The landmark decision involved the overturning of a theft conviction against a homeless man of Ukrainian descent, who stole $4.50 worth of cheese and sausages from an Italian supermarket.

The court ruled that the man stole the food “in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment,” and that therefore the act could not be considered a crime.

In 2011, Roman Ostriakov was arrested after stuffing two pieces of cheese and a packet of sausages in his pocket, and attempting to leave a Genoa supermarket after paying only for some breadsticks.

Ostriakov was convicted of theft and given a six-month jail sentence and a 100 Euro fine.

A ‘state of necessity’

From BBC.com:

“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.’

“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.'”

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.”

Homelessness is on the increase in Europe. In London, for example, the number of “rough sleepers” on the streets has doubled in the past five years.

The housing crisis in Europe is worsening, as poor people struggle to meet rising housing costs without a corresponding rise in income.

From UnitedAgainstRacism.org:

“40% of poor people in the EU experience housing cost overburden, meaning that they spend more than 40% of their income on housing. Depending on the country, poor people are 4 to 20 times more likely to experience this than others.”

This housing crunch, along with the influx of asylum seekers in Europe, has contributed to the massive increase in homelessness.

The situation isn’t much better in the United States, where more than 500,000 people are currently homeless – one quarter of them children.

And where there is homelessness, there is also food insecurity; it’s nearly impossible to find a job if you have no place to live, and as a result people are becoming more and more desperate.

The imminent economic collapse

To make matters worse, many economists are predicting another economic crash – one that is likely to be even worse than the 2008 crisis.

If this happens – and for many experts, it’s a matter of “when,” not “if” – we can expect to see hungry people stealing and looting on a massive scale. And although it may be due to a “state of necessity,” as the Italian court ruled, such a scenario will only hasten the collapse of society as we know it.

Deagel.com, a “military equipment and civil aviation guide” website, has predicted dire consequences for Americans in the next decade:

“The collapse of the Western financial system will wipe out the standard of living of its population while ending ponzi schemes such as the stock exchange and the pension funds. The population will be hit so badly by a full array of bubbles and ponzi schemes that the migration engine will start to work in reverse accelerating itself due to ripple effects thus leading to the demise of the States.”

The Deagel website predicts that 78 percent of the American population will be wiped out by the year 2025. Even if those estimates are wildly exaggerated, we may indeed be facing a crisis of nearly unimaginable proportions.

Is your family prepared for such a crisis? If you haven’t begun taking steps to ensure that you will be able to survive what many see as an imminent economic collapse, now is the time to do so.

Sources

BBC.com
TheGuardian.com
Euractiv.com
Reuters.com
UnitedAgainstRacism.org
SilverDoctors.com
Deagel.com