Pictures of the kid being arrested for possessing a clock.

[trumad]

Notice his NASA shirt?





Here's the clock.

[cantbeserious]

1. Right Wing America - Killing Ingenuity And Creativity - Daily - What A Message For Children

eom

[peacebird]

2. The real RocketBoy is giving him a free trip to Space Camp, and folks are working on a NASA

Trip. The President has invited him to the White house.

[Make7]

3. I don't get it. What part is supposed to explode? ( n/t )

[herding cats]

8. Exactly.

Just because a clock resembles a timer, they lost their shit. Even though a timer is perfectly harmless unless it's attached to some form of explosives, of which there were none.

How in the hell could anyone, let alone teachers, a principal and several police, be so stupid as to not notice something so obvious?

[hifiguy]

10. The average kkkop these days

has the IQ of the proverbial sack of doorknobs.

[notadmblnd]

44. what did a door knob ever do to you?

[rufus dog]

58. Holy shit

I am looking at the device, the absolute worst thing I can imagine is a capacitor over heating and melting. You would get a puff of smoke and a bad smell.

How can someone look at that and think explosive device?

[MADem]

4. NASA tee shirt. Damn. nt

[valerief]

39. I know! He's so clearly a curious nerd. Friggin' racist bastards. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Many, many reasons why that photo is a problem

and why we would never, ever in a thousand years run it.

[Initech]

6. Welcome to the United Police State Of America! Go directly to jail. Do not pass go.

[nadine_mn]

7. This is how "terrorism" wins - when we turn on our own children

I read this story this morning and nearly wept. The surge for anti-intellectualism and rampant racism esp Islamophobia is killing us.

Don't you dare be smart, inventive, creative or show initiative...just march in line like quiet little (white) sheep.

I wish I knew a solution to this crap other than rounding up all the bigots, sticking them on an island and watch them turn on themselves.

[zappaman]

9. Wow. Thanks for posting these photos!

So fucked up!
People need to see these!

[CanonRay]

11. I thought I'd seen stupid cop actions before

but this one tops them all. Good grief.

[cigsandcoffee]

12. I'm not as ready to condemn the teachers, administration, and police as quickly...

...as everyone else, I guess.

One person's clock is another person's timer, and timers can be used for cooking eggs or - yes, bombs.

If this kid had blown up a classroom in a week, and teachers and administration had known about this clock/timer without taking action, they would be thought to have a lot of blood on their hands.

Unfortunately, we don't live in a world where kids won't kill other kids, or one where kids can't make bombs. It's a shame the kid didn't build a radio, instead, or something that looked less like a bomb component.

[Brickbat]

16. ROFLMAO.

[Rex]

18. It is a shame you are making such weak excuses for obvious racism.

A real shame.

[cigsandcoffee]

21. His teachers are racist? The administration is racist? The cops are racist?

A lot of racists at that school, I guess.

[LanternWaste]

24. This in the same city that

Yeah... no racism here. Move along, move along.

The Irving city council endorsed one of several bills under discussion in the Texas Legislature that would forbid judges from rulings based on "foreign laws" — legislation opponents view as unnecessary and driven by anti-Muslim sentiment.

At a later council meeting, the turnout included some denouncing Islam. One woman declared "Sharia law is Islam, and Islam's goal is to immigrate, assimilate and annihilate." A man sitting in the audience shouted "That is offensive!" and was escorted out.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/muslim-boy-14-arrested-making-clock-mistaken-bomb-33793557

[cigsandcoffee]

35. Gotcha. So they were all racists, right down to the black cop in the photo. n/t

[LanternWaste]

37. Absurdum reductio... the last resort of the half-wit.

Absurdum reductio... the last resort of the half-wit. Not that you're a half-wit by any means... no doubt, you appear to be full of wit. Bear in mind, one of the officers, upon seeing him for the first time ever, said "Yup. That’s who I thought it was."

Though #21 may give us pause... it being the very same fallacy too. Low-hanging fruit bores me, as do absurd rationalizations. Continue as you feel compelled.

[cigsandcoffee]

50. You appeared to be condemning an entire town as racist.

That would be stupid.

[Raster]

64. One wonders: If Ahmed were Clay or Tyler, oh-so-white boy, with that Texas twang...

...would the teachers and administrators be so quick to freak and call the police?

And FYI, I lived in Texas for 15 years, spent many a Sunday afternoon in Irving, drinking beers, smokin' weed and watching football.
Irving, TX racist? Surely you jest.

[Dont call me Shirley]

65. Looks like the cop slapping on the cuffs, doing the arresting, is white.

[Rex]

36. Welcome to Texas.

[procon]

63. Would you settle for stoopid?

It's hard to ignore that racism and bigotry aren't the root cause of this idiocy. If you fantasize that an egg timer is a terrorist weapon, then why not a radio too, or a cell phone, a laptop... it's a never ending conspiracy theory of paranoia.

[trumad]

19. You mean the watch I have on my wrist...

might blow up?

[cigsandcoffee]

26. What does a watch have to do with a homemade electronic timer?

Really, that's a ridiculous comparison.

Try walking in the White House for a tour wearing a watch, and another time carrying that electronic timer. This will help you understand what the difference between the two is.

[LanternWaste]

20. Do you then apply that consistently to all wristwatches worn at school too?

"One person's clock is another person's timer, and timers can be used for cooking eggs or - yes, bombs. "

Do you then apply that consistently to all wristwatches worn at school too? Or (and I find this more likely) will you insert a distinction lacking a difference to better validates your biases?

[TexasProgresive]

22. If he was wearing a Casio F-91W watch

he would be sitting in Gitmo.

[yardwork]

25. Really. How would a radio look different?

[malaise]

28. Pathetic

[Go Vols]

30. 7 Kids Not Named Mohamed Who Brought Homemade Clocks to School And Didn't Get Arrested

http://gawker.com/7-kids-not-named-mohamed-who-brought-homemade-clocks-to-1730999866

[cigsandcoffee]

33. Sounds like those were science fair projects. n/t

[Rex]

40. Right and his was an engineering project. Nice try.

[cigsandcoffee]

51. Not sanctioned by the school, as the science fair projects were.

This clock was something he made at home, and brought to school.

[Rex]

55. His engineering teacher gave them a project to make and he did.

You are the only one outraged at this...so good luck with that! The rest of us see it for the obvious racism it is. Sorry if this is your first encounter with institutionalized racism...maybe read or go explore the world more.

Or don't, either way he did what he was told to do by his teacher. So you keep blaming the victim all you want to.

[cigsandcoffee]

62. Yes. I yearn for the day I'm worldly enough to run with a social media lynch mob. n/t

[upaloopa]

32. Bomb component? It looks like any board in

any electronic toy today!
I am sorry but you just are way over the line. You could check out the board and not humiliate the kid!
It was an Islamic kid with a circuit board in Texas that equals possible terrorist!

[cigsandcoffee]

49. Yup. Just a board. Try bringing it on an airplane with that explanation.

I'm not saying the teachers, administration, and cops didn't overreact. What I am saying is that it's not as nuts as everyone seems to be making it out to be.

[Rex]

56. So now an airplane and a public classroom are one and the same.

Keep striking out, it is amusing to watch your excuses.

[Starry Messenger]

41. I'm a public school teacher.

I'm condemning this action and the system that went nuts and arrested the young man.

[Rex]

43. Former public school teacher, I second that condemnation.

I am still SMH.

[tkmorris]

46. OK. Let's say it's a timer

By itself, is that an excuse to arrest him? As you say, timers are used for, well, EVERYTHING, so simply possessing one hardly seems as if it should get a kid handcuffed.

Oh and BTW, radio receivers are EXCELLENT to use in building bombs. In most circumstances they would be superior to simple timers actually.

[cigsandcoffee]

53. No, actually. I think everyone overreacted.

But I'm not as quick to accuse them of being racist and/or stupid. It's not the same world many of us grew up in.

[trumad]

59. Racist---maybe not---Fucking stupid...oh yeah!

[csziggy]

60. No it's not the same world I grew up in - it is much more fascist

FFS - this is ridiculous. No wonder kids are not going into the sciences or technology and that this country is not producing the engineers we need.

When I was was a kid, there were kids who were playing with rockets - Homer Hickman was among those - no way the schools of today, or at least the ones in Texas, would allow that! After all, what is a rocket but a bomb with a directed output? Where would NASA have been without kids who were allowed to use their ingenuity to learn on their own?

Our so called education system is too paranoid to recognize any ingenuity except what is "sanctioned by the school" as you put it in message 51. So according to that standard no child should ever attempt any independent projects unless they are carefully scrutinized and monitored by authorities?

Oh HELL NO.

[L. Coyote]

66. I'm ready to condemn Texas. This has everything to do with culture.

And Texas can use a serious cultural revolution.

[Tree-Hugger]

13. Heartbreaking nt

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Hmmmm!

No pulse switch. No primer. No initiator. No detonating chemical.

You know, i think this is a clock!

[Rex]

42. But but...it has USB ports on it! NO doubt the kid...err...scary terrerist had the bomb at home!

Dad probably made it out of spare car parts!

[bunnies]

15. TWO sets of cuffs?!

Are you fucking kidding me?

[Rex]

17. The look on his face breaks my heart.

OMG! THAT is what they cops went off about? THAT is what the teacher pissed all over himself about!? It is a USB adapter! There is nothing on the fucking thing that could be used as a bomb!

Wow...Irving Texas has some stupid fuckwads running it's school system and PD.

SUE.

[malaise]

31. It's a what did I do look

Heartbreaking

[Rex]

34. To me, it is an angry look of knowing he did nothing wrong and finding out the world is lousy.

Part of being smart is carrying the burden of understanding. If he did not suspect America was full of racist morons, he knows it now and that has to be upsetting to someone intelligent.

As a former teacher, it breaks my heart to see that look. The loss of innocence.

[cwydro]

23. Whatever happened to minors' names being withheld in arrests?

And pictures too?

Poor kid.

[upaloopa]

27. That looks a lot like the boards in newer model trains.

[SummerSnow]

29. What the hell is wrong with us? Were so consumed with racism.

40 years ago my brother took a homemade radio to school for show n tell. The teacher was amazed and she loved it. But we don't live in a world like that anymore.Were so screwed.

[JEB]

38. That looks like child abuse.

They got the wrong people in irons.

[get the red out]

45. His face makes me want to cry

[smirkymonkey]

67. I know, it's heartbreaking.

poor kid!

[dembotoz]

47. ncis episode--kids that looked like him join isis--its the damn season cliffhanger

guess better to be safe and look stupid

[Statistical]

48. As the US falls further and further behind other countries in science and engineering ...

we lock up a smart creative kid for doing some science and engineering. His expression hurts my soul. Keep doing science Ahmed the world needs more people like you.

Also how mentally challenged is the teacher? Sorry if you are that stupid you shouldn't be a teacher. How exactly are students going to learn anything from someone who is clueless themselves.

[hamsterjill]

52. That poor little baby!

That photo just makes me want to give him a hug. He's probably scared out of his wits at that moment.

[longship]

54. No! This is the clock he made.

Per the Irving PD, via BBC:


Looks pretty innocent to me, but I am an old electronics hacker.

[PoliticAverse]

57. That doesn't look like a clock to me. Where is that picture from? n/t

[IDemo]

61. It's an SBC of one flavor or another

thank god they captured him before he did something horrible with it!!

[Solly Mack]

68. Silly, trumad. Everyone knows NASA stands for Nefarious Arab Society of America.

Didn't they teach that to you in school?

Or did you get taught science like other evil doers?