Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

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Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby MacCruiskeen » Tue May 03, 2016 10:49 am

Bravo Italy! The highest court in the land! I hope this will set a precedent worldwide:

Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry

3 hours ago
BBC Europe
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Image copyright AFP

Right and pertinent' ruling, say papers

For the judges, the "right to survival prevails over property", said an op-ed in La Stampa newspaper (in Italian).

In times of economic hardship, the court of cassation's judgement "reminds everyone that in a civilised country not even the worst of men should starve".

An opinion piece in Corriere Della Sera says statistics suggest 615 people are added to the ranks of the poor in Italy every day - it was "unthinkable that the law should not take note of reality".


Stealing small amounts of food to stave off hunger is not a crime, Italy's highest court of appeal has ruled.

Judges overturned a theft conviction against Roman Ostriakov after he stole cheese and sausages worth €4.07 (£3; $4.50) from a supermarket.


Mr Ostriakov, a homeless man of Ukrainian background, had taken the food "in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment", the court of cassation decided.

Therefore it was not a crime, it said.

A fellow customer informed the store's security in 2011, when Mr Ostriakov attempted to leave a Genoa supermarket with two pieces of cheese and a packet of sausages in his pocket but paid only for breadsticks.

In 2015, Mr Ostriakov was convicted of theft and sentenced to six months in jail and a €100 fine.

It criticised the fact that a case concerning the taking of goods worth under €5 went through three rounds in the courts before being thrown out.

The "historic" ruling is "right and pertinent", said Italiaglobale.it - and derives from a concept that "informed the Western world for centuries - it is called humanity".

However, his case was sent to appeal on the grounds that the conviction should be reduced to attempted theft and the sentence cut, as Mr Ostriakov had not left the shop premises when he was caught.

Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation, which reviews only the application of the law and not the facts of the case, on Monday made a final and definitive ruling overturning the conviction entirely.

Stealing small quantities of food to satisfy a vital need for food did not constitute a crime, the court wrote.

"The condition of the defendant and the circumstances in which the seizure of merchandise took place prove that he took possession of that small amount of food in the face of an immediate and essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of necessity," wrote the court.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36190557
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby 82_28 » Tue May 03, 2016 11:05 am

Man, Italy's justice system must be schizophrenic given the whole Amanda Knox thing. It must work though since she and her boyfriend at the time are now "free" because of higher court's rulings. I can tell you that stores here don't give a shit if you steal something. I do not steal myself at all, but I have been told "go for it if you want to" nobody is going to care, from staff.
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby divideandconquer » Tue May 03, 2016 11:21 am

What's worse: homelessness or incarceration?
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby Iamwhomiam » Tue May 03, 2016 11:33 am

Plainly, incarceration. Incarceration eliminates one's freedom and dictates lifestyle. A prisoner has no choice or freedom of movement, choice of locale or roommates.
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby MacCruiskeen » Tue May 03, 2016 11:43 am

divideandconquer » Tue May 03, 2016 10:21 am wrote:What's worse: homelessness or incarceration?


Very good question. Depends on the weather, very largely, but then there's also those three square meals day in prison, at least in W. Europe.

And it raises some other pressing questions: If, as the judges ruled, "the right to survival prevails over property", then surely squatting is no less non-criminal than eating?

More: When did being a fucking landlord become a respectable (or even acceptable) "occupation"? Why is it not simply illegal -- criminal -- to milk human beings like cows that way, for their entire lives?

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^^ Old people (German old people, btw) rifling through bins for bottles, to collect the eight cents deposit: That's an increasingly common sight in Germany's big cities now. You see it literally every day, several times a day.

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"Bottle empty? Many thanks!"
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby MacCruiskeen » Tue May 03, 2016 12:03 pm

You too can become a lamprey:

Home» Finance» Property

Buy-to-let: How to get rich quick as a landlord

With unaffordable house prices in the UK, the demand for rental homes is on the rise - get in on the act

ImageBy Christopher Middleton

7:02AM GMT 06 Feb 2015

The first fact you have to face, when you start letting out property to tenants, is that no one loves a landlord. [...]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/prop ... dlord.html


What's not to love?

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Landlordism 101
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby Nordic » Tue May 03, 2016 11:24 pm

The very name -- Land Lord -- says it all.

Lord of the Land.
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby Harvey » Wed May 04, 2016 5:28 am

That's monumental. What is it called when civil servants begin to quietly do what they ought to do instead of what they are told to do...?
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby divideandconquer » Wed May 04, 2016 11:39 am

Well, isn't it against the law to be homeless--or to help the homeless-- in a growing number of cities across America? 33 cities as of a year ago. What kind of society do we have when helping the homeless is a greater crime than letting them starve or freeze to death?

Navy Veteran Fined $500 for Taking a Partially Eaten Donut From a Dumpster in Houston Texas
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Thu May 05, 2016 9:16 am

And cutting up and destroying clothing, food, and anything else that could be scavaged from dumpsters. Better to bury it in a landfill than use it to help even a single human being in need. :wallhead:

My mother insisted on watching those evangelical shows during her last days as she had everyday since they began appearing on television. Of course, they're always collecting money for something and it was water wells for African villages at that time. She asked me one day why they never showed any starving or thirsty adults and seemed surprised when I told her it was because one gave a shit about adults, because in people's hardhearted way they simply assumed if an adult was in a bad way it was their own damned fault or they somehow deserved their fate.
Don't believe anything they say.
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby zangtang » Thu May 05, 2016 11:06 am

you have to admire the qualities of the legal mind that fines $500 the man who can't afford a fresh donut of his own.

- perhaps they'll be rewarded with higher office & the wisdom of their judgements revered.....& become precedent !

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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Fri May 06, 2016 7:44 am

That fine is just icing on the institutional cake. They're locking them up when they can't pay the fines. Win-Win for the system.
Don't believe anything they say.
And at the same time,
Don't believe that they say anything without a reason.
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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby MacCruiskeen » Sat May 14, 2016 1:23 pm

MacCruiskeen » Tue May 03, 2016 11:03 am wrote:You too can become a lamprey:

Home» Finance» Property

Buy-to-let: How to get rich quick as a landlord

With unaffordable house prices in the UK, the demand for rental homes is on the rise - get in on the act

ImageBy Christopher Middleton

7:02AM GMT 06 Feb 2015

The first fact you have to face, when you start letting out property to tenants, is that no one loves a landlord. [...]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/prop ... dlord.html


What's not to love?

Image
Landlordism 101


Business as usual in Lamprey World:

Image

Capitalism is barbarism.
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"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby MacCruiskeen » Sat May 14, 2016 1:35 pm

Karl Kautsky wrote:As things stand today capitalist civilization cannot continue; we must either move forward into socialism or fall back into barbarism.


He said that in 1892, when humankind still had time to waste.
"Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte." - Max Liebermann,, Berlin, 1933

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman, NYC, 1966

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Re: Judges rule: Homeless man's food-theft "not a crime".

Postby Freitag » Sat May 14, 2016 7:03 pm

MacCruiskeen » Tue May 03, 2016 4:43 am wrote:More: When did being a fucking landlord become a respectable (or even acceptable) "occupation"? Why is it not simply illegal -- criminal -- to milk human beings like cows that way, for their entire lives?


Where to begin. First: are you serious? Second: Is anyone forcing anyone else to rent a home? To imply that humans are being milked like cows also implies that they are as stupid as cows, without intellectual or moral agency. You're implying that a rental agreement is signed by one adult human (the landlord) and one incapable, infantile victim (the renter). Third: Renting is not always a ripoff. If it were, nobody would ever rent. Renters don't have to deal with home repair, property taxes, and all the hassles that come with home ownership that people always overlook. Fourth: consistent with the previous point, landlords take risks with their capital, and are therefore entitled to a return. Why else would they put their capital at risk? There are any number of nightmare scenarios that can happen with bad renters.

Are you against renting anything else, or just homes? Are taxis immoral? Heavy equipment rentals? Hotels?
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