'THE PURGE' response: Catalytic converter law
Council responds to infamous crimes with new ordinance.
By Brian Maquena
April 12, 2022
LAKEWOOD, CALIF. — City Council on Tuesday sought to combat violent catalytic converter robberies in Lakewood by forcing those possessing unattached catalytic converters to also possess proof that they are the rightful owners of such parts.
“It is unlawful for any person, other than a Core Recycler...to possess any catalytic converter that is not attached to a vehicle unless the person has valid proof of ownership,” says the new ordinance passed unanimously by Council.
On March 5, a group of bat-wielding hooligans took over streets behind the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station, using baseball bats to intimidate residents from coming out to stop them. One hooligan even raised his bat above his head, preparing to strike a female resident if she walked out her side door after catching them sawing off her catalytic converter.
The Lakewood Populist discovered and released this video after City Clerk Jo Mayberry declined to release another such video. This resulted in several local TV news stations broadcasting the video, forcing Lakewood’s Public Safety Committee to hold an emergency meeting that crafted a $400,000 public safety plan passed by the Council on March 22.
The cornerstone of this plan was a private security firm, hired April 6th by the city’s Public Safety Committee via authority from Council, to patrol neighborhood streets at night. Tonight, Council approved another part of the emergency public safety plan, the purchase of an electronic, mobile signage that can also use radar to track stolen vehicles.
The anti-catalytic-converter-theft ordinance was another example of Council’s fight against such crimes rampant across the region.
At the April 6 Public Safety Committee meeting, then-Mayor Jeff Wood and Councilman Todd Rogers voted to recommend to the entire Council to pass the catalytic converter ordinance, which was passed tonight.
Despite the outrage caused by “The Purge” in Lakewood crimes, Steve Croft—who was again nominated to be Mayor by his colleagues, while Ariel Pe was nominated to be Vice Mayor—insisted that crime was going down.
“While serious crime in Lakewood as a whole is low and even dropped in this past year, we see a troubling increase in vehicle thefts and vehicle burglaries,” said Croft. “All of that has created understandable unease in our community.”
Ever since “ ‘The Purge’ in Lakewood” video was broadcasted by Fox 11 News and others, city officials have strived to tell residents that things aren’t as bad as they seem.
In an LA Times article on March 16, the day after Good Day LA on Fox 11 broadcasted the video, Lakewood spokesman Bill Grady said Lakewood “is generally a quiet and safe residential community with low crime rates.”
And, in a March 16 city newsletter focusing entirely on catalytic converter thefts and the video, officials focused on what Lakewood is doing and has been doing to keep residents safe.
“Lakewood’s investment in public safety works,” said the newsletter. “Property and violent crime overall declined in Lakewood in 2021.”
All this feel-good messaging appears to conflict with not only crime reported daily among neighbors online, but also with a statement by Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
“Countywide our challenge has been homicides and grand theft autos. ... But a lot of the smaller cities are actually been kind of little islands where it’s been relatively better than the bigger cities, you know, like Santa Clarita and Lakewood, for example,” Villanueva told Artesia City Council at a special December 6, 2021 Artesia Council meeting. (See the 35:00 minute mark of the video with Sheriff Villanueva.)
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