>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_:
Which is a terrible principle, since it means only relations based on commodity exchange are respected, while those based on norms of communal provision have no status. Such an idea means that only private individuals have any property rights that can suffer theft, while communal exchange and property has no such status.
In San Francisco, a Chief of Police lost his job after he had his police confiscate a whole run of free newspapers which had an offending picture and article about him.
Which is the proper general stance, that such theft is a crime against the community.
On the other hand, like any crime, it may be justified for the political issue it is protesting. Justify the Brown actions on that basis, not on the basis that the act - stripped of its politics - was nothing wrong.
-- Nathan Newman