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In reply to the discussion: Is it a crime to steal bread if you have no money for food? [View all]Behind the Aegis
(54,200 posts)51. Yes, it appear we both misread the other's intention in the post.
You say the two concepts cannot be separated yet you then say that letting a citizen starve is a crime that is not addressed.
Yes.
I believe what you are saying is that it is not illegal to let a person starve but it is criminal, or unjust.
WHOLE-HEARTEDLY YES! The problem is how does one redress that situation?!
I agree completely but I also think that argument supports my own which is that laws and justice are not the same.
And therein lies the "problem" of this exchange. I wasn't seeing your post as a questioning of whether the crime was "just" or not, but rather was it "illegal," which is why I maintain that "stealing, no matter the reason, is a crime, which is illegal." This is why motive matters in determining the nature and degree of the crime.
I will still say I feel that we, as a country, as a people, have failed when we are unable to feed our own. When this country discards mountains of food every year, there is NO LOGICAL REASON to have people starving in this country...EVER. I feel the same about housing (I believe this is correct, but I could be off in the numbers, but my understanding there are TWICE as many unoccupied homes in this country as there are homeless; now THAT doesn't make a bit of fucking sense). Squatting is illegal and a crime, but I understand why people do it, and they should NEVER be in the position where they have to do so. Food (water, as well), clothing, and shelter are the primary foundations of survival, no one should ever not be able to access those things legally.
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I believe that "just saying" that poor people use their money to buy drugs is dispicable.
last1standing
Oct 2013
#71
"Just saying" that what you are doing is called goading and baiting in polite society.
MADem
Oct 2013
#73
I love how anyone who calls out your attempts to villianize the poor is disrupting.
last1standing
Oct 2013
#75
No, it is not a crime to hold a doctor at gunpoint to perform a life-saving operation...
last1standing
Oct 2013
#26
The entire premise of this discussion is the attempt to separate the two.
last1standing
Oct 2013
#41
Exactly! This society is failing more and more of its people and few seem to care.
last1standing
Oct 2013
#53
Yes, "people" sue, and they're usually thrown out of court. If they ever get that far.
last1standing
Oct 2013
#57
So what tort did the trial lawyers allege that caused these donations to stop?
last1standing
Oct 2013
#62
I would agree that people throwing a few coins into a fountain probably wouldn't want to prosecute.
last1standing
Oct 2013
#17
Will a slap on the wrist teach her how not to be hungry or not to do anything about it?
last1standing
Oct 2013
#19
It may not be a crime, but it's a bad idea to steal Bread albums when you have no food
Ken Burch
Oct 2013
#25
"If breaking a law is illegal then doing something ethically wrong would be unjust or criminal."
Hosnon
Oct 2013
#45
Oxford dictionary definition of crime: 1. an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is
Douglas Carpenter
Oct 2013
#37
Illegal and a crime if you go strictly by law. That's what I based my vote on.
BluegrassStateBlues
Oct 2013
#39
The idea is to separate conceptof law from that of justice if that is possible..
last1standing
Oct 2013
#43
It is both. It is unethical and immoral unless help cannot be found elsewhere.
Skip Intro
Oct 2013
#49
The way I see it, the rich steal from the poor everyday through low wages, hoarding cash, and
gtar100
Oct 2013
#50
I've never seen the show but I've heard that kind of thing about her before.
last1standing
Oct 2013
#67
What the hell, if you have no money for food and you are starving, you steal money!
Coyotl
Oct 2013
#68
A starving person over-rides anybody's sense of outrage or thirst for revenge.
BlueJazz
Oct 2013
#80