Wednesday March 23,1994 Vol. CXXII, No. 48
Weather
There is still a slim chance of rain in the morning. Clouds should be clearing by the afternoon. Expect a high in the upper 60s and a low in the mid-50s.
Inside
New ‘Naked Gun’ lacking in humor
The latest in the trilogy of wacky, over-the-top comedies starring Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin is a huge disappointment. The acting is stale as are the jokes and gags.
Diversions, page 9
Ivie’s name is not Bryan, it’s Pat
USC middle blocker Pat Ivie has been compared to his big brother, Bryan, but his laidback attitude and sense of humor make him more like his other brother, Dave.
Sports, page 20
Author condones quasi-molestation
USC Professor James Kincaid's book defends pedophilia and attacks the laws that most people believe promote a moral, civilized society and prevent child abuse.
Viewpoint, page 4
Architect will discuss design
USC's School of Architecture is sponsoring a lecture by Scott Johnson, a design partner in the firm of Johnson Fain and Pereira Associates. The lecture will be held today at 6:30 p.m., in Harris Hall 101 and is open to the public.
Johnson will be discussing design methods and the resulting mirror of public identity. He has received several awards and has been extensively published in periodicals such as Architectural Record, the Los Angeles Business lournal and Sunset magazine.
Newspaper of the University of Southern Californi
High-tech crimes growing problem
Despite costs, pager companies look other way
By Scott Arenson and Kim Smith
Slaff Writers
Electronic crimes — the pager companies pretend they don't exist, the police department can't deal with them and the district attorney's office is concentrating on violent crimes.
'These people ... are taking short cuts to get rich, so they sell their intelligence to whoever will buy it," Moore said.
Cellular phones have been targets for illegal activity for years. But as police learn to deal with those crimes, new ones tum up.
Most recently, the use of pager-controlled voice mail accounts for "gangster lines" have given gang members a medium through which they can threaten each other, send warnings of
GANGSTER LINES
NEWS ANALYSIS
"Because people don't see blood streaming down the streets, electronic crimes are put on the back burner," said private investigator Tom Moore.
High-tech crimes, however, cost taxpayers more money in the long run than violent crimes, he said.
A former investigator with the California Department of Justice and Oakland Police Department officer, Moore works with phone carriers who suffer losses as a result of cellular phone hackers.
police operations and boast about murders they have committed, or will commit.
At least four pager companies have admitted to problems with hackers invading their phone lines, although only three said the hackers were gang members. All of them denied that the problem is actually serious.
"It has happened, but with no great regularity," said a representative for MobileComm Inc., who did not want to be named. "The first session occurred sev-(See Pagers, page 6)
Clowning around
m i
Ktn Okada / Dally Trojan
Steve the Clown, alias Jack D., readies himself for filming of cinema student’s ‘Funny Money’ In front of Bing Theatre.
‘Geraldo’ taping draws criticism
Participants see guns-for-tickets, anti-violence program a token solution to complex problem
By Nik Trendowski
Staff Writer
At a church west of campus, students from Manual Arts High School came to be in the audience of a "Geraldo" taping about stopping the violence in their neighborhood. What they learned was that once the cameras stopped rolling, not much had been accomplished.
The students, community leaders and other people from the neighborhood gathered behind St. Mark's Lutheran Church at Vermont Avenue and 36th Street, where Ger-
aldo was to tape the show. The idea was for local residents and gang members to turn in their guns in return for L.A. Lakers tickets and other prizes. Nine guns were turned in.
But as the show ended with Geraldo Rivera's disembodied voice imploring "stop the violence" over the speakers, many of those who came to see the show saw it as just another symbolic gesture.
"It was a joke," said Sandi Hamilton, program coordinator for the Community Drug-Free School Zone at Manual Arts. "That Geraldo needs to apologize by proving (sic)
some funds to give these kids something real. They didn't get jobs. They're not going to tum in a gun. The people that turn in a gun have more at home.”
"Who would give up a gun for a Lakers ticket?" asked Nakia Olaye, a student at Manual Arts. ''Knowing the situation they're in, they have a lot of enemies around. Most people would just break in your house for the hell of it."
"Keep the guns, because a Lakers ticket isn't going to protect you," said "PeCe from the OHC," also a Manual Arts student. "If someone attacks you, you can't give them concert tickets."
(See Geraldo, page 3)
Student to compete in speech tournament
By Allison Vana
Staff Writer
Qualifying in four events at last weekend's district one Regional Competition, Julie Larsen, a senior majoring in communications, will represent USC at the American Forensic Association-National Individual Events Tournament, or AFA-NIET, April 8-11.
Larsen qualified in impromptu and extemporaneous speaking, both of which required her to prepare a speech in a limited amount of time. She also qualified in the prose interpretation category, and in after-dinner speaking, which is a 10-minute humorous speech.
"Julie will be doing three different styles of events at the nationals, which is remarkable because it's very unusual for a student to be good at all three of those events. Also, because she qualified in four categories, she is eligible to compete for individual sweepstakes at the nationals, which is not something many accomplish," Randy Lake, director of the debate team, said.
To be held in Wichita, Kan., the nationals include between 50 to 60 schools nationwide. An estimated 500 students will be competing for titles, Larsen said.
She said that she is preparing
for competition with her personal coach, Butch Klein, a former USC speech competitor. She also scans the news frequently, because topics for the extemporaneous category are often political.
"I'm a CNN addict and I also really enjoy public speaking. It's something that comes naturally to me and a skill that I find applicable to all aspects of life. A solid understanding of communication is essentially what society is based upon," Larsen said.
Larsen began her involvement with speech four years ago at a community college, when she was approached by her English teacher following an oral pre-
sentation. Through the teacher, she met with her school's foren-sics coach, who orchestrated her competitive career.
"In my first year of competition, I took a gold medal at the two-year national championships (Phiro Pi). As a new kid, this was a big accomplishment for me and it helped with my bids to four-year universities. I ended up with a scholarship for speech from USC, and I've competed here for the past three years," Larsen said.
Throughout her competitive career, Larsen has won more than 58 awards in speech. This year, one such award was the (See Forensic, page 3)