “victimized” by law enforcement.
Crime is real, and violent thugs who kill innocent people are not a sociology project, they’re a threat to the life and liberty of everyone else.
Yet politicians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, continue to push for prison and jail closures as if the idea of incarcerating criminals is outdated.
It’s long past time to wake up from the dangerous illusion that prisons are unnecessary, or that long sentences always do more harm than good. The relative harm and good have to be measured not just for the incarcerated person, but also for the people who are walking to their cars after work, or walking in the Venice Canals, or riding a Metro train, or driving a bus.
History may record that Johnny Wactor was in the wrong place at the wrong time. California. In 2024.
Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on Twitter @Susan_Shelley
