14-year-old Texas boy arrested for bringing homemade clock

[Cow Poke]

What facts have changed the narrative?

Woah, slow down, Sam --- I clearly said " if more facts come out that change the narrative "... heavy on the "if".

The whole point of my post is that the spin is settling in. If you want the conspiracy brigade, Mountain Man is peddling Pamela Gellar articles. I'd start there.

And you're doing the same thing from the opposite direction. I'm surprised you're not too dizzy to type.

[Sam]

It looks like a hot mess - nothing, in my opinion, that a serious engineering student would design.

My kid does electrical engineering like that at 14 and I'll be very proud of his skill. It definitely looks like something that a "serious engineering student" would design.

The police cited a "hollywood bomb" or "movie bomb" - indicating that they thought it was designed to look like that. Have you ever seen a hollywood "bomb incident" that did NOT include a clock display that actually ticked off time? EVER?

Have you ever seen a clock design without a display? What's the argument here, that the kid intended to make a fake bomb or that the police, despite the kid telling them it was a clock, saw an LED display and thought "bomb"?

And how you get from even that to arresting the kid ... no leg to stand on here, CP.

[Sea of red]

Here's an aspect of this that always amazes me, not than it means anything to anybody here....

Something like this happens, and a tidal wave of social media weighs in on it, sweeping up even otherwise reasonable people. Almost all the information comes from the accused and his defenders, because the police and school officials are limited as to what they can say due to protocol, privacy concerns, or possible ongoing investigations (though I believe this case has been declared "closed").

It's like the whole phony "hands up" meme --- it's based on a FRAUD, but that doesn't matter - social media has ruled it legit, and people will believe what they want to believe.

So basically, you're just holding out hope that maybe some aspect of the story has been left out, that makes your position seem justified? There's nothing to anyone's knowledge that suggests that some facts have been left out - all the evidence is present.

[Mountain Man]

Reasoning like this has led to people like me repeatedly bullied.... You're justifying racial profiling to a level that it should not be. Let me ask you a question: I was born in India and have brown skin. If I was working on a circuit board/ motherboard/breadboard, would you be worried?

If you brought something that looked to a layman like a homemade bomb and started fiddling with it in a public place? Of course I'd be concerned, I don't care what color your skin is.

[Sea of red]

And the other side is - school officials and law enforcement should have just accepted the word of a kid who didn't have enough sense NOT to bring a hot mess of a homemade clock to school when other kids get suspended for drawing PICTURES of guns, or mom leaving a butter knife in a kids lunch box.

Schools have adopted this "zero tolerance" crap, and now the liberals are screaming, "but, wait, one of OUR guys got caught doing something stupid", so it's all on the school officials and police!

This is not a stupid kid, Sam.

No, ever since 9/11 conservatives have been spreading and promoting a culture of fear towards Arabic and Muslim people. Countless items have been marked as dangerous weapons that turned out to be nothing - and the panic was based on jumping to conclusions.

It seems that anything with a circuit board and some wires is a "bomb" in that paranoid anti-Arab world you live in.

[Sea of red]

If you brought something that looked to a layman like a homemade bomb and started fiddling with it in a public place? Of course I'd be concerned, I don't care what color your skin is.

Well everything under the sun that has a circuit panel looks like a bomb to you, so we're not surprised.

Hopefully, you don't get anybody hurt as a result of your paranoia.

[Sea of red]

Woah, slow down, Sam --- I clearly said " if more facts come out that change the narrative "... heavy on the "if".

Let us all know when "if" turns into something beyond your desire for there to be something that makes you look less ridiculous.

[Sam]

If you brought something that looked to a layman like a homemade bomb and started fiddling with it in a public place? Of course I'd be concerned, I don't care what color your skin is.

Just don't give him a reason to think you're a Muslim or anything, 'cause then it's an especially real concern ...

[Cow Poke]

Have you ever seen a clock design without a display?

Have you ever seen an Aggie clock?

[Mountain Man]

The young man's responses might be attributed to sheer panic at the way he was approached. However, if that article is right - the police assuredly played into his father's hands.

Read the story. The police described him as "passive aggressive", not panicked.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ophobia-clock/

[One Bad Pig]

No, ever since 9/11 conservatives have been spreading and promoting a culture of fear towards Arabic and Muslim people.

Some, but by no means all.

Countless items have been marked as dangerous weapons that turned out to be nothing - and the panic was based on jumping to conclusions.

It's usually progressives who get the screaming heebee-jeebies about anything that looks like it might look like a weapon, especially in connection with schools. It's certainly not conservatives who are suspending students for having nail clippers or chewing a pop-tart into a shape vaguely resembling a gun.

[One Bad Pig]

Read the story. The police described him as "passive aggressive", not panicked.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ophobia-clock/

Breitbart, therefore your argument is invalid.

[Mountain Man]

Well everything under the sun that has a circuit panel looks like a bomb to you, so we're not surprised.

Hopefully, you don't get anybody hurt as a result of your paranoia.

I'm trying to see this as anything but a vacuous rejoinder, but I just can't.

[Cow Poke]

I'm trying to see this as anything but a vacuous rejoinder, but I just can't.

I think he's just trying really hard to look more ridiculous, but it's impossible.

[Mountain Man]

As always, there's even more to the story. He had the "clock" hidden in his backpack and only revealed it to a teacher after its alarm went off.

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(NYPost) Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was arrested by cops in Irving, Texas, after the clock, made from a circuit board and tucked into his backpack, started sounding its alarm. When he was forced to show it to his teacher, she mistook it for a bomb.

http://nypost.com/2015/09/16/muslim-...lock-for-bomb/

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The more facts we learn, the less Ahmed looks like an innocent victim.