March 8, 1935, Page ?

14 STUDENT PICKETS
ARE FOUND GUILTY

Nine Boys And Five Girls Get
    Suspended Sentences; To
        Try 7 Girls Mar. 29

            Verdicts of guilty with suspended sentences were delivered upon nine Brooklyn College boys and five girls, charged with disorderly conduct while picketing Dean's Cafeteria February 13 and 15. The decision concerning the boys was handed down Wednesday by Magistrate Mason at the Adolescents Court while that of the girls was handed clown after the trial Tuesday by Magistrate Rudich in the Sixth District Court. The decision on the boys has been pending for about two weeks.

            Magistrate Mark Rudich of the Sixth District Court admonished the girls for "running around with half-baked ideas from Russia, Germany, and Italy; boycotting a legitimate business instead of attending to your own, and taking sides with the strikers without a knowledge of the merits of the controversy." He also criticized the students for "not paying attention to their studies" and "imbibing the knowledge which this generous municipality supplies to them."

            In answer to the statement of Mr. Samueet Puner, the attorney for the defense, that "the Constitution guarantees them the right to assemble peacefully anywhere," Magistrate Rudich called the students a "misguided lot." "As you grow older," he continued, "you will realize that you are doing nothing but a lot of harm. Your rights under the Constitution end just where the rights of Dean's Cafeteria begin."

            The defense attorney objected to the decision, asserting that the "Constitutional rights of free speech and assemblage are paramount and apply to everybody." He cited the ruling of Magistrate Thomas F. Casey in the same court which said the students were in their constitutional rights in picketing Dean's cafeteria.

            Adolph C. Kiendl, trustee in receivership for the cafeteria, said that the cafeteria had been forced to close, and would be sold at auction because of the activities of Brooklyn College students.

            The date Inc the hearing of seven girls arrested February 14 was set for. March 29 at the Sixth District Court.

Return to Spotlight Page || Home Page

May 20, 2004