Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident | Hacker News Reader

Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

en.wikipedia.org

40 pointscarabiner46 comments

this story never made sense to me. he disassembled a digital clock then put the pieces in a pencil case? he didn't fabricate it or design any of the electronic components; what was he supposed to be demonstrating, that you can put a digital clock in new case? also his dad was a sudanese opposition politician??

What's your explanation?

i don't have one because it makes no sense! but frankly if it were me at that age i probably would have been showing it to my friends because it looked like a bomb

To me it seems like a prank. He made something that looked like a bomb from movies, basically.

It's a 14 year old kid. He wasn't demonstrating anything.

He took apart a clock, stuck in back in a different case, wanted to show his teacher that in a, I am guessing : "Hey look, I took all this apart, and managed not to destroy it"..

Honestly, this entire event shows me two things:

1. The jumps people make to crazy assumptions when faced with someone they don't like because of ideological reasons.

2. The low level of technological acumen/knowledge to assume that this is even similar to a dangerous device.

This, a hundred times this, I used to do this quite often since I was 5-6 years old with all the hardware that I was tired of using (games, toys, etc...)

As a 14 year old kid, I did this sort of thing all the time. Also I was trying to build bombs.

I used to take apart electronics and sometimes show the internals to people. Most folks haven't really looked inside any electronic device and don't know what the components look like or do, so it can be an interesting thing to share.

In this case it says he wanted to show it to an "engineering teacher" (wish my high school had that). I once printed out an entire program I wrote and tried to show it to the teacher who ran our computer lab.

A lot of younger people today would be surprised you can remove a digital clock from its case and it'll still work.

Like, a phone or any piece of technology is just a black box. If it breaks nowadays, you're expected to throw it away or fully replace it.

It sounds weird when you put it that way because that's not what happened.

> he disassembled a digital clock then put the pieces in a pencil case?

The Wikipedia article does say he "reassembled" the clock but if you check out the linked source The Dallas Morning News is very clear that it is a homemade.

He did not disassemble a digital clock and reassemble it in another case. He took existing parts and built them into a clock.

From the pictures my guess would be that he took an existing clock and connected it to that older 8 segment display (he may have also changed the power source photos are inconclusive but I don't see a 9 volt in the 9 volt reciever/mount point).

I remember the incident in the news.

Yeah, I could see if he was 8, taking an electronic component, stripping all the insides and moving it into new box and plugging it in sounds very plausible. But doing it 14, and then using what looks like a suitcase, where more than one adult thought it was a bomb, makes his story that it's just a "clock" a bit hard to believe.

Moreover, the first teacher he showed it to, urged him to keep the devices in his backpack and not take it out [1]. But he didn't, so that indicates he wanted really hard to get a reaction, and he set the alarm off in another class. Another strike against their story is the speed with which they demanded $15m from the school district.

[1] His engineering teacher, upon seeing the clock said, "That's really nice", but advised him to keep the device in his backpack for the rest of the school day.

Ehh. I'm sure any number of equally awkward HN commenters at 14 might have done the same, and if they weren't muslim, gotten the benefit of the doubt instead of being hauled off to the police dept.

> if they weren't muslim, gotten the benefit of the doubt instead of being hauled off to the police dept.

I don't see what that had so to with him being muslim? I don't see how bringing a most prototypical looking bomb-like device and not listening at least twice to the teacher put it away, then proceeding to set off the alarm on it, could have ended without the police involvement. If anything, the first teacher showed quite a bit of restraint and compassion, trying not to get the kid in trouble. So did the second teacher, up until the point the kid started to disobey and proceeded to set the alarm on it. Sure we can make fun of Texas being Islamophobic or backwards, I don't see how this would have played any better in California, or NY, for instance.

Not only was he told not to take it out of his backpack, he whipped it out in English class, plugged it into the wall, set the time, and then caused the alarm to go off. he was purposefully seeking attention.

His family filed three lawsuits against various parties, all dismissed, two with prejudice, and they were ordered to pay legal costs in two of the three cases.

His father was an eccentric type who had twice tried to run for president of Sudan.

Sure seems like an intentional ploy to get a reaction from staff that could be labeled Islamophobia, though I would blame the father more than the kid.

>where more than one adult thought it was a bomb

Clarification: more than one American adult, where collectively some states/localities are more likely to jump at shadows than others..

Indeed. Some states are brimming with absolute morons, especially in positions of power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic

These idiots run your country.

Did the first teacher who asked him to just keep the device in his backpack "jump at shadows"? He knew what it looked like and was trying to help his student stay out of trouble. He didn't report him. Ok, so that's one "crazy" adult. The kid didn't listen.

Another teacher thought the same thing and asked him to put it away, and the kid didn't listen, again, and proceeds to set the alarm on the device. Only then they called the police. I guess, I don't see how brining this kind of a device, looking like a typical movie bomb, to a school in LA, NY (I don't know? think of the least "jumpy-at-shodows" area of the country) could have ended up any better without the police involvement. Heck, I am surprised the first teacher didn't report him and they didn't immediately evacuate the building.

It’s cool in a way. I know I was opening all of my toys at that age and making modifications to them.

Yeah all of the beginner kid's electronics projects I've heard of are interactive. Stuff like building a radio, or a toy that moves, or a flashlight. I think it's very likely that this was a stunt that was successful, and got him and his family an all-expenses move to Qatar.

Nearly 30 years ago, as a kid with way too much free time and a budding interest in questionable DIY projects, I decided to stroll into a hardware store and try to buy some very suspicious items I'd read about in an online forum.

The saleswoman, bless her soul, looked genuinely concerned as she told me she couldn't sell me what I asked for. Then came the inevitable: "So... what exactly are you planning to do with this stuff?"

Without missing a beat, I launched into an impassioned explanation about how absolutely epic it would be to blow up this colossal ant nest I'd discovered in our neighborhood.

What followed wasn't the cool supplies or cheers I imagined but a long-winded lecture about how ants are living beings too, and how it's "definitely not okay" to blow them up. No cops. No parental intervention. Honestly, that lady could've reported me to my parents or even the authorities, but nope! This was Istanbul, and I happened to be a "local" (Funny because there are no locals in Istanbul) kid with lighter skin and blue eyes. So, all good!

But as I got older, I realized how lucky I was. If I'd been darker-skinned or Kurdish (which, back then, was basically a surefire way to get labeled a "terrorist" in the media), things could've gone very differently. Today, it's Syrians who face the brunt of the suspicion. Tomorrow? Who knows!

What I've come to understand is that this kind of dumb, knee-jerk profiling based on race and appearance is everywhere. Humans are exceptionally good at spotting patterns (real or imaginary) and we'll keep doing it as long as we're fed bad (or any, really) information. Even now, living as a migrant in Europe, I get my fair share of this nonsense. Some things, unfortunately, never change.

Dallas area schools are really big on the "zero tolerance". My experience was that they care very little about nuance or judgement, just following the rules strictly

Discrimination against time-bomb makers everywhere is alive and well. Hans Gruber is rolling in his grave.

The fact that they moved is even more sad. Discrimination is at its peak. I wonder if an american kid puts a nuclear sticker to its laptop, would people react the same way.

I assume he was born in Texas, where his dad lived. (And was thus American.)

Correction; a kid named Truman

It looked like a bomb and he was told by teachers to keep it put away. He even made the alarm go off in class. His father, a politician, turned it into an incident.

It could be this, or it could be:

He experimenting hours and was proud of what he did. He wanted to show it to as many as possible, so he ignored what the teacher said. He was interrogated. Why more than one hour? It could have taken less then 10 minutes if you ask the teacher. Why was he handcuffed later? The police clearly wanted to make a statement or show.

To be the devil's advocate, wouldn't this be the same if a white kid from the Bronx dresses up as a ghost to school, only to be arrested for coming to school in a Klan uniform? To me it seems to be a huge misunderstanding on all sides.

No it wouldnt. İf I leave a mustache like hitler, no one believes that I am hitler, but instead this would be advertasing it. Which is still wrong, but this would be wrong regardless of my background. İn this instance, they actually believed the kid would make a bomb, just because of his name. I wonder any kid with different name would go through the same.

Can you dig up any instances of that happening?

Because if not, you've accidentally proved the racism in this incident, because we can already turn up news reports of misunderstood nerdy islamic kids, but find no arrests of caucasian supernatural enthusiasts.

A nonexistent, hypothetical strawman doesn't bolster your argument.

Or maybe, just maybe, no white kid has been stupid enough to do that?

Not understanding what "proof" means doesn't bolster your argument. Rather, it just makes you another datapoint when it comes to picking a team. I really wish certain segments of the left would learn to take an L and grow from it.

> ... no white kid has been stupid enough to do that?

So you're saying only non-white kids are that stupid. Got it.

Stupid enough to dress up as something mistakable for a KKK outfit, in the Bronx, and not take it off after being warned? I rather doubt that.

> Discrimination is at its peak.

It could just as easily be comically inept authority figures. I got suspended for less than this (in violation of state law).

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