A Los Angeles council member has been filmed blaming Toyota for the growing theft of catalytic converters plaguing the city, while opposing a motion to hold criminals accountable.
Nithya Raman, a member of the City Council since 2020, blamed Toyota and accused the company of making its cars so “easy to steal.”
The video, filmed in 2023, has drawn widespread criticism as residents accuse Los Angeles Democrats of failing to target thieves as car theft continues to rise.
The video comes as actor and General Hospital star Johnny Wactor was shot and killed Saturday when he interrupted thieves who broke into his car trying to steal a catalytic converter. He was only 37 years old.
In 2023, nearly 8,000 catalytic converter components were stolen in a single year, a staggering 728 percent increase from 2018.
In an attempt to crack down on theft, the Los Angeles City Council passed an 8-4 motion making it illegal to own a separate catalytic converter unless you have valid documentation.
A viral video has resurfaced revealing Los Angeles Councilman Nithya Raman blaming Toyota for the growing theft of catalytic converters plaguing the city, while opposing a motion to hold criminals accountable.
This comes as the latest victim, actor and General Hospital star Johnny Wactor, was shot and killed Saturday in Los Angeles when he confronted thieves who broke into his car trying to steal a catalytic converter.
But Raman opposed the motion and blamed the Toyota car company, saying they should not make their cars so “easy to steal.”
“In this case, I think one of the things that infuriates me is that we have a company (whatever, Toyota) that makes the Prius and they essentially have a device on their cars that is very easy to remove. It’s basically the value of a MacBook, right? Raman said at the 2023 Council meeting.
“This is placed in a place that is incredibly easy to access in your car, and all the costs of thefts are on us instead of them (Toyota) having to make a car that is actually not that easy to steal “. ,’ She continued.
Fellow Democrat Eunises Hernández agreed, saying the ban on possessing a catalytic converter was “racist.”
“I think criminalizing the mere possession of a catalytic converter is the wrong way to go, because we know which communities are going to be the most criminalized for this,” Hernandez said.
“This makes it a misdemeanor, attracts a $1,000 fine and you can go to jail for six months.”
“Even a brief incarceration of a couple of days can destabilize someone’s life forever and has collateral consequences that they have to endure until they can get an expungement, if they can get it… I don’t agree with creating more opportunities to criminalize our communities,’ Hernández continued.
According to a report from KTLA, police officers responded to the area of Pico Boulevard and Hope Street around 3:25 a.m.
About 600,000 catalytic converters are stolen every year. Most cars are equipped with one converter, but those with a dual exhaust system require two. Larger vehicles, such as SUVs and pickup trucks, may have more than two.
According to the New York Times, stolen catalytic converters pass through “middlemen, smelters and refineries in the United States and abroad.” They can be stolen in less than a minute and cost around $1,000 to replace.
Los Angeles has seen a sharp increase in car thefts since the Covid-19 pandemic, and the theft rate has increased each year since 2019.
In 2023, there were more than 25,000 car thefts across the city, a staggering 64 percent increase compared to pre-pandemic numbers.
The LAPD reported Friday that as of late April, the city’s increase in the number of murders in 2024 continued to decline and, as of April 27, was only 4.2 percent above the number of murders reported in this moment in 2023. NBC Los Angeles reported.
The last time police updated burglary statistics, in late March 2024, thefts increased by 9.5 percent, according to ABC 7.
Wactor, who appeared in 164 episodes of the soap opera from 2020 to 2022, was leaving his side job at a rooftop bar with a female colleague around 3:25 a.m. Saturday in the area of West Pico Boulevard and South Hope Street. when he saw the three men, believing they were towing him.
Police said one of the three men, all wearing masks, shot Wactor before fleeing in a separate vehicle.
Paramedics arrived on the scene shortly after and transported him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The masked suspects remain at large and have not yet been identified or described.
Wactor’s mother, Scarlett, told TMZ that her son saw three men trying to steal the catalytic converter from his car.
Scarlett Wactor, Johnny’s mother, said her son didn’t try to fight them or even stop them from robbing him, but they still shot him and escaped.
Johnny’s younger brother Grant confirmed to DailyMail.com that Johnny was shot in the chest when he encountered the suspects trying to steal the catalytic converter from his truck.
He said his brother and his co-worker had to park about two blocks from the restaurant, so they walked to their cars after finishing their shift.
Grant said they were raised as ‘Southern gentlemen,’ so he wasn’t surprised that his older brother was walking his coworker to her car.
“We’re Southerners, born and raised, and we would never let a woman walk to her car alone.”
