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THE MERCER GtUSTER -MARCH 4, 1983-PAGE 7
FEATURES
Vigilante “Car-Kicking Prof”
Convicted Of Assault With Topsider
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA (CPS) - A
University of Florida professor haa been
convicted of assault with a deadly
Topsider-style shoe.
Bearded English Prof. Julian Smith
readily admitted in court last week that
he angrily raised his shoe and kicked a
van illegally parked at the Florida*
Auburn football game last fall.
But Smith says he did it only after
being “kidnapped” by the family that
owned the van, and then was ignored by
campus police who refused to give the
family a parking ticket.
Smith — a former campus parking
committee member who’s been dubbed
“The Car-Kicking Prof” for his vigilante
enforcement of traffic regulations - has
walked over, laid under and struck
illegally parked vehicles before.
For example, in September he parked
himself under a yellow Gremlin a
student had left on a campus sidewalk to
wash. Smith refused to move until an
officer gave the student a $5 ticket.
In November, Smith stood in front of
freshman Richard Sohn's car parked on a
sidewalk when Sohn tried to move it.
When the prof refused to move. Sohn
drove forward, knocking Smith onto the
car’s hood.
And in October, Smith accosted Ken
Tarvin, Tarvin’s family and several
friends as they parked Tarvin’s van on a
grassy part of the campus to go the the
October 30th Florida-Auburn game.
Smith told them they were parked
illegally, but they ignored him and
proceeded to the game.
When they returned several hours
later and Tarvin opened the van's door,
however. Smith appeared and jumped
inside, hugging one of the seats tightly.
"He told me 1 was parked illegally,
and that he had reported it to the police,
and was waiting for them to arrive,”
Tarvin told the court last week.
But when Tarvin & Co. decided to
drive away with the professor in tow,
"he started screaming I was kidnapping
him,” Tarvin testified. “He opened up
the window and threw out a note. A
number of students had gathered, and
he was trying to tell them that I was
kidnapping him.”
Tarvin drove only a few blocks before
spotting Gainesville Police Lt. Ray
Willis. He stopped and watched as Willis
and several other officers who pulled up
implored Smith to get out of the van.
Smith refused unless the officers
ticketed the van.
Tarvin. his son and two friends then
physically yanked Smith from the van.
sending him reeling into a passing
bicyclist.
Smith then angrily charged the van.
kicked in its hind panel, and was
promptly arrested.
“Was this the shoe I was wearing?”
Smith, who acted as his own attorney,
asked Willis dramatically at the trial as
held up a boat shoe. Willis replied he
didn’t remember.
Smith explained. "The van was
illegally parked, and I made every effort
to get the university police to ticket it.
The officer gave the impression he was
finished with the situation.”
On the contrary. Asst. State Attorney
Anne Kennedy says Willis had "bent
over backwards to accommodate Mr.
Smith’s peculiarities.”
Circuit Court Judge Miller Lang
agreed, finding Smith guilty of malicious
mischief and criminal trespassing. Sen
tencing, which could bring Smith up to
120 days in jail and $1000 in fines, was
scheduled for the end of February.”
But Smith is unbowed. "I do plan,
when it is reasonable, to continue my
advocacy." he pledged after the trial.
Meeks Tours Middle East;
Life Changing Experience
Catherine Meeks’ life will never again
be quite the same since she spent 16
days on a study tour of the Middle East,
including refugee camps in Beirut.
When she first returned to the Mercer
Universe/* College of Liberal Arts,
campus, the combination of fatigue and
jet-lag, plus the necessity to plunge into
winter quarter teaching, gave Ms.
Meeks no' immediate time to consider
her experiences.
Lately, however, her dreams have
been invaded by the poverty and
destitution that she saw in Lebanon.
"The haunting face of a child or a
woman that I saw will suddenly
appear," Ms. Meeks said. "They are
mdelibly imprinted in rajTfhemory and
they will be a long time with me. ’ ’
Ms. Meeks, director of Afro-American
studies at the College of Liberal Arts,
was one of 15 persons in this country
invited to join the study tour of the
Middle East. She left Macon on
December 28 for the tour which was
sponsored by the Middle East Council of
Churches, the Jqpdon Society and the
Mercer Corps, partially funded by the
Lily Foundation. The group visited
Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank, as
well as Lebanon
They had opportunities to talk,
one-on-one, with i
sters of information, uprfversity profes
i religionsReaders, mini-
ition, university profes
sors. members of the Israeli Cabinet,
members of the PLO Executive Council,
and finally with King Hussein.
“We were guests of King Hussein and
Queen Noor in the palace for about two
hours," she said.
The major part of the time at the
palace was spent with the Queen. The
King joined us toward the end of the two
hour period and spoke to us briefly about
his hope of being able to bring peace to
the region.
"We went, knowing that we were all
students." Ms. Meeks said. “The
Middle East situation is so complicated
and complex that a mere 16-hour day
tour could in no way make one an expert
or even very knowledgeable about the
problems there. If there was a common
thread that wedetected among all those
with whom we talked it was the strong
feeling for and identification with tha*»
land - with Jews, Christians, and
Palestinians."
She said that she approached the tolal
experience from her own particular
background which is in psychology and
theology.
"There is no way to describe the
desolation and the suffering that we saw
in Sabra and Shatilla. the location of the
Palestinian refugee camps,” she said.
"The result of the bombing by Israel was
unbelievable, •’i'wevision and newspa
pers could not show the full impact of it .
—buildings crumbled; roads tom up;
communication lines down. And yet they
told us that conditions had improved
somewhat. We saw mass graves of
victims of the massacres and the
bombing. We saw people dressed in
tattoos and living in shacks — sometimes
u part of a house had been destroyed and
people were living in what remained of
the house. Part of a house was better
than none.”
She said that the “Conditions of abject
poverty were shocking -- n6 sewers and
terrible odors - I sat on a bus and wept
silently.”
“We came away convinced that the
American government needs to take a
positive stand toward creating peace in
the Middle East," Ms. Meeks said. "It
is not possible for us to determine blame
— it may b<r*hat none of the groups are
entirely blameless — but we feel, after
our observation, that the rights of all the
peoples in the Middle East to exist need
to be respected. "
She said that she finds it hard to
understand that America has provided
aid to Israel which made this devastation
possible, and that American-
made planes and bomba helped to create
the suffering of these people.
• The contrasts seen in the Middle East
were astonishing to the members of the
study lour group. “In the West Bank,
apartments costing $50,000 to $60,000
were seen,” she said. "America’s
subsidizing of Israel has made this
possible. I am not opposed to the
settlements — but 1 am opposed to our
paying for such luxury.”
She explained that “because of
knowing about these conditions. 1 feel
that 1 have new responsibility to let
others know." She believes that--Atfteri-
can citizens have a responsibility to learn
about Middle East issues. "We should
not get this information from a single
source," she reiterated. "We need to
be informed from as many sources as
possible, in order to obtain a balanced
perspective. I would strongly recom
mend that information be obtained from
news magazines, newspapers and agen
cies that provide as much, balanced
information as possible." ■
"We were told by Christians that we
in the West do not recognize them as
sisters and brothers,” she said, “and
this may or may not be true. All of these
people have histories which go so far
back - we as a country are so very , very
young by comparison. ’ *
The leader of the study tour. Dr.
Landrum R. Bolling, former president of
Erlam College, is now a professor of
research at the Internal School of
Diplomacy at Georgetown.