Oh, I see. You were just making a completely unrelated comment about what you personally would do if you were in Andre's situation. You never meant that to be read as a justification for Andre's actions - of course.

If you didn't mean to defend or justify Andre's behavior, or minimize his guilt and responsibility for his crimes, then you and I are on the same page. He is a criminal who should be held responsible for his crimes. If you disagree with that then I suggest that's a more meaningful disagreement between us than whether or not you meant to say that Andre had to steal to survive.