Discretion, as they say, is the better part of valor. Ahmed had won the hearts and minds of pretty much everybody (or at least grudging admissions he was wronged) and had more than 15 minutes of fame… Now, unfortunately is father, mother and sister Eyman are milking this thing. Ahmed should play it cool, lock in that scholarship to Cal Tech or MIT, get out of the limelight, and go back to his engineering path. Since Dad’s wants to taking Ahmed and the other seven kids to Mecca, he might also want to check out King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Thuwal or King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dahran. The Saudis and Emiratis have been spending big to create legit tech schools and I’m pretty sure Ahmed could get the full ticket.
A bomb squad was not called. Duh. It was suspicious, they never said it was a bomb.
Then why was Ahmed handcuffed and marched out of school in front of his fellow students as though he were a criminal? Because of an unfounded suspicion? And you have the nerve to suggest that a white kid would be treated the same way. Seriously? Marched out of school in handcuffs if he brought in a contraption he said was a clock, a contraption that looked like a “movie bomb” but that the police chief described as “innocuous”? This white boy would get handcuffed and marched into an interrogation room?
Are you real?
Your attempts to mitigate the actions of the police here are pathetic.
That’s why he was arrested. It created alarm, that’s enough for an arrest.
Irving (TX) police chief Larry Boyd said authorities determined that the teenager did not intend to alarm anyone, and the device, which the chief called “a homemade experiment,” was innocuous.
So where is this “alarm” you refer to?
And the principal didn’t even evacuate the school. Looks like he determined it wasn’t a bomb long before the cops showed up.
Did the teacher pick this bomb up and carry it to the principal’s office? If so, she also determined it wasn’t a bomb, even though she was the one who raised the fuss to begin with.
I’m a white guy – do you think I could snap a circuit board in half, stuff it in a cigarette case, and walk around in Texas without scaring anyone?
The police chief said it was “certainly suspicious”. Ahmed himself said he was worried it might look suspicious (yes, he used that word), so he wrapped a cable around it? Just curious, why did Ahmed himself say it looked suspicious without the cable wrapped around it? And what made the cable make it seem less suspicious? And why did his engineering teacher tell him not to show it to anyone? And why did the alarm go off in class? Shouldn’t it have been turned off? Also, he was not cooperative with the school or police. He was evasive. He was “baiting” them.
They knew it was not a bomb, but was made to resemble one. So they felt it was a hoax bomb. They even said they told him it looked like a movie bomb. He even said himself he wrapped a cable around it so it would not look suspicious. So tell me, why did HE say it was suspicious himself until he wrapped a cable around it? What made it suspicious before the cable was wrapped around it? And why would that make it not suspicious? He has been very evasive on this, and was with the school and police.
Yes, same thing happens to a white kid, as it should. You just don’t see it as much in the press. But plenty of kids get in big trouble for stuff like this. Two kids (one white) got busted for putting alarm clocks that ticked in lockers. Just regular store bought alarm clocks, not even modified. So technically they could say “we got busted for bringing alarm clocks to school”. Well, there is more to it than that, especially with Zero Tolerance policy. Remember, there was no science project or fair, that is a media myth. He just brought this thing to school with him. And the first teacher he showed, his engineering teacher, reacted negatively and told him not to show anyone. Why?
I don’t see where the kid ever claimed to have “invented” the first clock ever, this clock etc. Your attempt here is to put words into the 14 year old’s mouth then attack him for. If you think this event “warranted a visit from the police” you are incredibly dumb. If you, every science, math, whatever teacher at the school can’t tell the difference between a bomb and a clock we need some new teachers and you need to stop trying to sound smart. Besides your premise that this is a repackaged commercial clock further diminishes your concept that the police needed to visit. If the kid had repackaged a commercial clock the first adult who looked at it should have known that. In what universe do you think this kid or his family were “playing games?” Seriously dude, your every post wreaks of making up “facts” about this to justify what happened. It isn’t justifiable and it would likely have never happened to a Caucasian kid. Now get lost.
They knew it was not a bomb, but was made to resemble one. So they felt it was a hoax bomb. They even said they told him it looked like a movie bomb.
Which movies are you watching? I see action films all the time, and I have yet to see one with a bomb in a pencil case that tells time. Which movie bomb does this resemble?
And the first teacher he showed, his engineering teacher, reacted negatively and told him not to show anyone. Why?
Because his teacher knew that he worked with idiots?
Remind me why any of this brainless paranoia and apologist claptrap is evidence for him not getting his clock back?
The two kids who placed ticking clocks in lockers intended to perpetrate a hoax. Apples and oranges.
Those two kids did not have charges dropped, this kid did. In both cases a hoax was suspected due to suspicious situations. For Ahmed, it was determined to be a “naive accident” with no evidence he intended to create alarm, so charges were dropped. He was arrested for not initially being forthcoming, but again charges were dropped. The two kids with the alarm clocks have been charged with felonies. They needed to be bailed out of jail. I have not seen an update on that case from the end of May, but as of mid June they still faced felony charges.
They knew that it wasn’t a real bomb, but they knew that it was made to resemble one? In order for it to be a hoax bomb, there would have to be some kind of insinuation on someone’s part that it was an actual bomb. Ahmed never made that insinuation, he only ever said it was a clock. If he was planning a hoax to convince people he had made a bomb, but only ever said it was a clock, then doesn’t that kind of ruin the whole hoax thing?
The bottom line is that once it was determined that it was not an actual bomb, and that determination seems to have been made fairly early since the school was not evacuated and the bomb squad was not called, and once it was determined that there was no insinuation that it was a bomb and therefore not a hoax bomb, they should have sent him back to class and told him to pick up his clock after school and not to bring it back to school again. All of this could have happened at the school. No arrest, no handcuffs, no perp walk, no media circus, no nothing. Which is exactly what would have happened to a white kid as soon as it was determined that it was all a “naive accident.”
This kid, however, was a brown Muslim from Africa, and so it was decided that extra measures needed to be taken just to be safe.
Texas law stipulates that INTENT is required for any kind of charge involving a hoax bomb. True, no charges were filed but the boy was arrested and paraded out of his school as a criminal in handcuffs, so the damage was done and is lasting. But you keep playing both sides of the argument. You say Ahmed was rightly arrested for not being “forthcoming,” but he kept saying what was eventually accepted as the truth: that he built a clock, not a bomb, that he wanted to impress his teacher. The cops accepted this when they agreed the contraption was “innocuous” and that Ahmed intended no harm. Apparently, the only way he could be more forthcoming was to claim he built a contraption to look like a bomb. But he didn’t do that, so he couldn’t claim it. So why in the world was he arrested?
Because it’s Texas and he’s got brown skin and a Muslim name. That is beyond debate. The school statement reads: “We always ask our students and staff to immediately report if they observe any suspicious items and/or suspicious behavior. If something is out of the ordinary, the information should be reported immediately to a school administrator and/or the police so it can be addressed right away. We will always take necessary precautions to protect our students and keep our school community as safe as possible.”
All well and good. They can report Ahmed and his contraption and bring him to the principal’s office to find out what’s going on. And that’s where it would end with a white kid. No cops. No handcuffs. No arrest.
Many really good well thought out comments here, thanks! Sometimes it takes someone who desperately wants, nay NEEDS, a situation to be something it’s not to serve as the catalyst for a lively discussion.
For that we owe McGruff a hearty round of applause! Who else among us is always willing to serve as a human trampoline here?
But seriously, thanks to the many others who have taken time to weigh in with stimulating arguments in this epic beat down. Eggrollian might have summed it up best with the doors opening for this young man.
A TV or movie bomb. Very common to see a clock on a TV or Movie bomb.
It was a “suspected” hoax bomb, yes. If a kid makes a gun that looks real, it’s a suspected gun until identified as not being an actual gun.
And once it is identified as a replica, it is no longer suspicious and is returned to its owner.
You do know that TV/movie bombs don’t actually blow up and kill people, right?
Yes, but creating one can cause alarm. That’s the whole point. Hoax bomb means it’s not real.
Right, but it was determined that it was not a hoax bomb. And therefore, no longer suspicious. So why do the police still classify it as suspicious? If it is, in fact, still suspicious, they must suspect something. They have determined that the device is not a bomb and not a hoax bomb. They have determined that it is, in fact, a clock. So what exactly is still so suspicious about this clock that the police refuse to give it back?
Another thing I’m confused about that maybe you could help with. In every instance of seeing a TV/movie bomb in the digital age, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a TV/movie bomb that actually had a digital clock attached to it. I can only ever recall a digital timer, or a digital countdown. That’s because the countdown more effectively (albeit lazily) conveys a sense of urgency and drama when used as a plot device, much more so than a simple clock, which is rather boring and mundane by comparison.
Ahmed’s clock was never a countdown or a timer, it was always a clock, just as he said it was. This makes me question the decision to classify it as a TV or movie bomb in the first place.
Unless, of course, they were looking for a reason to further interrogate a brown Muslim kid. Then it makes complete and total sense.
It’s still suspicious. No doubt. It had digital numbers on it, and it looks stupid in general. Why would you make a clock that you can’t even stand up because it has a cable around it? How is that “innovative”. It’s just real silly, the kid was playing games, he learned his lesson, etc. No, he should not have been arrested. But that is clearly one stupid thing he put together. Both sides need to cool out. The police have apologized for the arrest. And Ahmed’s family is free to hit the talk show circuit, but they should stop going after the police.
So you’ve moved from suspicious to stupid. If it’s just stupid and not suspicious, then why can’t he have it back again? Or maybe you could explain why it’s still suspicious? Still waiting on that one. Or maybe things that have digital numbers on them that look stupid automatically make them suspicious? I’m not sure how this all works in your world, but if that’s true, then why aren’t the cops out at the Wal-Mart confiscating all the Crock Pots?
Perhaps if the police gave the non-suspicious, stupid-looking, anti-innovative clock back, Ahmed’s family would have nothing left to complain about, and the police could wisely move on and never speak of this again.