Arab-American Student Arrested For Bringing Clock

[Arngeir]

(Image)

Doesn't look much like a bomb, but it looks a LOT more like a bomb than it does a clock.

It looks like the inside of a digital clock.

Put it in the suitcase with that set-up, I can see how someone would think it was a bomb, especially if they know little about electronics.

The problem comes with the giant cord, and the fact he told them it was a clock. Seems like a simple enough thing to check, but also something most schools wouldn't check.

[Yumyumsuppertime]

It looks like the inside of a digital clock.

Put it in the suitcase with that set-up, I can see how someone would think it was a bomb, especially if they know little about electronics.

The problem comes with the giant cord, and the fact he told them it was a clock. Seems like a simple enough thing to check, but also something most schools wouldn't check.

If he thought that it was a bomb, then he would have evacuated the class. Again, if it's a clock that he made by himself, the teacher understands that it's a clock, and the student is not only not claiming that it's a bomb, but is not exhibiting it at all unless asked by a teacher, then the school has nothing to hold against him.

[North Calaveras]

looks like a suitcase bomb at first glance, hell, if you have never seen one before I could easily see how this could have caused concern.

not only that but apparently the kids family has some interesting ties with some interesting people.

[Washington Resistance Army]

looks like a suitcase bomb at first glance, hell, if you have never seen one before I could easily see how this could have caused concern.

not only that but apparently the kids family has some interesting ties with some interesting people.

A suitcase bomb with no explosives, talk about ineffective.

[Divitaen]

(Image)

Doesn't look much like a bomb, but it looks a LOT more like a bomb than it does a clock.

It looks like the inside of a digital clock.

Ah but you forget that Muslims are very crafty people. They stick bombs in everything. As Minhaj on the Daily Show said once, everything is a weapon to a Muslim.

Seriously I am quite tired of this, and with so many of my classmates saying the arrest made sense. Muslims have been denied entrance onto planes, denied bottles of beer, denied the ability to basically enter an airport unmolested by security guards, it's quite ridiculous. I think to throw in attempting to quash the budding scientific curiousity of a boy is quite sick.

[The Lone Alliance]

Not really. Lets try a reconstruction.

Kids brings a "weird" looking clock to school.

Shows it to a teacher A who says "this looks like a bomb, don't show it to anyone."

Kid doesn't show it to anyone, but teacher B confiscates it for whatever reason

Administrator C then looks at it, and decides it looks like a fake bomb. As previously established it has the potential to look like that, as noted by teacher A.

Police are called and told "fake bomb."

Police send officers, who arrest kid, gather evidence, and take statements.

After some time full story appears, kid did not intend the clock to be a fake bomb.

Kid is released.

We are seeing everything after the fact, once all the information has been gathered by teams of reporters. The police and the school do not have that man power to gather all of the information, and they don't have the amount of time we have had to make decisions.

Agree with the above. Hindsight is 20/20.

Agreed too.

Really I think when the police got there the evidence they had gave the impression that he knowingly made it look like that in order to prank or scare people.

Not that he was seriously planning on blowing people up.

[Citation Needed]

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/25/Herna ... _but.shtml
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18 ... le.arrest/
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.s ... oyle-.html

Yep, that's Zero Tolerance in action.

But lets not have that get in the way of the narrative.

[USS Monitor]

Anyways there are some logical steps, evacuating the school could panic other students, and may lead some past the potential bomb. Depending on size it may be a better idea to wait in place. Especially if you may be worried about secondary attacks at staging locations, choke points, etc. You may also lose control of the students, and some may slip away, get lost or get injured. Same reasons many schools plan to lock down in the event of a shooting.

The procedure for a bomb threat is to evacuate, not lock down.

Procedure may have been thrown out the window when officers though "Bomb in a school!"

If so, that is a problem.

This isn't to excuse behavior, merely to outline potential thinking. The English teacher who reported it was most certainly an idiot, and the police could have handled the situation better but there hands were rather tied. When the teacher/school reported it then the police have to respond, and they almost have to arrest him. Its what happens next that is important, and he has been released, and it has been said no charges will be pressed.

The school administration and police are the idiots. The police had to respond once they were called, but they most certainly did not have to arrest him.

The English teacher just didn't understand what she was looking at because she's not a tech person. It's not really her fault.

[USS Monitor]

It was deemed a hoax bomb, which falls on the responsibility of the student, IIRC.

Wasn't the teacher the one who claimed it was a bomb, not the student?

The teacher wasn't the one who brought it to the school, and she never said it was a bomb, just that she was worried it might be.

[Old Tyrannia]

This is utterly appalling. Probably the worst example of racial profiling I have ever seen. I don't really blame the police for acting in the way they did; if someone reports a possible bomb plot then they have a responsibility to take the situation seriously. It's the lack of common sense and indications of racism on the part of the school that I find so grating.

[Jochistan]

(Image)

Doesn't look much like a bomb, but it looks a LOT more like a bomb than it does a clock.

Asian and white kids build this kind of shit in tech clubs in little high schools all the time. So fucking what?

He was a Goddamn Arab. Who gives a shit? Unless his parents were literally Abaya wearing, music prohibiting, Satanic Verses Burning, white clad fundamentalists, (and he was too) who cares?

He's a fucking 15 year old nerd in a tech class. Whether or not it "looks like" a bomb (or a really shittily organized one) the response was way over the fucking top.

[Divitaen]

(Image)

Doesn't look much like a bomb, but it looks a LOT more like a bomb than it does a clock.

Asian and white kids build this kind of shit in tech clubs in little high schools all the time. So fucking what?

He was a Goddamn Arab. Who gives a shit? Unless his parents were literally Abaya wearing, music prohibiting, Satanic Verses Burning, white clad fundamentalists, (and he was too) who cares?

He's a fucking 15 year old nerd in a tech class. Whether or not it "looks like" a bomb (or a really shittily organized one) the response was way over the fucking top.

Not to mention that in many schools children bring in dangerous weapons all the time without causing alarm, like imitation guns, knives, lighters etc....

And because of their white skin nothing really terrible happens to them. Its kind of like how you can't carry drugs with you, but only if you're black. They're just social rules that everyone plays along to.

[USS Monitor]

Why is this news? Who cares?

Someone suspected there was a threat to the safety of others; that person was wrong. What if someone did bring a bomb in, then the person thinks to himself, 'No, who would bring a bomb here? It just doesn't happen.' and it were a bomb? Better safe than sorry.

Better safe than sorry would be evacuating the school and calling the bomb squad if they thought it was a real threat.

[Divitaen]

Why is this news? Who cares?

Someone suspected there was a threat to the safety of others; that person was wrong. What if someone did bring a bomb in, then the person thinks to himself, 'No, who would bring a bomb here? It just doesn't happen.' and it were a bomb? Better safe than sorry.

Better safe than sorry would be evacuating the school and calling the bomb squad if they thought it was a real threat.

No one ever displays that level of suspicion and scrutiny for any other race. Does the original poster seriously believe that a white kid who brought in a homemade clock would have been subjected to this?

[The Lone Alliance]

Not to mention that in many schools children bring in dangerous weapons all the time without causing alarm, like imitation guns, knives, lighters etc....

When were you last in school, the 80s? People get busted for butter knives now.

And because of their white skin nothing really terrible happens to them. Its kind of like how you can't carry drugs with you, but only if you're black. They're just social rules that everyone plays along to.

You know originally I thought you were kidding because no one would be so stupid to believe that Zero tolerance laws don't apply to white people.

But you're serious aren't you?

If I come back with six sources proving you wrong will you retract your statement?

[Divitaen]

Not to mention that in many schools children bring in dangerous weapons all the time without causing alarm, like imitation guns, knives, lighters etc....

When were you last in school, the 80s? People get busted for butter knives now.

And because of their white skin nothing really terrible happens to them. Its kind of like how you can't carry drugs with you, but only if you're black. They're just social rules that everyone plays along to.

You know originally I thought you were kidding because no one would be so stupid to believe that Zero tolerance laws don't apply to white people.

But you're serious aren't you?

Of course they apply to white people, but the expulsions have been disproportionately levelled against African-American students. Zero-tolerance laws are well-known for being racially applied. Not to mention the school-to-prison model that SPLC has been talking about is in reference to the frequent racial profilling used to enforce it.

[USS Monitor]

Better safe than sorry would be evacuating the school and calling the bomb squad if they thought it was a real threat.

No one ever displays that level of suspicion and scrutiny for any other race. Does the original poster seriously believe that a white kid who brought in a homemade clock would have been subjected to this?

It wouldn't shock me at all if a school got evacuated because a white kid brought in a home-made clock which was mistaken for a bomb. Lots of things can be mistaken for bombs if you aren't tech-savvy.

The problem is that they were not taking it seriously as a bomb, but then they arrested the kid anyway. Taking it seriously as a bomb threat would demonstrate a misunderstanding of the situation, and maybe being a bit over-cautious, but not racism. A potential bomb in a school is serious business, and they do tend to err on the side of caution. My high school was evacuated a couple of times for bomb threats even though they all turned out to be false alarms. But arresting him for a "bomb hoax" after they realized it wasn't a bomb? That part's racist. It's not a bomb hoax if he never claims the thing is a bomb.

[Divitaen]

No one ever displays that level of suspicion and scrutiny for any other race. Does the original poster seriously believe that a white kid who brought in a homemade clock would have been subjected to this?

It wouldn't shock me at all if a school got evacuated because a white kid brought in a home-made clock which was mistaken for a bomb. Lots of things can be mistaken for bombs if you aren't tech-savvy.

The problem is that they were not taking it seriously as a bomb, but then they arrested the kid anyway. Taking it seriously as a bomb threat would demonstrate a misunderstanding of the situation, and maybe being a bit over-cautious, but not racism. A potential bomb in a school is serious business, and they do tend to err on the side of caution. My high school was evacuated a couple of times for bomb threats even though they all turned out to be false alarms. But arresting him for a "bomb hoax" after they realized it wasn't a bomb? That part's racist. It's not a bomb hoax if he never claims the thing is a bomb.

Yeah that's the part that confuses me a lot. When you suspect someone of carrying a bomb at airport security, you check the baggage to confirm and evacuate people, and if you arrest the guy you let them go immediately after you realise you were wrong. But they arrested him after the whole thing was over, even after it was clear that it was just a homemade clock.

I think its just the general suspicion put upon Muslims and Arabs. I find that with them its always "guilty until proven innocent". Like all the people chanting "if they were really Americans why aren't they in the army? why aren't they supporting the War on Terror? why aren't they protesting against terrorism?" almost as if Muslims have a duty to prove to the world consistently that they are not terrorist, like some solemn obligation.

[Divitaen]

Not to mention that in many schools children bring in dangerous weapons all the time without causing alarm, like imitation guns, knives, lighters etc....

When were you last in school, the 80s? People get busted for butter knives now.

And because of their white skin nothing really terrible happens to them. Its kind of like how you can't carry drugs with you, but only if you're black. They're just social rules that everyone plays along to.

You know originally I thought you were kidding because no one would be so stupid to believe that Zero tolerance laws don't apply to white people.

But you're serious aren't you?

If I come back with six sources proving you wrong will you retract your statement?

Of course white people get affected by zero-tolerance laws. I was being hyperbolic. You'll definitely be able to find instances when white students were affected. The point I was trying to get across is just that these laws are generally applied in a racially discriminatory way, whether you are talking about Muslims in this case or African-Americans with zero-tolerance.

[Hyfling]

Not to mention that in many schools children bring in dangerous weapons all the time without causing alarm, like imitation guns, knives, lighters etc....

And because of their white skin nothing really terrible happens to them. Its kind of like how you can't carry drugs with you, but only if you're black. They're just social rules that everyone plays along to.

Well, no.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/25/Herna ... _but.shtml
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18 ... le.arrest/
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.s ... oyle-.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/educa ... .html?_r=0
http://www.rawstory.com/2013/09/pennsyl ... zzing-pen/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/2 ... =Australia

Hell, the social media uproar about this particular incident has been far, far louder than all those others combined. Even the goddam President commented on it.

Seems to me situations like this are caused more by that stupid zero tolerance policy you guys have up there.

I'm more worried about the fact that the cops, who (surely) knew it wasn't a bomb upon arriving decided to arrest the kid anyway. Or that the teacher who mistook it as a bomb didn't evacuate the school, as per procedure.

EDIT:

Of course white people get affected by zero-tolerance laws. I was being hyperbolic.

So you lied.

[Divitaen]

Not to mention that in many schools children bring in dangerous weapons all the time without causing alarm, like imitation guns, knives, lighters etc....

And because of their white skin nothing really terrible happens to them. Its kind of like how you can't carry drugs with you, but only if you're black. They're just social rules that everyone plays along to.

Well, no.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/25/Herna ... _but.shtml
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18 ... le.arrest/
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.s ... oyle-.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/educa ... .html?_r=0
http://www.rawstory.com/2013/09/pennsyl ... zzing-pen/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/2 ... =Australia

Hell, the social media uproar about this particular incident has been far, far louder than all those others combined. Even the goddam President commented on it.

Seems to me situations like this are caused more by that stupid zero tolerance policy you guys have up there.

I'm more worried about the fact that the cops, who (surely) knew it wasn't a bomb upon arriving decided to arrest the kid anyway. Or that the teacher who mistook it as a bomb didn't evacuate the school, as per procedure.

EDIT:

Of course white people get affected by zero-tolerance laws. I was being hyperbolic.

So you lied.

You can give me examples of white students being affected by zero-tolerance policies, and yes zero-tolerance policies are quite stupid, but can you deny that there is a racial element to this story? Or do you really believe that the fact the boy was Arab played no role in the way the school and police treated him? That there wouldn't have been more restraint or questioning if he was white rather than Arab? And that maybe he wouldn't have been arrested anyway even after they knew the clock wasn't a bomb?

Let's be realistic, Islamophobia and anti-Islamic sentiments are real and we can't ignore those social dynamics. People are kicking up a fuss about this because of that discriminatory element.

[North Calaveras]

Muslims are not a race and are not the only "brown" people. So this whole " cause there brown" is dumb. Not to mention his family is sketchy as fuck.

[Hyfling]

You can give me examples of white students being affected by zero-tolerance policies, and yes zero-tolerance policies are quite stupid, but can you deny that there is a racial element to this story? Or do you really believe that the fact the boy was Arab played no role in the way the school and police treated him?

The school? Can't say. Don't really know the teachers motivations.

The police? Well, they did treat him the same way they treated some of the others in my sources (arrest). Complete overreaction, no doubt. But it's not like they sent an anti-terrorist squad after him for being Arab.

Let's be realistic, Islamophobia and anti-Islamic sentiments are real and we can't ignore those social dynamics.

Of course, and their are sadly plenty examples of that in practice.

Until we know more of the details behind the arrest, and possibly the teachers 'true' motivation for calling the authorities, I don't think we can ever really know for sure.

This, at least in my opinion with the evidence I have, isn't one of those times.

People are kicking up a fuss about this because of that discriminatory element.

Meh, the social media is a fickle mistress. It'll kick up a storm over one thing, and totally ignore another similar thing for seemingly no discernible reason.

[Hyfling]

Muslims are not a race and are not the only "brown" people. So this whole " cause there brown" is dumb.

To be fair, OP did say 'Arab'.

[Divitaen]

You can give me examples of white students being affected by zero-tolerance policies, and yes zero-tolerance policies are quite stupid, but can you deny that there is a racial element to this story? Or do you really believe that the fact the boy was Arab played no role in the way the school and police treated him?

The school? Can't say. Don't really know the teachers motivations.

The police? Well, they did treat him the same way they treated some of the others in my sources (arrest). Complete overreaction, no doubt. But it's not like they sent an anti-terrorist squad after him for being Arab.

Let's be realistic, Islamophobia and anti-Islamic sentiments are real and we can't ignore those social dynamics.

Of course, and their are sadly plenty examples of that in practice.

Until we know more of the details behind the arrest, and possibly the teachers 'true' motivation for calling the authorities, I don't think we can ever really know for sure.

This, at least in my opinion with the evidence I have, isn't one of those times.

People are kicking up a fuss about this because of that discriminatory element.

Meh, the social media is a fickle mistress. It'll kick up a storm over one thing, and totally ignore another similar thing for seemingly no discernible reason.

I can't disagree with you there. I suppose there isn't 100% evidence of racial or faith-based bias, but I do think it looks very much like a case of an overreaction driven by anti-Arab or anti-Islamic sentiments, especially given the nature of the case involving a suspected bomb and the police continuing to arrest him after it was clearly not a bomb. I'll never know for sure, but its one of those times where the social context is so overwhelming its good to point out, through this case, how Islamophobia is still a major social problem.

But yes, I do agree that you can't tell 100%. But just like how its impossible to know 100% if Amadou Diallou or Rodney King or Freddie Gray were examples of anti-black discrimination, but I think its reasonable to say it feels very much like it. Same for this.

[North Calaveras]

Muslims are not a race and are not the only "brown" people. So this whole " cause there brown" is dumb.

To be fair, OP did say 'Arab'.

Not just saying op.

Has anyone seen this guys family, talk about red flags