By this logic, money theft is 'not a crime' if poor.
Murder is "not a crime" if self defense in most countries. And while we certainly have our debates about when it counts as self defense very few people seem to discount the notion entirely.
Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry
51–60 of 406 posts
Re: Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry
#52In theory, neither the store or those in need would want to deal with the hassle of theft being the way to deal with the ruling. My guess is stories would just start giving food to the hungry as needed, and then past the costs onto the customers.
Why would this not work?
Re: Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry
#53Is it possible to prove that one was hungry at the time of theft?
The assumption that people are lying unless proven otherwise is... well it just opens the door to a whole world of problems. It's also distasteful and ugly.
Re: Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry
#54Re: Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry
#55Re: Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry
#56It's a little hard to understand how this ruling won't cause a certain degree of chaos. Can any hungry, homeless person now steal food from any store in Italy without repercussion? Certainly as a matter of compassion, this ruling can be argued as being reasonable, but how can it work as a practical matter?
No, it's just no longer a crime - IF you were hungry. You'll still get arrested and put through a lengthy trial process if you're caught stealing food. The shop can decide to let the thief have the food, or take it away from them, or call the cops.
Theft is commonplace in markets and supermarkets. It's calculated into the cost of doing business. Back when I was a teenager working in a supermarket, one store claimed 15% of its revenue was lost to theft every year. (Its prices were also among the highest for any food store, so i'm sure they still did well)
I doubt they'll just let people ransack their stories, but they may decide to be more lenient in terms of calling the cops when they catch them.
Fun anecdote: Working in front of the store, you would sometimes notice people trying to pull scams. The best scam I ever witnessed was over chicken nuggets. There was one guy finishing paying for some food, one cashier, and me bagging the food. Right as this first guy was paying for his food, another came up right behind me and barked in my ear that he couldn't find something in the frozen food aisle. I turned and tried to explain where to find his item. When I turned back around, the last item for the current customer - a box of frozen chicken nuggets - had.... disappeared. Just gone off the counter. The customer was still there, though, and the cashier hadn't seen anything. So we had to get him a new item. It wasn't until he and the distracting guy left that we realized they were working together.
Re: Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry
#57Re: Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry
#58One merely has to wonder whether a starving homeless man can be prosecuted for "stealing" from another starving homeless man? Do we need to judge who was more starving?
Re: Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry
#59It's a little hard to understand how this ruling won't cause a certain degree of chaos. Can any hungry, homeless person now steal food from any store in Italy without repercussion? Certainly as a matter of compassion, this ruling can be argued as being reasonable, but how can it work as a practical matter?
In practice I imagine it will result in homeless (or generally poor-looking) people being routinely banned from stores in Italy.
Re: Italian court rules food theft 'not a crime' if hungry
#60Can a group of hungry people combine, like a union, and steal the contents of a food warehouse or grocery distribution center?