9th-grader arrested -- taking homemade clock to school: 'So you tried to make a bomb?

[laserhaas]

Source: Dallas Morning News Paper

After taking a homemade clock to school, Irving MacArthur High student Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was taken in handcuffs to juvenile detention. Police say they may charge him with making a hoax bomb — though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it’s a clock.

He showed it to his engineering teacher first thing Monday morning and didn’t get quite the reaction he’d hoped for.

“He was like, ‘That’s really nice,’” Ahmed said. “‘I would advise you not to show any other teachers.’”

He kept the clock inside his school bag in English class, but the teacher complained when the alarm beeped in the middle of a lesson. Ahmed brought his invention up to show her afterward.

“She was like, it looks like a bomb,” he said.

“I told her, ‘It doesn’t look like a bomb to me.’”



Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece

---

[delrem]

1. Some teachers should be fired, right now! And a school district should be sued.

And especially, the good taxpayers should know how much they paid for this total desecration of justice.

[laserhaas]

2. Agree.... This is absurd.

[840high]

6. ...+1

[tecelote]

10. Yeah...

Arrest the teacher for creating a bomb scare.

Poor kid. He deserved praise.

[MrScorpio]

3. That's it…

This country is completely hopeless.

[laserhaas]

4. How dare a non-white be creative and smart....

Must be a ISIS guy in training...

Get SWAT tanks out boys - Obomb'r is invad/n Tex'arse with G'hahadies

[marmar]

5. What's sad is that this story isn't even surprising.

Explains Trumps popularity.

[laserhaas]

7. Is there any country out there - pure in political quests - that is laughing at U.S. right now?

I'm just askin......

[fingrin]

8. Sorry New Zealand

has been laughing since GWB. What did he expect the poor bastard had 3 things against him. The name Ahmed, Mohamed, and looking " Muslim"
Sing along now. the home of the freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and the home of the Brave.

[Enthusiast]

15. +1 an entire shit load.

[betsuni]

9. Did it look like this alarm clock?

[Geronimoe]

11. American exceptionalism

Surprising they didn't waterboard him, send him to Gitmo with a trial to prove his innocence in 20 years from now.

[Humanist_Activist]

12. This is one of those situations where I wish personal immunity was waived, the teacher and...

Principal deserve to get sued, personally, for their assets and income. This is fucking ridiculous.

[Joe Chi Minh]

17. They must make great educators. Some kid brought in a butterfly. Heck! Stop him!

He' trying to start a tornado in China! The sky's falling! The sky's falling! (Actually it is, but I digress.)

[Humanist_Activist]

13. Shit, I made a stopwatch and showed it off in school, and that fucker counted down to zero! n/t

[PoliticAverse]

14. So he'll be charged with "clocking while Mohamed"?

Another success of the American school system.

[Solly Mack]

16. If he bakes a cake and shows it to the Home Ec teacher they'll arrest him for a biological weapon.

He'll need to avoid chemistry to keep from being arrested for making a chemical weapon when mixing vinegar and baking soda.

Maybe the kid should drop out now so the bigots can feel more comfortable.

But then who would they scapegoat?

I hope the family can sue and I hope they win large.

[Joe Chi Minh]

18. .. and they'll probably invite a Monsanto guy round, to preach the miraculous benefits

of frankenfoods and from Big Pharma, vaccines.

[laserhaas]

28. "frankenfoods"

Priceless!

[Joe Chi Minh]

45. It's an 'oldie' in Europe. We all usually cross-pollinate better than that! We

sure pick up a lot of your wonderfully evocative slang.

[jtuck004]

19. In a Boston public school, Kozol found switches soaked in vinegar, for the black kids,

and was told "because their skins are tougher, you know".

Nice to see we have become more civilized. Now we are almost as moral as the terrorists who are beheading people.

At least they don't pretend to be anything else.

[Turbineguy]

20. Texas.

You can only invent Bibles there.

[Orrex]

21. Is his English teacher an explosives expert?

No? Then maybe she should keep her bomb identification hobby to herself.

[ProfessorGAC]

26. That's What I Thought, Too

Did she miss the part where there was no detonating or conflagrating material attached to the clock? How did she identify the pulse loader which would deliver enough current to fire the primer (that didn't exist)?

A clock looks like a bomb? No, a bomb looks like a clock with explosives attached to it.

She's obviously not too bright.

[w0nderer]

30. once had a hotel door kicked in and police run in and slam me to the floor

my crime?
i had 2 usb solar chargers in the window (factory made no less..not hack-upped)

window washer thought they looked like bombs and called police

to many people 'something i don't understand' == looks like a bomb
sad as it is

[laserhaas]

32. WOW....

Were you reimbursed costs to repair?
.
Scary

[w0nderer]

46. the door belonged to the hotel

the solarpanels were easy open (4x philips head) so weren't broken

i got some bruises and rug burns cause it wasn't a 'stand still' thing
it was a: rush in, tackle me to ground, pile 3 guys on top of me and hold me down kinda thing

the police did in fact apologize after, funnily the hotel, neither manager or the window cleaner who called manager who took and look and called cops...did not apologize at all (last time i stayed at that 'brand' of hotel)

And yeah it was scary, also taught me hotel doors, even with latch don't stand up to a dedicated 'assault'

[Hoppy]

22. If you see something, say something. O.K., I'll say something: Fucking Assholes !

[laserhaas]

23. It's a wonder Oathkeepers isn't down there now

In full force
.
Protecting U.S.
.
From U.S.

[Vinca]

24. It makes you want to bang your head on the wall.

A kid has enough interest and smarts to make a clock and suddenly he's a terrorist?

[rurallib]

25. This year's Science Fair cancelled

due to abject fear.


Really, if this were a bomb, would he be showing it around?

[Orrex]

27. Threads like this make me wish that the victim read DU

So that he'd see that the whole country isn't made up of terrified, bigoted idiots.

[laserhaas]

29. AMEN to that...

Plenty of good people out here
.
But main lame news focuses in on loons

[marble falls]

31. Totally fucked up. Schools aren't being blown up, kids are being shot by armed to the teeth RWers...

being brilliant and non-white is more threatening than open/concealed carry????????

[laserhaas]

34. Exactly...

Bing bang booms by right to carry ...is okay
.
But be non whute with any notion of being normal
.
And we have to call out National Guard

[lunasun]

42. +1 !! exactly

[Javaman]

33. there will be no creativity...

there will be no inventive-ness

there will be no insight, questioning or reasoning.

the ministry of intelligence has spoken.

you will now be sent to prison for violating one, all of the rules we have stated. (and some we haven't stated)

this has been a public service announcement, which you are now required to promptly forget, least you actually obey the rules, preventing us from arresting you in the future.

now sit down, shut up and regurgitate the biblical verses, according to homeland security, that you have been brainwashed in to you.

that is all...for now.

[Nihil]

35. Welcome to "The Home of the Brave" ...

[Helen Borg]

36. I bet he also made a Bibi's style drawing of the bomb!

Damn....

[malthaussen]

37. Ahmed Mohammed, eh?

Is there seriously any question about why this kid was persecuted?

-- Mal

[Rose Siding]

38. Really good stuff here: #IStandWithAhmed

https://twitter.com/hashtag/IStandWithAhmed?src=tren

[laserhaas]

39. Thanjs for the Hastag link...Odd thing us

The bias can turn into a self fullfiling prophecy.
.
They abuse him enough to make him into a radical.
.
And then they can say "Ahah...told you he was radical"

[Rose Siding]

43. I wrote to Homer Hickam about him.

Remember that girl awhile back whose experiment in class exploded? She was black and she was arrested, too, like this kid. Hickam sent her to NASA camp when he heard about her.

[mainer]

48. This kid would love NASA camp. Hope he gets to go.

I notice that geeks around the world are coming to his support.

[Rose Siding]

49. He does get to go!

At least it's being offered to him-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027174169

[mainer]

55. Yay!!! Good for you, too, to email him.

Glad Hickam's already on it.

[reflection]

72. This one is the greatest

https://twitter.com/little_sumi/status/644487175686463488/photo/1

[sinkingfeeling]

40. America just continues to teach 'fear of the other'. Engineering is now the realm of 'terrorists'.

[deacon_sephiroth]

41. ugly truths

this is post 9/11 America son, you're brown, authoritarians are afraid of you. I'm just relieved a cop didn't murder you on the spot. The fact that I can say such things and mean it makes me sick. Keep working to make better things for a better world and maybe your generation can fix what our's is failing to.

[DRoseDARs]

44. "You look like a sandn*gger" is what is teacher meant.

She, and everyone else involved with this child's arrest.

[w0nderer]

47. That English teacher

needs one of these

http://www.teknikmagasinet.se/produkter/hem-o-hushall/klockor/vackarklockor-o-klockradio/dynamite-alarm-clock

alarm clock of three fake dynamite sticks connected with cables, after a short count down the clock gives alarm with loud 'bang', to turn off the alarm you have to cut the cables in the right or....no it's not that bad, just push snooze



on edit--
These get sold as gags in a large part of the world (including Sweden)

--end edit

[mahatmakanejeeves]

50. Why Ahmed Mohamed should be a topic at Wednesday’s GOP debate

Adding some links.

Why Ahmed Mohamed should be a topic at Wednesday’s GOP debate

Texas Student Is Under Police Investigation for Building a Clock

By CHRISTINE HAUSERSEPT. 16, 2015

....
The newspaper quoted a police spokesman, James McLellan, as saying that Ahmed never claimed his device was anything but a clock, and the police have no reason to think it was dangerous.

But officers still did not believe Ahmed was giving them the whole story.

“We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” Mr. McLellan said. “He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.

“It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”

#EngineersForAhmed

[fbc]

51. This is more common than you might think

Electronics are a major part of the Maker movement and many people see electronics and immediately think "Bomb".

Jeri Ellsworth... role model for young people, especially females...... or terrorist??!!!

https://www.youtube.com/user/jeriellsworth

[damnedifIknow]

52. Why arrest him?

Is it too much trouble to look at the thing and figure out it's a fricken clock? Damned if I know is an understatement.

[gregcrawford]

53. I cannot, for the life of me, understand...

... why any sane and rational person would CHOOSE to move to Texas, let alone a Black Muslim. I mean, sweet Jesus on a pogo stick, bigotry and malice toward People of Color is practically mandatory down there!

Now before all seven of you Liberal Texans lose your shit, I've spent time in Texas; hell, I MARRIED a Texan 40 years ago. Bad judgment on my part, but that's another story. Anyway, no one can dispute that really rotten people infest that state like bedbugs in a flop house.

This poor kid was looking for validation from adults he looked up to, but instead, some malicious pig threw him to the rabid hyenas that pass for law enforcement in the Lone Star State.

Come on, MIT, step up and give young Mohammad a scholarship before he's driven over to the Dark Side by ignorant bigots.

[LannyDeVaney]

54. Completely shocked the cops didn't just unload and kill him on site **

nfm

[blackspade]

56. You can't cure some people of the stupids.

[Daniel537]

57. Would love to chip in to help the family move away from Texas.

That fucking gutter state has no tolerance for science or people of color, unless they do the jobs the locals are too fucking lazy to do.

[niyad]

58. dear english teacher, how much experience do you have with bombs? are you an expert? can you tell

a bomb from a bombe?

do you even know what clocks look like?

[csziggy]

60. Here is the kid of digital clock those teachers and cops could handle

http://www.yugop.com/ver3/stuff/03/fla.html

[niyad]

62. I think you are giving them wayyyyyy too much credit!!

[laserhaas]

59. Faux znews is going to go nutz, after POTUS invites

This errorist to the White House
.
( the error being the kid believed he would be praised, for ingenuity)
.
We should send 1000 different clicks to this dumb arse teacher

[Darb]

61. Engineering teacher should have kept it until the end of the day.

Then sent it home with him. A big misunderstanding in a paranoid world. Could have been prevented. The rest of them over-reacted for sure, but most teachers are probably a bit on the protective, paranoid side these days I'd say.

Oh well. White House should have stayed out of it.

[Lychee2]

69. +1.

Yes to your whole post.

[CreekDog]

91. The White House did the right thing

They defended a victimized kid.

[Lychee2]

63. Here is a pic of Ahmed's clock.

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2362805.1442423107!/img/httpImage/image.jpg

Would you immediately recognize that it was just a harmless clock?

[hollowdweller]

64. Whoa! I can see why they were nervous. Where is the dial?

[Taitertots]

65. It lacks all the bomb parts of a bomb.

Who puts a giant led timer on a bomb? That's cartoon stuff.

[Lychee2]

66. You can see that, but not everyone can.

Cops & school officials are not experts. They just see a bunch of electrical parts in what looks like a briefcase with a digital readout on it, and think "Uh-oh."

As to the giant led timer....A kid might do that.

I am not condoning the treatment of the kid. He should not have been arrested and cuffed. He should have been put in the custody of his parents until someone with some bomb-experience had a look at the thing. Any other course of action would have been irresponsible.

[joshcryer]

67. Yes.

I have spatial awareness.

[Lychee2]

68. Congratulations.

What else can you do?

[Nihil]

70. Apparently he can do more than either you or that dipshit of a "teacher" ...

... or the cops for that matter ...

You have to wonder what kind of moron that "teacher" really is
(along with the principal and whoever else backs them up) and,
more to the point, precisely *why* they are getting taxpayer money
on the pretence of educating anyone when they are incapable of
simple objective common sense.

[Lychee2]

74. Sorry, I don't understand your post.

[CreekDog]

92. Welcome to DU

I see you're getting comfortable criticizing the President and fighting with liberals already.

[IDemo]

75. Yes, a clock or any other output message

It consists of a transformer to step down the line voltage to the PCB, which is connected to a quite large LED display. No outputs in evidence for detonation purposes.

[Lychee2]

76. I'm glad you are able to tell that.

Good for you. That might come in handy someday. But not everyone has your bomb-recognition skills. Not the cops or school officials.

[IDemo]

77. I'd be willing to bet

that Ahmed would have been delighted to give them a 30 second tour of the device to show how it worked.

[Lychee2]

78. That would be like reading 2 copies of the morning newspaper to check the facts.

[PersonNumber503602]

85. So if you don't know what something is, you assume it's a bomb?

or do you only assume it's a bomb if it's some with a "muslim sounding" name who has it?

[Lychee2]

86. Did you see the picture I posted?

Take a look at it.

If something looked like that, I would suspect that it might be a bomb. Of course, I am not a bomb expert, but neither is your average school official or cop.

And take your insinuations about anti-Muslim prejudice and put them somewhere outside this discourse.

[PersonNumber503602]

87. I'm not a bomb expert either, but I can see it's not a bomb.

Common sense tells someone that a bomb needs something that goes boom to be a bomb. Common sense also tells people that there are many non-bomb devices that use circuit boards and electronic components. If you open up any electronic device, you'll see circuit boards, wires, and various components.

[Lychee2]

89. The cops say they thought it was a "hoax bomb."

Of note, police acknowledged immediately following the incident that at no point did the young 14-year-old claim the device was anything but a homemade clock. Meanwhile, Irving authorities continued to call the clock a “hoax bomb.”
*
Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said, “The follow-up investigation revealed the device apparently was a homemade experiment, and there’s no evidence to support the perception he intended to create alarm,” describing the incident as a “naive accident.”

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/photo-clock-isn-t-bomb-got-14-old-133057018.html?nf=1

Apparently the cops thought that the device might be a fake bomb designed to scare people at the school. The crudeness of the fake could be chalked up to the work of a child.

[PersonNumber503602]

90. But is there anything to suggest this kid would do that?

Most of what I've seen suggests that he's a kid who is into electronics. He also took the thing to one of his teachers (the tech teacher) and showed him his clock. Why would he do that if his intent was to trick people into thinking it was a bomb? The school and police even stated that from the start he explained it was just a clock.

So is there any reason why we should believe he had ill intent? I fully understand why they would want to investigate it to make sure it's nothing bad, but I do not understand why it went as far as it did.

[CreekDog]

93. The only bomb here is your post

[Sunlei]

81. I'd recognize its a circuit board a piece that is in every piece of technology we have.

I see a market niche. Someone with 'time' grab this niche market right away.

I guarantee someone in the USA will start-up a business for items made with a circuit board to "pretend it's a bomb" and they will become multi-millionaires very fast. Even tee shirts will sell.

[lapfog_1]

82. how many clock driven bombs

cartoon, movie, or real... PLUG INTO A WALL OUTLET?

jeez...

[reddread]

88. that is an A

kid did some serious work.
anyone who suspected something heinous
should be ashamed and shamed.

[sinkingfeeling]

94. Yes. Big digital face and zero explosives = clock.

[bill]

71. But he told his math teacher...

he liked Al-Gebra!

[laserhaas]

80. Bill (though you made me chuckle)

You need to be spanked

[lapfog_1]

83. you know, of course...

The word "algebra" is derived from the Arabic word Al-Jabr, and this comes from the treatise written in 820 by the medieval Persian mathematician, Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, entitled, in Arabic Kitāb al-muḫtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-ğabr wa-l-muqābala, which can be translated as The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_algebra

[laserhaas]

84. Well aware - and am currently studying Sumeria - that was Meso - prior to all Judeao/ Christ'oh

It is scary how repetitive, reinforcing, traditionalism, BS, can 'convert' us into accepting falsity

[threethirteen]

73. What I don't understand is why the police brought handcuffs instead of the bomb squad.

I mean can a run-of-the-mill police officer properly identify a bomb?

[Sunlei]

79. Happy Ahmed has good support & agree that this Texas school is a "hostile environment" for kids.

Our polices actions, this school & many 'sheltered' local societies in general are raising kids to be prejudiced and bigoted.