Author Topic: 14 year-old makes home-made clock, arrested for 'bringing a bomb to school'  (Read 28059 times)

just to note real quick, if you'll notice, i haven't called taboo an "idiot" or a "simpleton", or tried some ad-hominem attack. and thus, he has not said the same back to me. debating doesn't have to be petty.

well see debating is the key word

i think you're the only person who wants to debate with taboo :n

i think it wasn't right because the facts show that this was based on fear of his religion and his associations, rather than with reality, and that if someone else had been in this situation and presented this suspicious clock, we would've never heard about it because it would've ended in the classroom
"what is that?"
"it's a clock"
end of story.
I haven't actually really bothered looking into it very much, but I believe it's come up a few times that the kid showed it to his Engineering teacher and then just hid it away till it started beeping and he had to take it out. If he'd at least had the foresight to actually make it clear to people what it is, or even to simply toss it in his locker after showing the teacher, there'd have been no issue. I've brought a pretty wide variety of things into school for shows and tell or whatever (I've brought in swords, actually, for real), and the first thing I always did was make sure with the administration that it was cool and that they knew what was up when I brought the whatever in.
As a side note, I think by 14 one should have the worldliness to recognise the possible repercussions of bring in a suitcase with numbers on the front with his heritage and environment in mind.

but honestly, are they really 14 year old middle class students? do you think that? is it possible that maybe terrorists aren't perfect? is it possible that this is an assumption based out of fear more than reason?
The kids don't necessarily have to be terrorists, although I definitely don't see any reason why they couldn't be. There have been plenty of stories about kids out of Britain being led to "the call of Allah" or whatever. But the kids don't even necessarily have to be the terrorists themselves, they could just be simply influenced by someone else, family or a friend. They could have simply been threatened into performing an attack. This isn't particularly uncommon either, so it's not at all unreasonable to be suspicious of someone even if they are a kid.

once again, he left his backpack around a lot. i did too. never an issue. i think he also played clarinet in middle school so he probably left that case in the band room a couple of times.
Backpacks or little instrument cases are a lot less likely to be mistaken for a bomb that a suitcase with a numerical readout.

just to note real quick, if you'll notice, i haven't called taboo an "idiot" or a "simpleton", or tried some ad-hominem attack. and thus, he has not said the same back to me. debating doesn't have to be petty.
It helps that I know you're legitimately intelligent person capable of good debate.

What the forget is going on here?

What the forget is going on here?
a well rounded debate against two intellectual gentlemens




I see it as a double edge sword. On the bad side it proves that doing something simple as this might show that he isn't even a gifted/talented engineer/aspiring inventor like the media is playing him out to be, which could lead to a really bad back fire.

On the good side it also proves that he is incapable of making a bomb because any one can just take clock guts and put it into a case. Also proves that everyone freeked out over clock guts.

I see it as a double edge sword. On the bad side it proves that doing something simple as this might show that he isn't even a gifted/talented engineer/aspiring inventor like the media is playing him out to be, which could lead to a really bad back fire.

On the good side it also proves that he is incapable of making a bomb because any one can just take clock guts and put it into a case. Also proves that everyone freeked out over clock guts.

it just bugs me because he isn't really a genius

it's like, at 15, I could make a clock out of some 4017's and 555's, but nobody cared

to me, he's just being an idiot and using his race and timing to get on the news

Well there is a possibility that he wanted to use the clock guts for some other project. Like make some sort of LED flashing thing, or some sort of scrolling message screen. Some sort of simple primitive device.


it just bugs me because he isn't really a genius

it's like, at 15, I could make a clock out of some 4017's and 555's, but nobody cared

to me, he's just being an idiot and using his race and timing to get on the news
i think somebody's jealous that he got free stuff, lol.

I see it as a double edge sword. On the bad side it proves that doing something simple as this might show that he isn't even a gifted/talented engineer/aspiring inventor like the media is playing him out to be, which could lead to a really bad back fire.
but i don't see that as a slight against ahmed, i see that as a slight against the media for making a story way bigger than it is.

unless you believe he staged this whole thing to get on TV, in which case you're insane.

i read into this story a bit more and now im pretty sure this was intentional. i dont think he planned to get arrested but he was hoping to cause a stuffstorm at the school and then cry discrimination. honestly if I brought that to school i'd probably get arrested too. even so, you should be aware that things may seem different depending on your race. of course it's not right, but just like how people will be angry if a white dude says "brother" people might worry if an arab has a potential bomb. obviously one of those is worse than the other but we live in a world with racial prejudices and most people are aware of them and react accordingly.

but w/e. it actually makes me less angry. he played the system well and got a ton of free stuff.

i read into this story a bit more and now im pretty sure this was intentional. i dont think he planned to get arrested but he was hoping to cause a stuffstorm at the school and then cry discrimination. honestly if I brought that to school i'd probably get arrested too. even so, you should be aware that things may seem different depending on your race. of course it's not right, but just like how people will be angry if a white dude says "brother" people might worry if an arab has a potential bomb. obviously one of those is worse than the other but we live in a world with racial prejudices and most people are aware of them and react accordingly.

but w/e. it actually makes me less angry. he played the system well and got a ton of free stuff.
so

he made a suspicious looking clock
not cus he wanted to impress people but because he wanted them to think he was a terrorist aside from the fact he's totally not sus at all
because he knew  he would cause a stuffstorm at his school with a clock
because he intended to play the system for no reason, just for some weird Machiavellian urge
and the endgame was hopefully to get some free stuff

and that's not a stretch at all

i think somebody's jealous that he got free stuff, lol.
but i don't see that as a slight against ahmed, i see that as a slight against the media for making a story way bigger than it is.
I don't think he really staged anything, but people think the media has all the facts right. Because of that people aren't going get mad at the media, instead they going to go after poor Mohammed despite the media being the one to blew up the story and distorted the facts.

Now people against him who watch an opposing news source will just be like "see I told you I was right".

so

he made a suspicious looking clock
not cus he wanted to impress people but because he wanted them to think he was a terrorist aside from the fact he's totally not sus at all
because he knew  he would cause a stuffstorm at his school with a clock
because he intended to play the system for no reason, just for some weird Machiavellian urge
and the endgame was hopefully to get some free stuff

and that's not a stretch at all
He could have removed the battery and turned off the alarm so it wouldn't beep or go off, but I think he was anticipating it go off in class.