It turns out H&M and Walmart aren’t the only two organizations caught destroying clothes they couldn’t sell. Yesterday the New York Times reported that the NYC Police Department has also been destroying clothing that would otherwise be wearable. The big difference this time is that the clothing is counterfeit.

NYC Police used to donate this sort of clothing to charities across the city, but they told the paper that those charities didn’t ask for the clothes last year. The charities say that’s not true:

A spokesman for the Police Department said that no one asked for the knockoffs in 2009 — an explanation that was bewildering to the operators of the clothing bank, who run a warehouse that supplies clothing to needy New Yorkers. They said they had made many requests.

The charities told the paper that in the past, they removed labels and “defaced” any fake trademarks before distributing the clothes, and they pointed out that the donations helped save them–and therefore the city–money.

“Closing Pipeline to Needy, City Shreds Clothes” [New York Times via TechDirt]

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