stores raided by NYPD in NYC

Joined
Dec 18, 2000
Messages
208
I believe a day before New York Custom Knives show, many knife stores were raided by NYPD and many store owner were sent to jail. They claimed that any knives which can be flip open are considered gravity knives. One of my friend is a store owner and arrested for this. Our favoriate Emerson, Spyderco, Benchmade are also considered gravity knives! There is also words out that this is mayor Bloomberg way of getting rid of knives store in NYC.

Any info on this from our forum members.
 
No real info, just some thoughts. If this story is true, and the store owners are being charged with violating New York State law, then precedent is in their favor, as NYS courts have held a very strict interpetation of the term gravity knife that excludes balisongs and requires that the knife be capable of opening either by gravity alone or from "a simple flick of the wrist". Can't really speak for Benchmades or Emersons, but no Spyderco I've ever handled can be opened in this manner. On the other hand, if they are being charged with violating a New York City ordinance, then all bets are off, as the city court system may hold a completely different and contrary definition of what constitutes a gravity knife.

On the other hand, I've heard stories to the effect that there are more than a few stores in NYC where low quality Paki and Chi-com switchblades are openly displayed and sold. That of course would be a violation of NYS law.
 
Originally posted by Ktint
I believe a day before New York Custom Knives show, many knife stores were raided by NYPD and many store owner were sent to jail. They claimed that any knives which can be flip open are considered gravity knives. One of my friend is a store owner and arrested for this. Our favoriate Emerson, Spyderco, Benchmade are also considered gravity knives! There is also words out that this is mayor Bloomberg way of getting rid of knives store in NYC.

This is mostly BS. The stores that were targeted were selling cheap knives to underage gang members. They had been under surveillance for some time.
NYPD on the whole is fairly knife friendly, 3 of them were at the NY show with me. As long as a knife falls into the legal size restrictions and you arent flashing it around or doing anything wrong, most NYPD ignore them. We have a couple of members here that are NYPD.
PS-did you post this on every forum you could find?
 
i dont think the NYPD would raid "legitimate" stores selling name brand knifes. everything i've ever seen in evidence bags are counterfeits and cheapies.
 
Originally posted by Ktint
I believe a day before New York Custom Knives show, many knife stores were raided by NYPD and many store owner were sent to jail. They claimed that any knives which can be flip open are considered gravity knives. One of my friend is a store owner and arrested for this. Our favoriate Emerson, Spyderco, Benchmade are also considered gravity knives! There is also words out that this is mayor Bloomberg way of getting rid of knives store in NYC.

Any info on this from our forum members.

I dont think Paragon Sports ever got raided, not sure what you are talking about here, Paragon Sports has one of the biggest collections that i've seen in the city. You should post some details, i've heard of some stores getting raided, but never bothered to ask for details.
 
requires that the knife be capable of opening either by gravity alone or from "a simple flick of the wrist".
Does this leave room to make it legal to have a switchblade that has a safety on it since then you would have to move the safety and then push the button?
Richard
 
Originally posted by speedfan
Does this leave room to make it legal to have a switchblade that has a safety on it since then you would have to move the safety and then push the button?
Richard

I doubt it, at least as far as the current NYS law regarding switchblades is concerned. No precedent that I can find regarding this issue, but I sure would not wish to be the test case. Would imagine the State's argument would be that since the saftey can be released at any time, it has no real bearing on the central issue of the knife being opened by a spring in response to the actuation of a release mechanism in the handle. If you're talking about getting them exempted from the law, I doubt it for the same reason.

Do bear in mind that with regard to all simple "posession of a dangersous weapon" offenses, the general rule is that, in order to get charged with a violation, you have to pretty much act like an a$$hole. You have either get caught in the act of doing something else that is obviously illegal, be in the process of being arrested on a warrent for having done something else illegal, or, at the very least, give some LEO the distinct impression that you are about to do something very illegal.
 
Paul, while what you say is, obviously, true about who will be rousted by the police, I do need to observe that anyone who uses a knife in self-defense is going to have to face not only the police but a prosecuting attorney over the use of that knife. In that case, it would not be a happy incident if you were ever found to be carrying an illegal knife, or so it seems to me. This is especially true when there are legal options that are damned near as effective, especially in NYC, as I understand the law there.

IIRC, there was an unfortunate woman in the 1960s who got coverage in the media for defending herself against a rapist with a switchblade, one of those Italian stiletto types from the film Blackboard Jungle, if you remember them, the nasty, cheap ones. She was charged and convicted, even then, with using an illegal weapon. I remember the NYC district attorney's office making public statements to the effect that "What could we do, she broke the law?" They looked pretty stupid, especially a year or two later when Kitty Genovese was raped and beaten to death with great screaming and crying in the middle of an apartment complex filled with people and nobody came out to hep her. The author, Robert Ruark, had a syndicated column in a number of Scripps-Howard newspapers, including Washington's Daily News(now defunct), and he commented almost daily on the woman's switchblade case. He eventually suggested that women should return to the old-fashioned long hatpin of the Victorian age as an easily consealable, but legal, weapon for use against rapists!?!
 
Hugh,

You are right of course, at least where NYC is concerned. And, while "upstate" police and prosecutors might be a bit more willing to overlook otherwise illegal weapons discovered as a result of an act of self defense, or the defense of another, I would not bet my freedom on that either.

I also agree that both the law and any possible "defensive weapon" related reason to disobey it have been rendered pretty much obsolete by knives like my Spyderco Native. On the other hand, it does occasionally irritate me that collectors in New York cannot legally own automatic knives manufactured in this state over fifty years ago which have little or no value as weapons, defensive or otherwise.
 
Back
Top