NYPD Cracks Down On Counterfeit Goods

If you're planning on heading to NYC's Chinatown for a knockoff purse, wallet or watch before Christmas - you might want to reconsider. The NYPD raided a bunch of storefronts along Canal Street this week - and closed many of the counterfeit peddlers down.

Canal Street (the main drag running through Chinatown) usually looks like this...


But this Tuesday it looked like this...


The Chinatown counterfeit merchandise business has changed since I moved to NYC. Fifteen years ago the Canal Street shops openly displayed counterfeit merchandise with the actual brand-name logos on it (Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc.). The police just ignored it - saying they had bigger and better things to worry about.

But then the major fashion houses started pressuring the city to crack down on the counterfeiters (which costs them billions of dollars in revenue). And the city responded ... forcing the "really good" counterfeits off the street and behind closed doors. After the crackdown, store-owners displayed "similar but not exact" reproductions - but not actual knockoffs. Brand names such as "Channel" are common.

Now - if you want the "good stuff" - you have to go on a little bit of a mission. When you hit Canal Street you'll see Asian women carrying signs with pictures of "real" (LOL!) "designer" bags. If you want a "real Gucci" or a "real Chanel" bag, you point to which one you want.


The women will size you up (trying to determine if you are a police officer) - and if you pass muster they'll take you to a secret location. Many of these places are separate warehouses where you are literally locked in (to prevent police raids) before you can make purchases. Others are just back rooms behind the regular storefronts.

My friend's elderly mother went down to Chinatown about a year ago (she was visiting from Houston), and found herself in one of these warehouses. As she was negotiating with a gentleman over the price of a bag, people started yelling - and the Chinese "staff" of the building took off running. My friend's mom didn't know what was happening, so she ran after the guy yelling "But I want to buy that bag!!!!". Luckily the police didn't bust HER.

HAPPY PRIDE! Gay Bar Raided On Stonewall Anniversary

Fort Worth's Rainbow Lounge was raided by police on the EXACT 40th anniversary of the initial raid on the Stonewall Inn in NYC (June 28). Many of the Rainbow Lounge Patrons were rounded up and charged with "public intoxication" - and some experienced excessive force from police. From Daily Kos, a dancer from the bar recalls:

I was one of the dance entertainers last night at Rainbow Lounge. I was dancing on a box in the VIP lounge and was looking right at the first guy that was arrested. The male patron was standing at the bar doing nothing but having a having a drink and a fun time (like people do in bars) when an officer entered that section of the club and made a beeline straight towards him. The officer forcefully spun the man around, shoved him against the bar and placed plastic restraints on his wrists. The officer then marched the man out the club. The guy was stunned and obviously really scared.

I then noticed another officer in the VIP section and several other officers filtering into the club. I made the decision at that point to go ahead and get dressed in case they were going to start arresting everyone in the entire place.

When I got inside the dressing room there were other dancers already in there getting dressed. They were panicking and saying that this is not something they have ever had to deal dancing in Dallas. I got dressed and walked out the door and saw that several more officers had made their way into the club. I went into sort of a surreal haze at that moment. I was so disturbed and saddened because it occurred to me in that moment that being after midnight, it was actually the exact same day as the Stonewall Riots. I just couldn’t believe what was happening.

I was still standing near the entrance to the VIP lounge with a friend when an officer approached a man standing there. The man had water in his hand. The officer asked him how much he had had to drink and the man said that he didn’t have to answer that. The officer then said that he was going to arrest him for public intoxication. The man said,"You can’t do that I am just standing here right now drinking water." At the time the officer shoved the man over towards the wall near the dressing room and then back to the rear wall near the men’s restroom, then down onto the floor. Several other officers, made their way back there to hold that ONE MAN down on the ground as they placed restraints on him. At the time I noticed that all of them did not have FWPD uniforms on. Some of them were actually State Police.

There is now a Facebook Group dedicated to discussing the raid. Here is their group summary:

Last night around 1 a.m., on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the Fort Worth Police Department raided the Rainbow Lounge and began randomly handcuffing and arresting patrons and shoving anyone who dared to ask why. It was a sobering reminder that on this pinnacle date in the history of gay rights, we still have a very long way to go. I created this group to give folks a chance to discuss it, share stories, pictures, etc.

Apparently eighteen people were arrested and one was actually hospitalized. It's things like this that remind us that we still have a long ways to go toward equality.