Texas 14-year-old arrested for homemade clock that looked like a bomb

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Have you seen the device?

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[makattak]

Have you seen the device?

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I finally found a pic of the suspicious device (most news reports seem to be avoiding showing the picture)

Yes. Provided that is an accurate picture.

[dogmush]

Pay attention to scale.

That is a pencil case, not a briefcase  (as some stories have said)

It does not look like a bomb, and (no offense) if someone thinks it does,  they don't know enough about bombs to make that call.

[roo_ster]

Pay attention to scale.

That is a pencil case, not a briefcase  (as some stories have said)

It does not look like a bomb, and (no offense) if someone thinks it does,  they don't know enough about bombs to make that call.

As we read in the OP, it does not look like a bomb to a those with some electronics / technical background.  But someone without any electronics background might get spooked.  Jihadibombhoaxboy knew this.  I bet he knew it as he was hacking it together.  He most certainly knew it after his technically minded teacher warned him of that very problem.  Given his reaction to the very simple and direct questions, I doubt this was a "problem" and more a "feature."

Heck, I don't even think his English teacher thought it was a real bomb, merely a hoax.  Same with the school administration.  If you lived around here, you would know that Muslims in the public schools are given kid glove and preferential treatment.  And that is what Jihadibombhoaxboy got.  They didn't drag him out of class and arrest him RFN, and send him to Lou Sterritt like they would some of the usual miscreants.  They waited and thought over it a bit and dotted all the Is and crossed all the Ts.  They brought in the local PD to get at the heart of the matter and to provide serious CYA if it blew up (metaphorically). 

Irving ISD is not Dallas ISD (staffed with buffoons in administration).  You can bet dollars to donuts that the Irving admin was exceptionally careful to follow policy and took exquisite care.  Same-same with Irving PD vs Dallas PD.  Any lawsuit will go nowhere, as will any administrative investigation because of that.  There may be extra-legal and extra-administrative political repercussions, of course.

“Clearly, there were disassembled clock parts in there, but he offered no more explanation than that,” McLellan said. “A lot of these details that the family and he have provided to you were not shared with us yesterday. He was very much less than forthcoming.”

Jihadidbombhoax boy got what he was looking for.

[KD5NRH]

But someone without any electronics background might get spooked.

Nope; it wasn't my electronics background that told me about it.  It was the simple and fairly common knowledge that any substance explosive enough to do serious damage in quantities smaller than, say, 100 grams would be pretty famous, and quite carefully regulated.  There's nothing in there other than possibly the transformer and whatever that little mesh bag not connected to anything is that could possibly hold enough of some homebrew explosive to do more than hurt a few people's eardrums.

Plus, as has been said many times, if they were really even remotely spooked, the first step even an imbecile should be able to figure out is to get either it or the kids out of the classroom immediately.

[makattak]

Nope; it wasn't my electronics background that told me about it.  It was the simple and fairly common knowledge that any substance explosive enough to do serious damage in quantities smaller than, say, 100 grams would be pretty famous, and quite carefully regulated.  There's nothing in there other than possibly the transformer and whatever that little mesh bag not connected to anything is that could possibly hold enough of some homebrew explosive to do more than hurt a few people's eardrums.

Plus, as has been said many times, if they were really even remotely spooked, the first step even an imbecile should be able to figure out is to get either it or the kids out of the classroom immediately.

If you'll note, he wasn't arrested for having a bomb. He was arrested for a hoax bomb.

I think that's perfectly legitimate, as it looks like his aim was to be able to claim they thought he was a bomber. And you're buying it.

[Balog]

Meh, sounds like a typical zero tolerance retarded over reaction.

[Jocassee]

And I'm still waiting for someone to bring up the violation of the kid's right to have his parent(s) immediately notified and to have them present before any questioning takes place.

This right here.

Someone is about to get their ass handed to them.

[MechAg94]

I have a little box exactly like that I got at Walmart.  I keep it with my gun bag that I take to the range.  It has some gun cleaning tools, bore light, and my collection of little allen wrenches that come in handy all the time. 

[vaskidmark]

This right here.

Someone is about to get their ass handed to them.

It gets worse.  His picture was taken in the principal's office, with a cop in the background, and then splashed all over the newspapers and TV.  That's a violation of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act.  https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/20/1232g  Even allowing a reporter in the school to take that picture violates FERPA.

"Miranda goes to school: The need to safeguard students' 5th Amendment rights in school-based interrogations."

http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/law/centers/childlaw/childed/pdfs/2012studentpapers/stewart_knittle.pdf

The kid may be a [deleted]it and his father may be one too, but there's a good chance they are going to be rich [deleted]its.

stay safe.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Folks here there and everywhere are pretty quick to throw his rights out the window because he's a Muslim

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[roo_ster]

Folks here there and everywhere are pretty quick to throw his rights out the window because he's a Muslim

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Bull.  Were he common white trash a black thug or dime a dozen mexican he would have been dealt with much more swiftly and found himself locked up with the other delinquents faster than you can say "lawfare."  Jihadibombhoaxer got preferential treatment at every point in the process down to not spending a minute in jail beyond being processed.  Your average school age ghetto rat troublemaker wouod still be cooling off or before a judge. 

The local muslims have made lawfare nusiances of themselves and the local bureaucritters take that into account in their dealings with them.

[vaskidmark]

Folks here, there, and everywhere are pretty quick to throw anybody's rights out the window because Muslim or guns or college rape or weather or refugees or access to the internet or feminaziism or microaggression or ....

stay safe.

[erictank]

If you'll note, he wasn't arrested for having a bomb. He was arrested for a hoax bomb.

I think that's perfectly legitimate, as it looks like his aim was to be able to claim they thought he was a bomber. And you're buying it.

Except for the whole part where he didn't say anything even resembling, "Hey, look at this bomb I made!"  He went to his teacher and said, "Hey, look at this clock I put together!  Isn't it neat?"

And they obviously *DIDN'T* "think he was a bomber", based on their not isolating the kids from the "suspected bomb" in question for HOURS.  There was no evacuation, the bomb squad was not called.  They KNEW it wasn't a bomb, and they further had no legitimate reason to suspect he was trying to pass off a pencil-case-enclosed (what was that case, about 6" x 8", based on the size of the clock's plug behind it?) homebuilt AC-powered LED clock as a terror weapon - other than the fact that his name was Ahmed Mohamed, of course  .

From the CNN article: "Irving Police spokesman Officer James McLellan told the station, "We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only tell us that it was a clock.""

Because when you make a working clock out of spare parts, and someone asks you what it is, apparently you're supposed to tell them something else. 

Add to that the numerous errors and violations of the kid's rights as a minor during the arrest and questioning without a parent or lawyer present?  Irving's PD and ISD are going to be doing well not to have to completely pay for Ahmed's higher education, as opposed to simply contributing to it.

[RevDisk]

Couple thoughts. Schools are built for mass production. Weird or intelligent kids don't always handle it well. *raises hand*

That said, kids are kids, and should be given some leeway. This doesn't mesh well with zero tolerance (ie zero intelligence) policies. Bad apples drive out the good apples in administration. Hence you have kids being arrested for butterknives or aspirin, let alone electronics projects.

If they thought it was a bomb, they should have evacuated the school. If they did honestly think it was a bomb and didn't evac the kids, they need to be fired. If they didn't think it was a bomb, it should have been handled differently. I get that an allegedly known "hoax bomb" probably should still go to the cops. School still should have handled better.

The cops screwed up by not calling the parents, someone screwed up by taking and immediately leaking photos of the kid. Ayep, after the lawsuit, his schooling is paid off.


I'm not sure how much of this is because of the dude's religion or race, and how much of it is just bad procedures. 

[Jamisjockey]

Couple thoughts. Schools are built for mass production. Weird or intelligent kids don't always handle it well. *raises hand*

That said, kids are kids, and should be given some leeway. This doesn't mesh well with zero tolerance (ie zero intelligence) policies. Bad apples drive out the good apples in administration. Hence you have kids being arrested for butterknives or aspirin, let alone electronics projects.

If they thought it was a bomb, they should have evacuated the school. If they did honestly think it was a bomb and didn't evac the kids, they need to be fired. If they didn't think it was a bomb, it should have been handled differently. I get that an allegedly known "hoax bomb" probably should still go to the cops. School still should have handled better.

The cops screwed up by not calling the parents, someone screwed up by taking and immediately leaking photos of the kid. Ayep, after the lawsuit, his schooling is paid off.


I'm not sure how much of this is because of the dude's religion or race, and how much of it is just bad procedures. 

Oh but in 'Murica we assume ill intent over incompetence these days.

[Ron]

If it wasn't for all the zero tolerance about guns (drawings/fingers etc.) the official "Muslim bad" narrative would hold more water.

A left wing constituent hoisted on a left wing PC zero tolerance bureaucratic petard.

 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/ahmed-mohamed-beth-van-duyne-sharia

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[cassandra and sara's daddy]

If it wasn't for all the zero tolerance about guns (drawings/fingers etc.) the official "Muslim bad" narrative would hold more water.

A left wing constituent hoisted on a left wing PC zero tolerance bureaucratic petard.

 

You see this Kid or his family is being left wing ? How so?

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[Ron]

Well the Muslim community isn't a right wing constituency.

As far as the kid and his father this has less do to with them as it does left wing PC bureaucracy, just like finger and Lego guns and all that nonsense.

[makattak]

A very wise perspective (because he agrees with me!):

http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/

Little Ahmed is lying about "inventing" the clock, according to this source.

I found the highest resolution photograph of the clock I could. Instantly, I was disappointed. Somewhere in all of this – there has indeed been a hoax. Ahmed Mohamed didn’t invent his own alarm clock. He didn’t even build a clock. Now, before I go on and get accused of attacking a 14 year old kid who’s already been through enough, let me explain my purpose. I don’t want to just dissect the clock. I want to dissect our reaction as a society to the situation. Part of that is the knee-jerk responses we’re all so quick to make without facts. So, before you scroll down and leave me angry comments, please continue to the end (or not – prove my point, and miss the point, entirely!)

He took apart a clock, popped it in a mini-briefcase and took it to school to "show it off".

He was rightly arrested for a hoax bomb, and the naysayers are aiding CAIR in making the next teachers think twice about suspecting little Ahmed/Mohammed/Abdul/Aziz of building a bomb.

[Perd Hapley]

You see this Kid or his family is being left wing ? How so?

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He's saying that Muslims, especially those of Middle-Eastern descent, are a group that the Left sees as part of their constituency, along with many other ethnic and religious minority groups. (Obviously, Christians are not among the religious minorities to which they cater.)

[Balog]

A very wise perspective (because he agrees with me!):

http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/

Little Ahmed is lying about "inventing" the clock, according to this source.

He took apart a clock, popped it in a mini-briefcase and took it to school to "show it off".

He was rightly arrested for a hoax bomb, and the naysayers are aiding CAIR in making the next teachers think twice about suspecting little Ahmed/Mohammed/Abdul/Aziz of building a bomb.

Oh ffs, we don't have our panties in a twist Nd we're aiding and abetting terrorists now? That's beyond ridiculous.

The thing looked nothing like a bomb, no one thought it was a bomb, and he told everyone it was not a bomb. In what world is that a "bomb hoax?"

This is a good example of selective outrage. APS is all about decrying stupid zero tolerance school anti weapon policies unless they don't like the victim of them.

[makattak]

Oh ffs, we don't have our panties in a twist Nd we're aiding and abetting terrorists now? That's beyond ridiculous.

The thing looked nothing like a bomb, no one thought it was a bomb, and he told everyone it was not a bomb. In what world is that a "bomb hoax?"

This is a good example of selective outrage. APS is all about decrying stupid zero tolerance school anti weapon policies unless they don't like the victim of them.

He made something that looks like a bomb and obviously everyone thought it looked like a bomb, while not actually being a bomb, including the young Mr. Mohamed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mW4w0Y1OXE&t=1m28s

"I closed it with a cable so it wouldn't look suspicious."

Really? There was something about your clock that made you think it might raise suspicions?

[makattak]

Again, his story doesn't pass the sniff test.

Why did his "clock" beep and get the other teacher's attention? Look at the picture- it has no internal power supply. The only way it could beep is if he takes actions to call attention to his little hoax bomb. He wanted it found and he wanted this confrontation.