Boy arrested for making digital clock.

[Pommie]

Our hobby/profession is getting riskier by the day.


Ahmed Mohamed: No charges for boy, 14, arrested over clock

First they assassinate an electrician on the underground and now this.

Mike.

 

[DerStrom8]

I saw that. They asked him what the clock was for. Um....maybe telling time?

Racial profiling at its finest

 

[Willen]

Interesting thing I heard that the boy had set a "beep beep" tone for the clock and a teacher afraid and called the police!

I remembered an event- few days ago I was repairing house wiring of my neighbour, testing by DMM and the DMM was making "beep beep", a younger sister was complaining "is there a bomb in our home?"

Why they set beep beep in the bomb? It should be silent to hide, instead, isn't it?

 

[Cicero]

Yeah saw that, utterly ridiculous. That pic when he's in handcuffs is kinda hilarious though, complete 'wtf look' on his face.

But to actually arrest the kid when all they really had to do was ask his tech teacher first, I mean really. Complete idiots.

 

[jpanhalt]

On the bright side, that clock may have paid for his college education. Let's hope he doesn't choose the the same college that the teacher went to.

John

 

[Cicero]

On the bright side, that clock may have paid for his college education. Let's hope he doesn't choose the the same college that the teacher went to.

John

True, kid probably has an MIT scholarship now, and a job lined up at FB or some other billion dollar tech firm.

 

[JoeJester]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

If you didn't know it was a clock ... what does your x-ray vision reveal about what's behind the LED and the purpose of the electronics.

As a freshman, he's only been in that school for a little over three weeks. It wasn't a homework assignment, just something that he decided to bring into school to impress a teacher.

I'm betting if he showed up at the white house unannounced, the secret service would have detained him as well, until they discovered the true purpose of what he built.

 

[shortbus=]

A/the digital display, see the ribbon cable connecting the circuit board?

 

[Cicero]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

If you didn't know it was a clock ... what does your x-ray vision reveal about what's behind that cover.

Hindsight?! Haha

Dont excuse the stupidity here, there's no way this had to escalate to him getting arrested, cuffed, detained and interrogated.

 

[JoeJester]

I'm not saying he should have been arrested. I don't know if he was arrested because no charges were filed. Yes he was detained, in custody and handcuffing is standard police procedure. I know I got upset when an officer in the Natural Resources placed an 8 year old in handcuffs for fishing without a stamp.

So ... you didn't answer the question or did you assume it was a clock all the time.

 

[JoeJester]

A/the digital display, see the ribbon cable connecting the circuit board?

So, the ONLY thing in the world this could have been was a clock.

 

[Cicero]

He showed it to his engineering teacher first thing Monday morning and didn’t get quite the reaction he’d hoped for.

“He was like, ‘That’s really nice,’” Ahmed said. “‘I would advise you not to show any other teachers.’”

**broken link removed**

Considering this, it shouldn't have escalated the way it did. By all means enquire due to ignorance, but there were qualified people around who could've vouched for the kid.

 

[JonSea]

I'm not saying he should have been arrested. I don't know if he was arrested because no charges were filed. Yes he was detained, in custody and handcuffing is standard police procedure. I know I got upset when an officer in the Natural Resources placed an 8 year old in handcuffs for fishing without a stamp.

So ... you didn't answer the question or did you assume it was a clock all the time.

Confining a 14 year old kid and having 5 cops interrogate him without him being allowed to call his parents is a standard procedure? Not in my country, of which unfortunately Texas is a part!

Dave Jones of the EEVBlog sums it up really well.

 

[DerStrom8]

Heh.

"Land of the free and Home of the incarcerated"

 

[JoeJester]

Confining a 14 year old kid and having 5 cops interrogate him without him being allowed to call his parents is a standard procedure? Not in my country, of which unfortunately Texas is a part!

The news did not mention the no phone call to the parents. Neither did the news conference.

So, I take it your vision of it was that it could ONLY be a clock also.

 

[JoeJester]

Considering this, it shouldn't have escalated the way it did. By all means enquire due to ignorance, but there were qualified people around who could've vouched for the kid.

And where was that "teacher" who made the recommendation of not showing it? He certainly wasn't at the press conference yesterday that I saw on television.

I'm glad the world opinion is that it could only be a clock and nothing else.

Did this escalate further than necessary ... sure. I just disagree that upon first view, and we don't know how that first view looks as there was NO pictures of the completed project as brought to school, that is could ONLY be a clock. You have the right to your opinion.

ex post facto ... that's how everyone found out it was a clock. Of course, the engineering teacher didn't step up when it counted, when the police showed up. Where was the engineering teacher?

 

[jpanhalt]

I'm glad the world opinion is that it could only be a clock and nothing else.

Those are your words, not those of anyone else here. And you are wrong. The conclusion of intelligent, sane people is that it was extremely unlikely to be a bomb given all the circumstances. It could have been anything else, including a clock, and that apparently would not have changed the paranoid reaction of that school's staff.

John

 

[cowboybob]

"Zero tolerance" always leads to "zero thought" which then, inevitably, degenerates into "zero freedom"...

 

[JonSea]

The reports I've read say he was detained and interrogated before being allowed to contact his parents. Five cops against a scared 14 year old kid. This is not right.

Any circuit board with wires sticking out could be a bomb, especially in a racist, uneducated communitity. But it shouldn't take too many working brain cells and too much investigation to see that it's not. If it was a bomb, does this kid look stupid enough to connect a beeper to it?

It looks to me more like racial profiling, intimidation and an un-science point of view.

 

[JoeJester]

Like I said....where is the teacher that could have squlched this whole ********.
When is that person going to stand up?