Counterfeiters' Depraved Bedfellows

As a native New Yorker, I have seen my beloved city transform from the filthy and crime-infested Gotham of the 70s and 80s to the gleaming and relatively crime-free Metropolis it is today. This transformation came about largely from the political will to implement police counters to "broken windows." According to the Broken Window theory, enforcing the law on small crimes such as vandalism (breaking windows) not only improves the quality of life for city residents, it also nets criminals wanted for other crimes. If someone is willing to jump bail for a large crime, why wouldn't he also be willing to commit a more menial sin, such as jumping a subway turnstile? As the NYPD began to enforce the law for smaller crimes, they suddenly netted a large number of criminals wanted for larger crimes. Scofflaws of misdemeanors and flouters of felonies turned out to be largely the same people. So as law enforcement took action enforcing the smaller violations, all crime dropped steeply.

In the Philippines, Emil Jurado writes in the Manila Standard of a similar phenomenon encountered by Optical Media Board Chairman Edu Manzano (scroll to the bottom of the page). Manzano's job is to enforce anti-piracy laws, but he has found that the raids conducted by the OMB have captured large amounts of child pornography. As Manzano has no legal authority to enforce child pornography laws through his agency, he has decided instead to form the Anti-Child Abuse and Pornography Foundation, a public-private partnership to address his new-found concerns. God bless him.

But the larger point is this - counterfeiting is a criminal problem. Perhaps the public is not sympathetic to the enforcement of anti-counterfeiting laws on some items because the sellers are rich and the items expensive. But even counterfeiting these items is a crime. What Manzano has shown is that counterfeiting and piracy are gateways to the greater evils of child pornography. And while his actions and increased counterfeiting enforcement may not be solely paving Manila's transformation from Gotham to Metropolis, they are providing lifelong solace to those children who might otherwise have been victimized by these counterfeiting, molesting monsters.