So, today we have a tale of the fabled American knee-jerk reaction, kid arrested for clock he built – this time to a 14-year-old Muslim boy who made a cool clock and brought it to school. He got arrested, cuffed and fingerprinted – over a science project. Yah, arrested for building a clock.
That seems like a slightly harsh reaction, perhaps because his name is Ahmed? Or he’s Muslim? Or 9/11 was just a few days ago? Or all of the factors combined, and the fact his clock bleeped in class.
The coolest part? He was arrested wearing a NASA t-shirt.
Texas police have decided not to charge a 14-year-old Muslim boy who was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school.
Officials at MacArthur High School in Irving alerted police because they thought the device was a “hoax bomb”.
Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest has been sharply criticised, and the boy has received an outpouring of support including an invitation to the White House.
Ahmed’s family believes he was detained because of his name.
“We have always had an outstanding relationship with the Muslim community,” Irving Police Department chief Larry Boyd said on Wednesday. “Incidents like this present challenges. We want to learn how we can move forward and turn this into a positive.”
The boy was placed in handcuffs and fingerprinted. He was released after it was determined there was no threat.
Zuck posted his support for Ahmed too.
Kid Arrested for Clock he Built – Mark Zuckerberg Responds
You’ve probably seen the story about Ahmed, the 14 year old student in Texas who built a clock and was arrested when he…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, 16 September 2015
You can see the stream of support for the kid, and the rallying against the cause with the Twitter hashtag #IStandWithAhmed
It’s turned into quite something with POTUS, Hilary Clinton, the US Secretary of Education and many many more getting involved.
Under the hashtag “#IstandwithAhmed,” thousands of Twitter users praised the boy’s initiative and questioned why he was detained including Nasa scientists and US President Barack Obama.
“Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great,” Mr Obama wrote on Twitter.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations says it is investigating the incident.
Ahmed said that he had made a clock at home and brought it to school to show his engineering teacher. He said his engineering teacher had congratulated him but advised him “not to show any other teachers”.
Check out the Tweet from POTUS, he’s not impressed with the kid arrested for clock scenario.
Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.
— President Obama (@POTUS) September 16, 2015
There’s a good in-depth article by CNN here as well: Muslim teen Ahmed Mohamed creates clock, shows teachers, gets arrested
It’s all getting very intense.
Source: BBC
James says
It’s very bad of the school not to have given the boy a chance to speak before calling in the police. On their own part, denying the boy access to his parents ain’t OK by the police.
James says
Disassembling a vintage alarm clock produced by a RadioShack subsidiary, and then taping the components inside a 5″ pencil case designed to look like a briefcase, and then bringing that contraption to school on 9/11 with an alarm set to beep during the class, and you’re telling me there wasn’t a single drop of mocking an American tragedy or malicious intent along the way?
He didn’t build any part of this “clock” he brought in, he didn’t print the circuit board, he didn’t integrate the A/C or D/C power components, he didn’t machine the casing for the buttons on the consumer electronic alarm clock, he didn’t produce the seven segment display.
He did absolutely nothing. He took apart a consumer alarm clock and taped the guts inside of what looked the same as a small briefcase and brought it to school on 9/11.
If there was something he had designed, if there was a raspberry pi and some homebrew code involved, sure, I would have some sympathy for him. Bringing a beeping container with exposed circuitry ON 9/11 was a terrible idea regardless.