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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 1979)
tealing signs Consequences of ‘pranks’ no fun THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 1979 Page 3 By DIANE BLAKE Battalion Staff ■Vicki White, 18-year-old environmental design major, doesn’t look like your average jail bird. Yet at 2 a.m. March 23, Col lege Station police came to her ipartment, arrested her, and threw her in the clink at $200 bond. ■ Her crime? Theft of government property. White was arrested for having a stop sign in her living room. “I was crying the whole time, pecially when they told me to take all my jewelry and barettes be fore they put me in jail,” White shid. The freshman from North olina said she was in the jail cell ly about 15-20 minutes, until her friends could bring the money for Tl. “I was shocked that they could do [ that (jail someone for taking a stop [sign), she said. “We thought it was a prank, but now I realize it’s [ dangerous if a stop sign is missing from an intersection. “It really was a stupid thing to do. She said the police knew of the I sign probably because it could be | seen from the street. “We moved it for a party we had and didn’t think bout moving it back. ” White was charged with a Class C misdemeanor, or theft of items val ued at less than $5. The maximum fine is $200. She was lucky. Accord ing to George Boriskie, traffic engi neer for the highway department, stop signs cost $16, not including the labor required to put them up. A Class B misdemeanor, for thefts of $5 to $20, carries a maximum $500 fine and six months in jail. “The officer really gave her a break charging her with a Class C misdemeanor,” said Kenneth M. Robison, College Station municipal judge. “That means she gets a fine, not jail. ” Robison said in the two years he’s been on the bench, sign thefts have increased. “The first year I had only one or two, but I’ve had half a dozen or more in the last six months.” The judge said many people don’t understand it’s a crime to take a traf fic sign. “Stealing signs is not a prank,” he said. “To take anything without permission is not good bull. It is theft. “People don’t realize the dangers involved in taking a stop sign. Just draw a mental picture of the blood and gore on the highway as a result of the theft.” Robison said he hears all kinds of excuses for taking signs, from “we were out having a good time” to “the devil made me do it.” He said another serious conse quence of the theft is a criminal rec ord. “A conviction of moral tur pitude can come back to haunt someone at a later date,” he said. Moral turpitude is an act contrary to the accepted rule of right and duty between fellow men. “How many employeers would want to hire someone who’s been convicted of theft?” he said. The conviction could also be damaging if a person was charged with another crime later, the judge said. If the accused already has a conviction, the district attorney could try for a higher charge the next time. Robison said as a general rule he always gives the maximum fine to persons convicted of stealing signs. He doesn’t get any second offen ders, probably because the police refer them to the county courts with higher charges, he said. Municipal courts handle only Class C mis demeanors. But when asked if she’d ever do it again. White said never. “I swear I’ll never take another sign.” Women important to unions —film tudents to show •wn TV programs I By PEGGY McCULLEN Battalion Reporter Today and tomorrow you may see r roommate or best friend live on television. KAMU has again opened studio B for Broadcast Day, an opportunity for its broadcast stu dents to air their own television Bograms. ■ Broadcast Day is a collection of 15-minute programs ranging from slide shows to concerts. Each stu dent was responsible for selecting and casting “talent” for his show, or collecting enough material on one | subject (photographs, slides, or art i|ork) to fill the allotted time. ■ Because the programs are live, the student directors had to keep a [few things in mind when choosing Blent. ■ “I had to look for somebody that I knew would show up,” said Kurt Abraham. Abraham will direct an interview with a trainer for the var sity baseball team. I “I had to make sure that whoever I selected for my program would not freeze up on camera, because they were not used to working with broadcast media,” said Becky Matthews who will direct a program on science fiction films. Matthews will combine an interview with a flip-card presentation. Chip Harper is directing a musi cal program featuring Lyle Lovett, a guitar player and singer who has been playing professionally for about three years. “I chose Lyle because I’ve known him for a while, and I could depend on him. Besides — he’s good!” Mel Chastain, director of KAMU, said this is the 15th year students have been directing live shows as part of their course work. “We used to air these shows on a closed-circuit television system be fore we even had a broadcasting sta tion” said Chastain. To learn the art of disco dancing, or how to train a stock dog, tune in to Channel 15 on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons between noon and 4 p.m. You may even spot your mother-in-law. By LEIGH McLEROY Battalion Reporter Women have played a vital, and until recently, silent part in the his tory of Texas labor unions, but Melissa Hield is changing that with a film called “Talkin’ Union.” The hour-long film was shown last night at Rudder Tower before an audience of about fifty people, in the last stop of a year-long tour of the state. “Talkin’ Union” chronicles the in volvement of Texas women in labor unions from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. The film is an oral history taken from interviews with four women who were instrumental in that movement’s development. Hield, who is an assistant instruc tor in American Studies at the Uni versity of Texas, said the film is an attempt to show history from a dif ferent perspective. “Woman’s story is different from history, and it needs to be told, especially here in Texas.” / The film is the culmination of three years of work by Hield and several others, and was funded by grants from the National Endow ment of Humanities and the Texas Comission on Hmuanities. The first history of working women in Texas, “Talkin’ Union” Store your uniforms for the summer FREE University Cleaners 112 College Main explores two major labor movements: the 1935 garment workers strike in Dallas, and the 1938 pecan shellers strike in San An tonio. Organizers of both of these strikes were interviewed. Hield said the interviewing process was “very dif ficult. It took us months and months to locate these people. We con-, tacted 30 of them and some refused to discuss their involvement. We ac tually interviewed eight of them, and used four in the film.” The women in the film told of the bad working conditions they suf fered, low pay and long hours. Some were jailed for their involvement in the strikes, and one woman was blacklisted, but each agreed that it had all been worth it. “We learned a lot,” one woman said. “We learned there’s power in numbers. As an individual we can’t help, but together we can change.” “Talkin’ Union” may be seen again, even though Tuesday night was the last planned showing of the film. Hield said she and the pro ducers hope to find a distributor for it soon and market it for educational THE BATT DOES IT DAILY Monday through Friday BB&L pays the maximum rate on 6-month Money Market Certificates. This week’s rate is 9.295% si£ BB&L pays maximum interest on Money Market Certificates. No financial institution here — or in a metropolitan area — can pay you more on 6-month Money Market Certificates. Call us today about a Money Market Certificate. 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