'Can You Prove You're Not A Potential Terrorist?'

[mongers]

Couldn't figure out which thread to post this in, the police violence one, that about migrants, but it really didn't fit so I decided to go Timmay on you, though it probably doesn't deserve it's own thread.

Irving 9th-grader arrested after taking homemade clock to school: 'So you tried to make a bomb?'

IRVING — Ahmed Mohamed — who makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart — hoped to impress his teachers when he brought a homemade clock to MacArthur High on Monday.

Instead, the school phoned police about Ahmed's circuit-stuffed pencil case.

So the 14-year-old missed the student council meeting and took a trip in handcuffs to juvenile detention. His clock now sits in an evidence room. Police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb — though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it's a clock.

In the meantime, Ahmed's been suspended, his father is upset and the Council on American-Islamic Relations is once again eyeing claims of Islamophobia in Irving.
Box of circuit boards

A box full of circuit boards sits at the foot of Ahmed's small bed in central Irving. His door marks the border where the Mohamed family's cramped but lavishly decorated house begins to look like the back room at RadioShack.
.....

Full story here is worth a read as it has some interesting additional details:
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece

[Valmy]

I was wondering if this was going to be posted here.

Texas being awesome once again. Public school is so obnoxious.

[Malthus]

How times change. When I was a kid, I brought a home-made crossbow to school. No-one batted an eyelid. 

[Valmy]

How times change. When I was a kid, I brought a home-made crossbow to school. No-one batted an eyelid. 

When I was a kid we got suspended for playing spades at school. Because it leads to gambling you see.

[mongers]

I was wondering if this was going to be posted here.

Texas being awesome once again. Public school is so obnoxious.

I think I'd reserve my strongest criticism for the principle and then the 2nd teacher who reported him. By the time the cops arrived I guess the terrorism theatre was already seeing the second act and they probably couldn't apply common sense to the matter, though not Dallas police's finest hour. Though it would be nice to hear about a cop apply some rationality to these situations by 'defusing' the hysteria.

[Valmy]

I was wondering if this was going to be posted here.

Texas being awesome once again. Public school is so obnoxious.

I think I'd reserve my strongest criticism for the principle and then the 2nd teacher who reported him. By the time the cops arrived I guess the terrorism theatre was already seeing the second act and they probably couldn't apply common sense to the matter, though not Dallas police's finest hour. Though it would be nice to hear about a cop apply some rationality to these situations by 'defusing' the hysteria.

The times they do are the times it does not end up international news.

[Martinus]

I was wondering if this was going to be posted here.

Texas being awesome once again. Public school is so obnoxious.

I think I'd reserve my strongest criticism for the principle and then the 2nd teacher who reported him. By the time the cops arrived I guess the terrorism theatre was already seeing the second act and they probably couldn't apply common sense to the matter, though not Dallas police's finest hour. Though it would be nice to hear about a cop apply some rationality to these situations by 'defusing' the hysteria.

Yes, that would be nice - still the expectation about cops thinking out of the box or being reasonable may be as unfounded as they are frequent. My impression is that people who end up being cops (especially the type of cops that react to people dialing 911, as opposed to detectives and officers) are generally not the best and the brightest - quite the opposite, there may even be a type of negative selection, with not just losers but also those with psychological issues (the "bully" types) being attracted to the job (what normal person having other options would want to do it?)

So expecting these people to exercise some sort of common sense and restraint may be a pipe dream.

[The Brain]

I don't understand the chain of events.

[Valmy]

Yes, that would be nice - still the expectation about cops thinking out of the box or being reasonable may be as unfounded as they are frequent. My impression is that people who end up being cops (especially the type of cops that react to people dialing 911, as opposed to detectives and officers) are generally not the best and the brightest - quite the opposite, there may even be a type of negative selection, with not just losers but also those with psychological issues (the "bully" types) being attracted to the job (what normal person having other options would want to do it?)

So expecting these people to exercise some sort of common sense and restraint may be a pipe dream.

Oh for fucksake. You put the nob in snob.

[Martinus]

Yes, that would be nice - still the expectation about cops thinking out of the box or being reasonable may be as unfounded as they are frequent. My impression is that people who end up being cops (especially the type of cops that react to people dialing 911, as opposed to detectives and officers) are generally not the best and the brightest - quite the opposite, there may even be a type of negative selection, with not just losers but also those with psychological issues (the "bully" types) being attracted to the job (what normal person having other options would want to do it?)

So expecting these people to exercise some sort of common sense and restraint may be a pipe dream.

Oh for fucksake. You put the nob in snob.

Do you mind disputing anything I said instead of doing an ad-hom?

[Eddie Teach]

He put as much evidence out there as you did.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I think I'd reserve my strongest criticism for the principle and then the 2nd teacher who reported him. By the time the cops arrived I guess the terrorism theatre was already seeing the second act and they probably couldn't apply common sense to the matter, though not Dallas police's finest hour. Though it would be nice to hear about a cop apply some rationality to these situations by 'defusing' the hysteria.

It's the Irving police.  I would hope DPD is a large and metropolitan enough force to treat such a case sanely.  Probably a last shred of misplaced optimism on my part, though.

[dps]

I think I'd reserve my strongest criticism for the principle and then the 2nd teacher who reported him. By the time the cops arrived I guess the terrorism theatre was already seeing the second act and they probably couldn't apply common sense to the matter, though not Dallas police's finest hour. Though it would be nice to hear about a cop apply some rationality to these situations by 'defusing' the hysteria.

It's the Irving police.  I would hope DPD is a large and metropolitan enough force to treat such a case sanely.  Probably a last shred of misplaced optimism on my part, though.

I think I'd trust a small-town police force more on something like this.

[Richard Hakluyt]

He's been released :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34266389

Getting some nice attention off Obama, Zuckerberg etc etc

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I think I'd trust a small-town police force more on something like this.

I would, too.  Unfortunately, Irving is in that sweet spot between "small town" and "large metropolitan" that seems to be the worst place for things like this.