I apologize for marginalizing people’s feelings on the subject. I wasn’t thinking how my comment would affect people who have personally been victims of these criminals. I included my intent not to justify my carelessness, but to hopefully clarify my goals. I hoped to harness the outrage to direct it at something productive.
There are no defenders of catalytic converter thieves. Nobody is making the argument that destroying cars to steal precious metals is a critical component of our economy. I am not suggesting that it’s not worthy of anger and contempt.
I do still hope that more people become aware of wage theft. There are far more victims, a far greater percentage are unaware that they are victims, and there is infinitely more work to be done to fight wage theft. But I acknowledge that this was the wrong way to being it up.