Ahmed Mohamed will not face charges related to device [pdf]
irvingisd.net
irvingisd.net
It's criminal to handcuff and interrogate a 14-yr old in front of his entire class and school when they found nothing to implicate him. It's an unconscionable act. These people are not only stupid (look at that 'suspicious' device), they are abusing power with no repercussions.
"The student was handcuffed for his safety and for the safety of the officers". Are they out of their mind?
It's criminal to handcuff and interrogate a 14-yr old in front of his entire class and school when they found nothing to implicate him.
It maybe should be, but isn't. However, what is illegal is questioning him without his parents or a lawyer present, which he requested multiple times to no effect.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/16/police-viol...
But shouldn't they be prosecuted for questioning him without parental consent or presence, at least?
No, because Civil Rights violations are generally established through civil suits, not criminal. More specifically, 42 USC 1983 is civil, 18 USC 242 is criminal. There is a telltale loophole in the criminal statute, "willfully," that provides wiggle room for the violator to play dumb.
Maybe because the world has bigger problems than one police officer and a teacher acting out of line. It's a story the internet loves and perpetuates but frankly absolutely unimportant.
Ya'll are being absurd. That kid new what he was doing, I did stupid shit like that when I his age...worse in fact, these days I would have made national headlines if I had been caught. So I know what I am talking about here.
He may be be a smart boy, but you put that briefcase in any Hollywood movie or video game and they would call it a bomb. If he was really building a clock it would at least somewhat really resemble a clock.
Bear in mind, I am a strong opponent of the rising police state and slow creep of tyranny that I hope is becoming obvious to even the more ignorant sections of the populace. But this...come on guys, call a spade a spade.
Here in the real world, he biggest recent terrorist incident in the US, the Boston Marathon bombing, used a backpack. But nobody is suggesting that kids be arrested for bringing backpacks to school.
And yes, the kid knew what he was doing: bringing in one of his hobby projects to show his teachers. Which is exactly what we want students to do. The problem is that the teachers didn't know what they were doing.
Pencil case, not a suitcase. When I was a kid, I used whatever case I could come up with for my projects. Cigar boxes, whatever.
I understand that Altoids tins are quite popular with the young tinkerers of today.
But now that we are all familiar with pencil box clocks, one could easily mimic this design for a real bomb. A block of c4 would work nicely as the transformer core.
We can agree that the device would look unfamiliar to many. But that people treat unfamiliar things as scary is up to them.
As I mentioned elsewhere, the biggest recent bombing in the US left a backpack behind. Others have used briefcases, trucks, and even a Christmas present:
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/04/16/the-10...
So if you are serious about security, then you should call the bomb squad for ordinary objects left behind at bus stops.
Of course, nobody getting the vapors about this incident is serious about security. If they were, they would not have carried Ahmed's device around the school building. If they thought it was a bomb, they would have stopped touching the device, evacuated the area, and called the bomb squad.
The actual problem here is not Ahmed's clock. It is teachers and administrators who think their irrational fears are far more important that kids' educations.
I mean, you're right that if you left it unattended at a bus stop the bomb squad would show up. But the same is true of a cardboard box or a backpack. Nearly anything looks suspicious if you leave it sitting around. That's not a reasonable criteria for "resembles a bomb," especially when it wasn't left sitting around.
- Most people love to be PC and no one has the cajones to have a frank conversation about race issues as adults (especially in the red states).
- A lot of people love to spew out personal anecdotes and pass them off as the truth and anything opposing to that POV as an exception to their anecdotal belief
- The fact that none of them have apologized (at this point in time, even if they issue one, it's going to be fake) shows the disdain and bigotry against minorities, generally speaking
That's the part that bothers me the most - that they were too stupid to know what they were looking at. He was proud of his invention and wanted to show it off.
Lookup Dr Umar Johnson
"Attached is a picture of the device that shows it was suspicious in nature."
I bet they don't even realize they just sound like idiots.
I think we're past that. We're in cover-your-ass territory at the moment.
1. Evacuated the school 2. Called the bomb squad
By putting the precipice of wrongdoing not on what happened but on the reaction of state agents, it becomes extremely difficult to call out bullies like this.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigiain/5162711688/
(Also now waiting for the first reports of a muslim being convicted of a "bomb hoax" for carrying a pepper grinder, on the grounds that it "cause a sneeze reaction in a law enforcement officer"...)
I think in Texas that'd make me suspicious - and I think that's _insane_.
"I'm impressed - I didn't realise Ahmed had built a clock with a functional alarm."
Wait, if this was an objective reaction having only to do with the nature of the device, then why is the student's religion even mentioned?
Had this happened to a Bob Jones, there would not have been people saying that this only happened because he was Christian, and the sentence above would not have been in the PD statement.
it looks like maybe they suspected he wanted it to look like a bomb. it does kind of look like a bomb.
of course the cops totally overrreacted.
he's either a brilliant troll (the NASA shirt is perfect), or a nerdy kid with little social awareness. either way, bravo.
i think the cops figured, he made it to look like a bomb and was trying to use it for a bomb threat.
i think they overracted and probably violated the law by questioning him without his lawyer present - they should go to jail.
it's understandable why they did what they did, but they should be punished.
What did they expect him to say? It WAS only a clock. There were no other details regarding its nature or use.
This is classic school faculty behavior: do it our way or else. He could have 'played ball' and explained in detail the project he worked on, but he didn't. He shouldn't have to either. They can expel him or send him home, but they went further, to teach him a lesson for being 'smart'.
It's clear they didn't fear the device. As others have pointed out, the school wasn't evacuated. They knew it wasn't a bomb.
Ah so now Ahmed will get to see the worst of the worst on a different end of the spectrum.
I certainly hope so, anyway.
Situations like this make me think of all the similar incidents that never got picked up by the news because some terrorist was shot or the stock market dipped and the story was no longer important enough to report.
In large part because that is precisely what it is!
Please. Suspicious if you've never seen electronics outside of a case, perhaps.
Although the police really have no excuse not to know what a bomb does and doesn't look like.
Good to know he didn't make an alarm clock.
Nope, it shows no such thing - I see bare electronics, that's all. I really do think that the idea that that is intrinsically "suspicious" needs to be challenged, or better yet ridiculed.
1) To cram in all the ugly looking wires inside while the outer appearance of the product looks polished 2) Nice platform to tether the circuit boards etc to keep them in place 3) Doubles up as a carry box to move around his project and display/show to friends , teachers etc
On the flip side
1) There is subtle difference between timers vs clocks 2) Doesn't look anything like a traditional clock, but more like a James Bondish suitcase/gadget, especially if I just saw the picture of the device alone with no other context given to me.
Having said that, , I am in no way defending the action of police or the school.
What is needed was context, ability to do minimum analysis and common sense. And the teachers, school administration, police had plenty of that. It could have been a simple matter of explaining to the kid , while his zeal is appreciated, to notify his teachers in advance in future, to make sure his projects don't disturb the class, and to encourage more such robotic/electronic projects for science fairs etc (appropriate time and place for everything)
Also unfortunately, due to the current security song and dance every where, kids (and adults too) have to be taught about being sensitive to fear and perceptions of others timing/location/context . Even kids may have to be explained to be sensitive to such things.
May be all or some involved may be bigoted towards the muslim community as the media or comments suggest and that may have played a role in the escalation.
And may be some(or all) weren't. But generally concerned about past incidents related to school environments and violence in schools (Shootings etc). Some of these were perpetrated by fellow students, which can't be discounted in playing into the fears of those involved in this incident.
We can't say for sure , religion/color was the sole motivation. Some past violent incidents were perpetrated by white kids/persons. So if it were a white kid in this situation, can we absolutely discount 100% that similar amount of concern might have not been triggered in the class teacher's mind, or the administration or police.
The point is, reasonable benefit of doubt can be given to the teacher, admin, police for going into a heightened/alert mode.
But what cannot be justified is the failure in subsequent analysis and diffusion of the tension at every level. The teacher could have clarified the intention, and diffused the tension and not escalated it after establishing facts (and the awareness of the enthusiasm and character of a kid of their own class that they should be familiar with). Or the next level, school security/admin could have diffused and de-escalated the situation. Or the police could have done that.
But, no, escalation seems to be a one way process for authority/admin/police these days. What happened to 'peace keeping' part of their job ?
I see this post as a thoughtful plea for context and consideration. What am I missing?
The police were not fearful enough to evacuate the school, yet made the claim that this seemed to be a bomb.
Explaining their actions without that context is a bit trite.
Of course the police are also claiming "not racially motivated policing", so as we gauge their level of truthfullness we should keep both those facts in mind...
The kid did nothing wrong. The supposed "adults" and "authorities" are 100% at fault here.
On the other hand, I frequently found to speak your true thoughts here at HN, it _scares_ me to some extent, because different thoughts here will immediately be punished by down votes, such as the one above. Maybe it's time to close my HN account all together.