Student Arrested for Clock 'Bomb'

[mirth]

Yeah, but let's face it - if I showed up with that sort of clock in my bag, no one gives a shit.  But it's a brown-skinned kid with a 'funny-sounding' name, so he gets hauled into the principal's office.

The worst part of it is that they were laying into him with no parents present.  That's just flat-fucking wrong.

It's nuts. They questioned him, arrested him and dragged him off to juvy and then called the parents? WTF?!  Why the hell didn't the school call the parents in the first place? It does raise questions about if it would have been handled that way for a white kid named Joe Smith.

[MikeGER]

Well i know, its all just following SOP regulations, but looking at that picture, a cop who need to put a skinny nerdy kid into iron handcuffs for his personal security and the 'control of the suspect', is not qualified to do that job.
There is always leeway in decision making.  if that would have been a 200lbs ox of an teenager caught in the middle of the night burgling in gang-country thats a different story. Its not about the age, its about the threat level.   

[Jarhead0331]

I've seen contraption with similar construction.  They did go boom or timed the boom.  Frankly in hindsight it may seem pathetic, but I think they made the right call.  You never know these days.  All it took was a couple of rice cookers in Boston lest we all forgot too soon.

[Nefaro]

A kid in a local school got in trouble for bringing a butter knife from home, with his lunch awhile back.

The stories about kids also getting extensive scrutiny for drawing weapons, robots firing missiles, and other flights of fantasy on their notebooks in school is real.

This is the norm today.  I'd say the Briefcase Bomb Hoax was one of the more reasonable examples in the lot.

[Boggit]

And all done in a very 'English' Steampunk style!  ;)

[BanzaiCat]

It's kind of unsurprising that the local news, which has been running this story, has strangely seemed to forget to show what this contraption looks like.

[Bison]

^exactly.  Its avery convient omission.  It's almost like there is an agenda being pushed.

[mirth]

^exactly.  Its avery convient omission.  It's almost like there is an agenda being pushed.

I haven't found it difficult to find photos of it. A pic has been included in just about every article I've read. Including one of the two links I originally posted last night.

http://www.wired.com/2015/09/heres-bomb-clock-got-ahmed-mohamed-arrested/

[mirth]

Actually, it's pictured in both links I posted last night. The CNN article shows it in the video

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb/

[BanzaiCat]

I was pointing out that the television news (specifically, my shitty local news) is being remiss in keeping it out of coverage. Sure, you can find it everywhere online, but the television portion of media is being its usual lets-not-share-all-the-facts selves.

It's sad that I can sit here and think, if this were an Anglo kid, how they'd be clamoring to send him to San Quentin. Meanwhile, this kid gets an invite to the White House.

[mirth]

I was pointing out that the television news (specifically, my shitty local news) is being remiss in keeping it out of coverage. Sure, you can find it everywhere online, but the television portion of media is being its usual lets-not-share-all-the-facts selves.

It's sad that I can sit here and think, if this were an Anglo kid, how they'd be clamoring to send him to San Quentin. Meanwhile, this kid gets an invite to the White House.

Conversely if it were an Anglo kid, it's entirely possible he wouldn't have been questioned by the police or arrested, cuffed and dragged to juvy.

I don't care about the kid's religion or ethnicity, it was a heavy-handed overreaction regardless.

[mirth]

I was pointing out that the television news (specifically, my shitty local news) is being remiss in keeping it out of coverage. Sure, you can find it everywhere online, but the television portion of media is being its usual lets-not-share-all-the-facts selves.

I get that. I was responding to the idea that there is some kind of media agenda trying to hide what the clock looks like.

[BanzaiCat]

I dunno. I could be wrong. I hate that the media makes me think like that (about 'what if' this were a white kid instead). Very well could go the way you say, mirth, and just let the kid off with the slap of a wrist.

So how often do you think this kind of thing happens every day, everywhere, and it's just harmless and nobody gets hurt and there's no cruel intentions nor perception of the same? I'm thinking it happens quite often. This just happened to get on the media's radar. Any news story I've seen, though, has basically told this story from the kids' perspective and not at all from the side of common sense.

In this day and age, you'd think a 14-year-old would have more common sense than to bring something like this to school, or at least bring it to the faculty's attention as soon as he brings it on campus. I don't buy that he's that naive. Not with how schools are 'zero tolerant' when it comes to things like butter knives.

[Bison]

I suggest respectfully you google kids toy gun suspension.   You will find plent of stories to refute the notion this was merely based on the color of skin.  Kids are suspended, arrested, and charged for toy guns, keychain guns and all sorts of similar absurdity..  Including white kids too as if that matters, but apparently race is what matters in this case.  Kids are suspended for wearing t-shirts with the American flag.  They aren't getting tweets of support or condemnations that the school and police acted stupidly from the highest levels of power in this nation. Why?  Because every damned thing these days is political.  It either supports the agenda or it doesn't.

[mirth]

In this day and age, you'd think a 14-year-old would have more common sense than to bring something like this to school, or at least bring it to the faculty's attention as soon as he brings it on campus. I don't buy that he's that naive. Not with how schools are 'zero tolerant' when it comes to things like butter knives.

I completely buy it. 14 year olds just do not think and process information the way adults do. The kid thought he was bringing the cool clock he made to school. There's no evidence to indicate otherwise. If there were, he would have been charged.

Consider what adults still try to carry on to planes these days. "Oh darn, is that my pistol in my bag? Totally forgot about that darn thing. Is that a problem?"