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

[Sea of red]

Some, but by no means all.

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.

What does that have to do with this instance? Anybody that's been living in America for the past ten years, is well aware of the phobia conservative politicians and pundits have spread about Arabic and Muslim people. I've seen outright advocating of treating Muslims as a separate class of citizens - with a totally different class of civil of rights. I don't think you're that way at all based on our past conversations, and you're being one of the few rational voices here. But there is an element on the extremely far-right that does promote a very paranoid way of interacting with Muslim people that reminds of the Red Scare.

I've seen the same thing with people like Sam Harris, Dan Barker, and a few other anti-theist types that have even suggested nuclear war on Muslim countries - without any provocation - would be a moral thing to do.

[Sea of red]

I am an electronics expert and sometimes it is NOT possible to tell the difference, expecially when the clock is bread boarded. If you don't know how to spot an actual explosive, a bomb and a clock can look pretty similar. And most people won't disassemble a device to see if it contains explosive material or not. Not worth the risk.

Risk? So now, I guess every unidentified electronic device should be labeled a potential bomb? The terrorists have truly won.

[Sparko]

SoR, you're arguing from the very thing you accused me of - ignorance. The school really does have a legal duty to investigate anything of potential harm to any of its students. It's from civil more than (but not entirely) criminal law but it is a legal obligation. It's born of those freedoms you are espousing - rights come with responsibilities. They are not legal strangers but twins.

Also, your point is self contradictory - the school investigated based on the behavior - yeah, bringing something out of the ordinary to school is a behavior - and circumstance - an unknown device. That you would have known what it was has zero bearing on the school's legal obligation to investigate.

Freedom has responsibilities - get used to the idea, SoR, because the truth won't change.

What would SorR do if he was going through the airport and noticed someone leaving a suitcase behind and unattended?

[Sea of red]

This is the clock he made

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9834[/ATTACH]

being that it is in a briefcase and there are places where you can't tell what is behind like the red area (display?) on the lid, there is no way anyone can look at it and say "duh. that's a clock, not a bomb"

Now having said that, the teacher who Ahmed showed the clock to should know Ahmed well enough to know whether he would make a bomb or not. A stranger would not. I for one, would not risk my life to find out if it is a bomb or not.

I've built high-powered rockets that I've brought up to my brothers school, and not a single person ever asked me if there was fuel in it or not. This is a fear of electronics that I've never seen before. What's going to happen at a science fair, do we bring a bomb squad in?

[Sea of red]

What would SorR do if he was going through the airport and noticed someone leaving a suitcase behind and unattended?

"Hey man, you forgot this!"

Done it before. Can you believe nothing happened?

[klaus54]

My friend Mike, back when his nickname was Muslim Mike, used to have part of a standup routine he did where he described the life experience between most of the people at his mosque and himself.g

When he got to an airport he just took off his hat and everyone left him alone

Big deal.

Got any better artillery?

[Sea of red]

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.

Oh, wow, it's a backpack with a circuit board! And, oh wow, it looks like a clock!

Lets call the cops.

[klaus54]

The digital display is at the top. It is the red bar. As for the batteries they have obviously been removed. Are you seriously attempting to say this was a bomb?

Very dumb response.

OF COURSE he's not saying it was a bomb!!

It's about the SUSPICION that it was a bomb.

Yikes!

[Sea of red]

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

Do you always fail this hard at come backs?

[klaus54]

I've built high-powered rockets that I've brought up to my brothers school, and not a single person ever asked me if there was fuel in it or not. This is a fear of electronics that I've never seen before. What's going to happen at a science fair, do we bring a bomb squad in?

If there's suspicion of a bomb, then of course.

[Sea of red]

Very dumb response.

OF COURSE he's not saying it was a bomb!!

It's about the SUSPICION that it was a bomb.

Yikes!

[Sea of red]

If there's suspicion of a bomb, then of course.

Well, we've seen the low criteria for that to be made, so that actually speaks volumes about the world you want us to live in.

[One Bad Pig]

What does that have to do with this instance?

You're the one who made the general assertion.

Anybody that's been living in America for the past ten years, is well aware of the phobia conservative politicians and pundits have spread about Arabic and Muslim people. I've seen outright advocating of treating Muslims as a separate class of citizens - with a totally different class of civil of rights. I don't think you're that way at all based on our past conversations, and you're being one of the few rational voices here. But there is an element on the extremely far-right that does promote a very paranoid way of interacting with Muslim people that reminds of the Red Scare.

I've seen the same thing with people like Sam Harris, Dan Barker, and a few other anti-theist types that have even suggested nuclear war on Muslim countries - without any provocation - would be a moral thing to do.

I'm not denying such sentiment exists, I just don't think it's as prevalent as you're making it out to be (in this thread generally).

[Sea of red]

You're the one who made the general assertion.

I'm not denying such sentiment exists, I just don't think it's as prevalent as you're making it out to be (in this thread generally).

Fair enough.

[klaus54]

Yeah! Lets hand wave any other possible explanation away! /s

How about you present your explanation?

Also, what would you have done if you were the teacher?