"Theft" of Free Newspapers (was Re: Student Protests Against Horowitz Ad)

[Dennis]

> Marx didn't condemn an act of stealing newspapers from racks &
> destroying them for political or non-political purposes, however.  As
> a matter of fact, even prosecutors in this quintessentially
> capitalist nation committed to the war on crimes have been reluctant
> to prosecute "thieves," when what's "stolen" was *free* newspapers
> such as the Brown _Daily Herald_:
>
> *****   Legal and Economic Aspects in Theft of Newspapers:
> Using a Model of Newspaper Value
>
> Robert G. Picard
> Turku School of Economics
> and
> Stephen Lacy
> Michigan State University
>
> ...Despite the significance of the theft issue, prosecutors typically
> do not bring charges for newspaper thefts of free newspapers,
> reasoning that one cannot "steal" items of no price (Garneau, 1994,
> p. 15, Stein, 1995).  In 1995, for example, prosecutors refused to
> prosecute individuals who stole 8,700 copies of Michigan Daily,
> saying specifically that since "the papers were offered to the public
> free, they have no value for larceny purposes" (Fitzgerald, 1996, p.
> 44)....
>
>
<http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.tukkk.fi/media/Picard/Publication%
2520and%2520Paper%2520Files/Newspaper%2520Theft.pdf+%22theft+of+newspapers%2
2+racks&hl=en>
> *****
>
> Yoshie

C'mon Yoshie. This is an academic dodge. No one is saying that the Brown
students should be prosecuted for theft. Their tactics are being questioned.
They grabbed the papers so that no one other than them could read Horowitz's
ad. This was bound to backfire, and has.

DP