Los Angeles City Council is divided on ‘punishing’ catalytic converter thieves
Zachary Faria
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Even the Los Angeles City Council is taking a tougher stance on thefts, but not without resistance from the council’s biggest crime enablers.
The Los Angeles City Council voted on Tuesday to make it illegal to own an unattached catalytic converter without proof of receipt or other information that can verify ownership. The impetus for the decision is quite clear. Los Angeles went from 972 reported catalytic converter thefts in 2018 to nearly 8,000 in 2022, an increase of over 700%.
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Despite that massive surge created by the soft-on-crime attitude of Los Angeles (and California) leadership, the council barely managed to pass this ordinance. It was approved by a vote of 8-4, with a fifth council member who opposed it missing the vote. Eight votes was the minimum number needed, meaning it barely passed.
Why? Because the pro-criminal sentiment in Los Angeles has affected even the city council. One member, Hugo Soto-Martinez, declared the ordinance was racist and that it “doesn’t help anybody.” Another member, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, had this to say: “When somebody gets something stolen, the city should be doing everything we can to make sure they’re made whole — not to punish another person.”
Yes, the position of a member of the Los Angeles City Council is that the city should not “punish” thieves. They should be free to steal whatever they want. The real focus should be on making victims “whole,” presumably so the next thief that comes along also has something to steal from them.
This is the attitude that has pervaded Democratic leadership in several major cities. In Los Angeles, it has been lethal, as District Attorney George Gascon has helped gang members and felons earn light sentences, only for them to return to the streets to commit violent crimes again. Even here, the eight members who pushed this measure through would only make catalytic converter thefts a misdemeanor. Given Gascon’s track record, how many criminals do you think will actually face real consequences because of this ordinance?
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What the city council members who opposed this measure miss is that you cannot make a victim of crime “whole” by giving criminals free rein to victimize them again or to victimize others. You only make them more vulnerable. You make those victims poorer, in the case of catalytic converter thefts, but you also make them less safe as emboldened criminals become more violent and brazen. That’s not criminal justice. That’s a blueprint for societal decay.
With leaders like Soto-Martinez and Harris-Dawson, it isn’t a surprise that Los Angeles has devolved into a criminal’s paradise over the last few years. Their pro-criminal attitude has made Los Angeles residents less safe because that is the result you are courting when you decide your goal is “not to punish” criminals.