Homeland Security saving us from terrorists by raiding mall kiosks?

If this isn't the most wasteful use of federal government resources out there, then I don't know what is. Apparently the DHS, you know the guys who are supposed to keep us safe from "terrorist" attacks like 9-11, is sending out their goon squads to protect us all from the malevolent threat of counterfeit goods being sold at mall kiosks.

I feel safer already.

Goods from kiosks at two malls seized

Federal agents swept through two shopping malls Monday, seizing fake merchandise and shutting down stores.

The Department of Homeland Security spearheaded the investigation that targeted mostly kiosks in the Walden Galleria and Boulevard Mall. Agents hauled bags and boxes out of the Boulevard Mall after stripping three kiosks of their merchandise.

Jim Spero, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Buffalo office of Homeland Security, says the sale of counterfeit goods - in Buffalo and beyond - poses a major security threat.

"When you purchase counterfeit goods, when you sell counterfeit goods, you don't know who you're dealing with. You don't know what kind of criminal activity you're supporting," Spero said. "It's actually organized crime that is behind the distribution of these goods. It could be terrorists as well."

WVIB 4

BLN has a news video detailing the raids here.

Uh yeah, because all terrorist organizations open up mall kiosks to fund their evil plans to take down Amerika.

I guess the big corporations see theft of intellectual property as terrorism against their brand names but, something tells me the average guy on the streets is gonna have a tough time swallowing this.

They are desperate to find something to do. They have to know that at some point we are going to ask why there are so many employees with such a gigantic budget...doing next to nothing day in day out, year after year.

When are they going to secure me from the real corporate criminals subverting our system?

I could care less about some nobody with a kiosk.

Yeah, let's nab the little criminal at the bottom. Ignore all the big dogs.
To big to prosecute?

And here I thought they were raiding the mall kiosks selling balloons shaped like animals on the end of a leash because the kiosk has a big sign reading "EBT accepted". That's right - here in Philly your tax dollars can buy one welfare recipient's family an entire zoo of balloon animals on leashes.

You do know that agencies such as customs are part of DHS don't you?

Do you expect these agencies such as immigration or the Coast Guard to quit doing thier jobs just because they were put under an umbrella called DHS?

They still operate as their own departments you know. Not sure what agency this was who were conducting the raids but its probably part of their job description.

reply to post by Hopechest


dhs is a new agency customs has been around forever, so your wrong.

reply to post by Hopechest


and if you had read the article you would have read that the guy in charge of the operation basically says that buying counterfeit merchandise is giving money to terrorists.

Originally posted by ReVoLuTiOn76
reply to post by Hopechest

 

dhs is a new agency customs has been around forever, so your wrong.

DHS is simply a bunch of pre-existing agencies put together so they can coordinate better.

It consists of customs, immigration, coast guard, fema, the secret service and tsa.

It was a reorganization, not the creation of a totally new, independent department.

Originally posted by ReVoLuTiOn76
reply to post by Hopechest

 

and if you had read the article you would have read that the guy in charge of the operation basically says that buying counterfeit merchandise is giving money to terrorists.

Counterfeiting falls directly under the Secret Service responsibilities.

Its something they are supposed to do.

reply to post by Hopechest


But now the reason they are giving for their actions are terrorism.

Originally posted by ReVoLuTiOn76
reply to post by Hopechest

 

But now the reason they are giving for their actions are terrorism.

And you don't believe that the departments under DHS are involved in terrorism either?

They are.

Originally posted by Hopechest
It was a reorganization, not the creation of a totally new, independent department.

I would characterize it as a new department because a new cabinet secretary was created, even if his department was cobbled together out of existing agencies.

Based on the pictures, this was Homeland Security Investigations, part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. While the reference to terrorism is a bit much, it's basically correct. The smuggling of counterfeit goods is a form of organized crime, and they can (and do) smuggle people, drugs, money, and weapons just as easily as handbags, sometimes through the same channels. What they're really interested in is how they're getting this through the ports. They'll arrest the seller to turn them against the supplier, and work up the chain as far as they can.

reply to post by Hopechest


I thought DHS was supposed to be the umbrella agency to organize and coordinate the efforts of all those alphabet agencies to help them to respond better to "terrorist" threats.

If they are acting under their customs enforcement rols, why don't they have on "customs" uniforms instead of the DHS police-type uniforms? It gives the impression that they are creating one great big federal police force to rule over us and micromanage every aspect of our lives.

Me, I don't see counterfeit smart phone accessories as such a big priority in the war on terror or anything else for that matter. This only shows that DHS is being used as an enforcement arm of the big corporations to protect their brand names.

To me, using a big, federal government agency to enforce corporate trademarks is huge overkill and a misuse of government resources. Them trying to tie this all in to "terrorism" just goes to show that even they know its a waste of time that needs to be justified by bringing up the ever present threat of "terrorism" to try to legitimize their useless actions.

Originally posted by FortAnthem
reply to post by Hopechest

 

I thought DHS was supposed to be the umbrella agency to organize and coordinate the efforts of all those alphabet agencies to help them to respond better to "terrorist" threats.

If they are acting under their customs enforcement rols, why don't they have on "customs" uniforms instead of the DHS police-type uniforms? It gives the impression that they are creating one great big federal police force to rule over us and micromanage every aspect of our lives.

Me, I don't see counterfeit smart phone accessories as such a big priority in the war on terror or anything else for that matter. This only shows that DHS is being used as an enforcement arm of the big corporations to protect their brand names.

To me, using a big, federal government agency to enforce corporate trademarks is huge overkill and a misuse of government resources. Them trying to tie this all in to "terrorism" just goes to show that even they know its a waste of time that needs to be justified by bringing up the ever present threat of "terrorism" to try to legitimize their useless actions.

Well I believe since they are all under DHS now that they have assumed that as their primary allegiance so therefore the DHS uniforms. Their individual responsibilities have not changed however.

Given the poor performance of these agencies post 9/11 I for one am glad to see them all with a central command now. In any public organization it is better to lump similar departments together with one set of rules rather than say 6 individual agencies operating on their own.

I think other parts of the government should reform into single groups also rather than all these separate departments trying to coordinate with one another, much easier if they get their directives from a single source.

You can certainly argue on whether the DHS has morphed into something else but in concept, I think it was a fantastic idea.

reply to post by FortAnthem


Well, they can't continue to ask for bigger budgets if they aren't saving us from fake purses.

This Govt is such a crock of crap.

reply to post by Hopechest


I'd feel a whole lot more comfortable if they would have just come out and said that they are protecting the corporations copyrights by doing this instead of working the silly "terrorism" label into the whole thing.

The "terrorism" excuse for everything the government does nowadays is wearing thin and I don't think many people are buying into it anymore. The more they use it, the more people see what a farce this agency is until one day, there will be a real "terrorist" threat they will try to warn us about but, everybody will yawn, go on with their lives and pay no attention to the agency that has been crying wolf for all these years.

If they're going to claim to be fighting "terrorism" there should at least be some actual evidence that what they are doing is directly tied to some "terrorist" activities, other than wild speculation.

Stories like this do nothing but kill the credibility of the DHS and make us all think they are jumping at shadows, believing that everything is a "terrorist" threat.

reply to post by FortAnthem


I certainly have to agree that the terrorism angle is rather weak and not required here. Simply telling us your doing what we pay you for and that's all we need.

Yes they do toss the whole terrorism thing around far too much for my liking. It may be valid in some instances but not nearly as much as they use it for.

You are correct that its starting to wear on people and making them become less wary of it. Terrorism should only be used for serious instances where you want people to sit up and take notice, it seems that its used so much now that people just dismiss it when they hear it.

reply to post by FortAnthem
It's pretty much a "given" that when you see "designer" handbags, etc. for sale at one of these kiosks for way cheaper than normal retail price that they are either knock offs or black market items. Why people continue to spend their money for fakes amazes me, but they still do it. I don't feel this is a problem for DHS though. I think if they want to put a dent in the problem they would do better educating the consumers than raiding kiosks that will be right back in business the next, if not the same, day.

Originally posted by Hopechest

Counterfeiting falls directly under the Secret Service responsibilities.

Its something they are supposed to do.

I do see the correlation, they have done a very good job gaurding the
counterfeit POTUS we have had for the last 4 years.

Originally posted by littled16
reply to post by FortAnthem

 

It's pretty much a "given" that when you see "designer" handbags, etc. for sale at one of these kiosks for way cheaper than normal retail price that they are either knock offs or black market items. Why people continue to spend their money for fakes amazes me, but they still do it. I don't feel this is a problem for DHS though. I think if they want to put a dent in the problem they would do better educating the consumers than raiding kiosks that will be right back in business the next, if not the same, day.

People still buy them because no one cares.. We all still want cheap stuff and china can make a leather purse or stitch a jersey together as well as Coach or Nike..


The real question is why the hell would anyone buy a jerseys for 300$ when you cam get one from China that is just as nice for 20 bucks

Or why would you spend 1200$ on a Coach purse when you can get the same one from China for 35$?

So the only real way they can get you to not buy a knockoff is tell you, you are funding terrorism if you spend that 20 bucks in China

God forbid they just lower their frikin prices