Copycat

A huge raid of the stalls in Chinatown that sell counterfeit goods happened in 2003 where authorities nabbed over 2 million dollars worth of fake designer purses according to the New York Times:

Last year, the International Chamber of Commerce said that counterfeiting accounted for an estimated 5 to 7 percent of global trade, and that it continues to grow. A 1994 study by the city estimated the cost of unpaid taxes on counterfeit goods to be $350 million.

Seven men and four women were detained and released yesterday in what the police described as a continuing investigation to determine whether the workers are in the country illegally and who is behind the large shipments of goods from overseas.

''I'm not saying these people are associated with terrorist organizations,'' Captain McGowan said, ''but some counterfeit rings are. It's a great way to destroy our economy.''

Those insidious yellow people. Nevermind crashing planes into office buildings, get 'em where they hurt, sell them a copy of a Kate Spade bag for a measly ten bucks. While a recent article in the Miami Herald probes to the heart of the problem:

The counterfeit trade feeds Asian mafias, steals the names and business of legitimate manufacturers, avoids millions of dollars in taxes and is conducted without any controls over child labor or use of banned chemical products.

Makes you want to reconsider that perfect copy of those Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses. Meanwhile the New York Observer reports on the most recent Chinatown raid in February of this year:

A uniformed cop manning a barricade in front of the raided stores said “eventually they will sweep the whole place," but perhaps not immediately because the NYPD needs to get individual search warrants first.

He said the mountains of merchandise inside the trucks would eventually be destroyed.

The question is why the NYPD is cracking down on Chinatown now after allowing its “counterfeit” economy to exist for decades.

“It had just gotten too out of hand,” reasoned the young officer.

Allam, a Bangladeshi vendor on Canal who shares his stall with a Chinese man who did not show up to work today, worries the raids might be the beginning of the end for what had seemed like Manhattan’s most impenetrable ethnic enclave.

“I don’t know what the mayor is thinking but yesterday they shut an entire block so I’m sure the rest of the street is next,” Allam said standing in front of the rows of NYPD and FBI hats displayed in his stall. “Chinatown has been here for a century and soon it will be gone. It really sucks.”

I seriously doubt that the disappearance of counterfeit vendors will herald the end of New York's Chinatown as we know it. But I do wonder if they really intend to shut it down completely. Considering how long people have openly sold these counterfeit goods, there must have been a payola going on somewhere.