Sorority Sisters Steal Baby Jesus
 

Oh my goodness:eek:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/...y-jesus-765891

They didn't really steal the Nativity. They moved it from the town square to the front lawn of the President's house. The house is on a main drag. It's not like there was a chance that it would go unnoticed.

MC has a history of pranks. This one ranks up there with the Holiday Inn sign. (When a new dorm was being opened, students obtained a Holiday Inn sign and erected it in front of the new dorm on the night before the ribbon cutting.) Another MC prank was when the students removed the seats in the chapel/auditorium and put them in backwards. They're all bolted to the floor. It took maintenance crews days to fix it and the students did it in just one night.

They were charged with theft. The basic definition of theft is taking the property of another without the owner's freely given consent. They didn't own the nativity scene. They took it without permission. The fact that they then left it where it could be found doesn't change the fact that they took it without the owner's consent. So yes -- they stole it.

Actually, it's not. Misdemeanor theft in Illinois requires an intent to permanently deprive the owner of the property. They clearly didn't intend to deprive the city of the Nativity scene permanently. If they were my kids, I would hire a lawyer and seek to have the charges dismissed.

I think the Warren County State's Attorney and the city council lack a sense of humor. The students shouldn't have been charged with theft. Disturbing the peace, maybe.

I'll readily admit I'm not familiar with specifics of Illinois law; I was going with the basic, generic definition of "theft."

I'll also readily admit I don't have lots sympathy for these students if the pranks you describe are common. I have quite a well-developed sense of humor and have pulled more than my share of pranks in my time. If this were an isolated thing, then maybe it's no big deal. But when the pranks end up requiring maintenance crews to waste time (and money) undoing the prank, then I think my sense of humor about the pranks in general would have given out.

I know that there are crazy things on the books in many (probably all) states, but this seems like a terrible definition for Illinois to embrace. Intent to permanently deprive the owner of property? C'mon. I can hear the conversation now:

Police officer to person charged with theft: So, you stole that diamond necklace?
Thief to officer: Well, I didn't really steal it. I was going to put it back after this weekend's Christmas party.
Officer: Oh, well that's ok, then. As long as you didn't intend to keep the necklace forever.
Thief: Oh no. I wouldn't do anything like that. I just borrowed it. Without asking. I didn't steal it. Really.

If there really is a tradition of pranks at this institution, they (the school, law enforcement, who knows) might very well want to make an example of these young ladies to try to reduce the number of said pranks. I can't say I blame them - especially if I were the president of the institution and was charged with keeping the peace between the community and the college. You don't want to piss off the folks who run the town your school is in.

Here is a link to the Illinois code. Note, the first description of theft does not say anything about intent to permanently deprive. Exercising dominion and control over the property of another is what can and probably is being used against these "young ladies."

http://law.onecle.com/illinois/720ilcs5/16-1.html

DaffyKD

I'm with MysticCat on this one (his first post about theft). I know of a young college woman who thought it was a prank to "borrow" a local establishment's rooftop car sign (you know, like the ones on the Domino's Pizza delivery cars).

Well... the establishment wasn't amused; she went with her parents to return the sign after driving around with it on her car for a month. The establishment pressed charges. The judge was not amused. She had to pay a hefty fine, perform community service, and was in trouble with the Dean of Students (violation of the Student Code of Conduct). Not to mention that this now shows up in any search of her name on court records websites.

Not such a harmless prank after all.

And no, it wasn't me (yes I had to say that).

If this is the worst thing this town has to worry about during Christmas, they really should count their blessings.

I see the headline, and I think to myself "Oh please don't be Kappa."

:mad::mad::mad::mad:

Theft or not. Intent to permanently deprive or not, this was dumb.

Hey, amIblue?, don't take it personally, it could have been ANY chapter on ANY day. We who have any degree of experience know this.

It helps to remember that cognitively, the brain is not fully developed until age 24-26 in females, and later than that in males. This is FACT, so don't go hating on me.

In addition to this being a stupid/bad/criminal/thoughtless/selfish idea, there is an additional level of disrespect here in light of the fact that these were religious figures. No pun intended, but is nothing sacred?

One one hand, yes I agree that the city probably has to come down hard on these pranks if they are as big and frequent as described above.

But on the other hand, if this is the dumbest thing 5 sorority girls do this year, it will be a VERY good year. At least what they did is a misdemeanor and not a felony.

Do you worship Jesus, or a plaster figure of him that probably gets stuffed in a garage for the other 11 months of the year?

Every time I see something that takes place on a campus we have a chapter on I always think "Don't be Psi U, don't be Psi U."

I agree. However I can't help but think that if this were a Muslim symbol during Ramadan, the girls could have ended up with a hate crime charge as well.

But doesn't Islam have different standards for things like that overall?

Lack of intent is a defense to theft in most jurisdictions. It's up to the trier of fact to decide whether the person is telling the truth or lying. In this case, they left Baby Jesus and the rest of the Nativity in plain sight on the front lawn of the school president's house. It's pretty obvious that they don't have intent here. They didn't have the things in their possession when they were discovered, unlike your thief.

I completely agree with this. It's bad form to mess with stuff that the town owns. It won't hurt them to pay a fine or spend a few Saturdays picking up trash or cleaning the courthouse. It will make the town happy. A misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace seems very fair. On the other hand, it's a bit much to charge them with theft, which will negatively effect their applications to professional licenses and professional school is a bit much.

And this seems like a repeat of when a fraternity which shall remain nameless removed a statue of a Greek god from the president's garden and boosted it through a window(without breaking the window) into his office for Greek Week, except these ladies messed with something that belonged to the town, rather than something that belonged to the school. It's really part of MC's culture (less so than MIT's culture, but still there), but people need to learn to leave the townies alone.

Yes, if the students were not Muslim.

That is because it would probably be a hate crime. College students who want to do silly pranks have tons of "Christian symbols" all over the place to use for their pranks. Finding the relative few Islamic symbols where they are would be much more calculated and for a purpose beyond a student prank.

No.

Even if Islam did, no one should be arrested based on Islamic standards. The perspective of this being a crime is based on (whether it is reported and) the law.

That logic would make more sense if these college students were using their own figures for the prank rather than stealing figures. When you steal, you are not able to say "well, this is JUST a plastic figure that would go in a garage."

As for what people worship:
Faith-bases worship whatever they worship as symbolized by certain images regardless of whether those images are stuffed in a garage. If people would not be thrilled if graffiti was placed on these images, it is not ridiculous for people to not be thrilled if these images are used for pranks.

I don't take it personally. I know everything you're saying. It's cute that you think I'm young and lacking in experience, though. I type young for my age.

I still always think "please don't be Kappa" whenever I see a headline that reads "sorority + negative stuff."

And here it's not just Kappa -- isn't this Kappa's Alpha chapter?

oh NOES. My bad; my tone sucked in that post! I am NOT that kind of person (at least I try not to be unless it's intentional and then it's a lot more subtle), so please accept my apology for the condescension that the post suggested! (been reading far too much Jane Austen lately, I fear, and am channeling Lady Catherine DeBourgh, apparently?). Oh my, my, my.

So you are saying you are old? *ducks and runs for cover*

LOL.

I thought AzTheta's condescension was aimed at the silly college students who stole the Sweet Baby Jesus. I did not think AzTheta was saying "don't fret, amIblue, when you grow up, you will understand." LOL.

:p AzTheta is so condescending and hurts my feelings at least once a day. I logon to GC praying she has me on ignore as to avoid being condescended. She is the bane of my GC existence. :p

I thought exactly the same as amIblue? "Please Don't Be Kappa"

My heart sunk slightly when I read the article :(

I was going overboard a bit in reply to the poster who was going overboard a bit and acting like they were Satanists or something.

Considering we laugh about the "shepherds" wearing towels on their heads and the Virgin Mary farting when little kids have Christmas pageants, I just don't think this is that big of a deal.

I think there is a big difference between children being children in a Christmas pageant and college students taking, for whatever reason, a nativity scene that doesn't belong to them as a joke. Apples and oranges.

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Yes, it's our Alpha chapter.

Sorry if I misread you. I wasn't too upset about it. You don't have a thing on Lady Catherine DeBourgh. You know, because she was condescending AND delusional. She thought Darcy would want to marry her boring sickly stick of a daughter. I mean, what is that all about?

I'd be willing to bet money that almost every sorority woman who clicked on this article said "Please don't be a ....."

I can't believe so many people here think these girls should have been arrested!!! Maybe it's because I've lived in NYC for a couple years, but if shit like this is making headlines in your COLLEGE town, you are one lucky town. People are so fucking uptight.

You obviously have not spent those couple of years checking the NYC records to see the "fucking uptight" things that people in NYC get arrested for.

Well, at least one person on GC knows who I am! "...you ought to know, that I am not to be trifled with... My character has ever been celebrated for its sincerity and frankness, and in a cause of such moment as this, I shall certainly not depart from it."

:rolleyes:

Must.Stop.Reading.Austen.

Think I'll switch to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I would like to talk like those characters instead. DrPhil, you made me smile and I think you've just given me a new signature, thank you so much!

Austen is cool but I can't wait to read your Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon posts. :)

I can't believe you can't comprehend what has actually been posted. You must have been so fucking plastered when you posted this in the middle of the night from NYC (where no one ever gets arrested for fucking uptight things) that you lost all reading comprehension skills.

Can we rename this thread "Sorority Sisters Stole Baby Jesus and Should Be Arrested. Keys to be thrown away." :rolleyes:

No, we can't, sorry. If we did / tried to, the people in Keepers of the Key would object vehemently.

So would brand new new members (in January and February ) who want and need to tell the world what should be done with keys according to their understanding of policies, traditions, and whatnot.

^^^^ *Blinks* I don't think I have ever seen a post that snarky from you before.

The Nativity sage is finishing up. The ladies are going to do some community service and no charges are going to be filed.

http://mccourier.com/2012/01/06/nati...nears-closure/