A story published Tuesday in The Daily Helmsman titled “Student raped twice in 20 days: Alleged assailants remain U of M students” received criticism from some of the campus community, and some may have tried to remove the issue from newsstands.
Multiple student sources reported to The Helmsman they saw male students taking newspapers from the stand at the front of the University Center and “guarding” the stand from other papers being picked up.
This action is illegal and a theft of property. Although the newspapers are free for students to grab from campus, each issue costs money to print and distribute to campus.
“Even though the newspapers are technically free, free does not mean ‘destroy the whole lot,’” Frank LaMonte, a consulting attorney with the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C., said. “It is totally possible to ‘steal’ free things.”
LaMonte gave the example of a homeless shelter giving away winter coats to the poor. If someone were to take all the “free” coats and burn them outside, they would still be prosecuted for theft because they destroyed someone else’s property.
The theft was reported to campus police, who said the matter would be investigated further.
