Irving Police Chief: Race Had Nothing to Do With Student's Arrest

[LanternWaste]

Facing a national outcry over the arrest of a teenager who brought a homemade clock to school, Irving’s chief of police said Wednesday that the arrest had nothing to do with the student’s race.

On Wednesday, Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said that the arresting officers quickly determined there was no immediate threat the device would detonate, which is why they did not evacuate the high school. The officers weren’t sure if Ahmed had intended to cause alarm, so they took him into custody, Boyd said.

“When we attempted to question the student about what it was, what it was for, why he brought it to school, he only said it was a clock,” McLellan said. “Not knowing what he was going to do or why he had it, with the information they had, the arrest was appropriate.”

“He was very short and abrupt with the officers, and he would maintain to us only that it was a clock,” McLellan said. “If he’d been more — if he’d explained what he explained to the media — I’d venture to say the outcome may well have been different.”



http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/irving-police-drop-charges-against-muslim-student/


Go on, Chief Boyd... pull the other one, too.

[KG]

1. cool story, chief

[Hortensis]

13. But, explain again, why he was ARRESTED? What'd his teacher

have to say, or wasn't he asked about it -- before this student was ARRESTED? If it weren't for social media, Ahmed'd still be in jail and too likely be railroaded to a conviction to protect the guilty.

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. exactly

[malaise]

2. But it was a fucking clock

Guess that was too sophisticated an answer for the dumb officer

[Rose Siding]

20. "He was very short and abrupt with the officers",

according to the officers who didn't think they could get away with "he's going for my gun!" or "stop resisting!" this time.

Anything -anything- to try to make the kid look bad.

[malaise]

36. Abrupt because he couldn't say the clock was more than a clock

I'm so tired of really stupid people

[csziggy]

39. Ahmed is probably tired of really stupid people, too.

Poor kid, being really smart in an Idiocracy world!

At least this incident seems to be opening up opportunities for him that he may never had gotten. I hope he's not overwhelmed by the attention.

[suffragette]

44. In other words, succinct and honest. Only a clock is ... Only a clock.

Good thing he didn't say more. Who knows how they would have tried to twist anything else he said.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

3. Liiiiiiiars.

One of the officers, upon seeing him for the first time ever, said "Yup. That’s who I thought it was."

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Of course, his nationality had NOTHING to do with it...nothing at all.

[MADem]

8. I think he's Egyptian--they probably would have liked him better if he'd been

a Coptic Christian and not a Sufi Muslim....

[brush]

15. I read in another story that he's Sudanese

Still black and still Muslim so that warrants "arresting while carrying a clock" in Texas.

[MADem]

34. You are correct. Father is from the Sudan.

Ahmed's father Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, who is originally from Sudan, said his son had been mistreated because of his name "and because of 11 September".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34266389

[MADem]

5. Of course it wasn't RACE... IT WAS RELIGION!!!!!

Another moron who thinks "Islam" and "Muslim" are "races."

And...since ya have to spell things out here, another moron who thinks that "Muslim=Terrorist"....

Muslims come in all colors of the rainbow, there, chief....

[MrScorpio]

6. Bullshit, Chief

And we all know that your mayor is a right wing, Muslim-hating nut job as well.

[yuiyoshida]

7. This!

This! Mr.scorpio, This!

[sarisataka]

9. Not knowing what he was going to do or why he had it

It's a clock.
It measures time.

[Starry Messenger]

10. It was a CLOCK.

That's why he said it was a clock.

[leftynyc]

11. Has the head pig

explained why he wasn't allowed to call his parents? Or got him a lawyer?

[GeorgeGist]

12. Just as I thought ...

[Rex]

26. I think you are finding a disturbing trend with these posts.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

14. Yeah, I'm sure if he looked like this he would have gotten arrested:

[left-of-center2012]

16. Race Had Nothing to Do With Student's Arrest

But Muslim, now we thought that was cause for suspicion!

[tishaLA]

17. yet another reason police lack credibility

even when it's patently obvious that it had everything to do with race, they insist it didn't.

[BarbaRosa]

18. OK, "IF it wasn't racial",

then it is was just plain old stupidity.

riiiiight

[Iggo]

19. Iggo from DU: Oh bullshit.

[Statistical]

21. "Yup. That's who I thought it was." = obviously nothing to do with race

When Ahmed was called out of class, he said he was brought into a room with four police officers, one of whom said, "Yup. That's who I thought it was."

Ahmed told the Dallas Morning News that he felt aware of what he looked like and his name as the officers fired questions at him.

He recalled that one officer said to him, "So you tried to make a bomb?"

He disputed that and kept telling them he'd created a clock.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb/

[Dont call me Shirley]

22. "The officers weren’t sure if Ahmed had intended to cause alarm", clock, get it...LOL.

[spanone]

23. yea chief and trump thinks Obama was born in the usa

[irisblue]

24. Bovine Fertilizer Chief Boyd n/t

and those teachers at the school are ignorant racists fools.

[Rex]

25. City council needs to re-evaluate his job security.

Why did they need to know what he was going to do with it? It is a CLOCK. A CLOCK. What does one need to know about a clock?

[alcibiades_mystery]

27. It's his fault...he was "short and abrupt." OMFG

These people are really goddamn trash.

[geek tragedy]

28. Um, the constitution called . . .

The officers weren’t sure if Ahmed had intended to cause alarm, so they took him into custody

Guilty until proven innocent is not the standard. Probable cause is, and they had none.

[damnedifIknow]

29. Whatever chief

Spin as you will but anyone with half a brain knows better.

[cloudbase]

30. Doubling down on a bad decision. n/t

[Solly Mack]

31. Yeah, right.

Sure, blame the victim.

You scare the shit out of a young man by handcuffing him, removing him from school, then interrogating him - and somehow it's his fault for telling you a clock is a clock.

I'm sure the young man is sorry for assuming you were at least smart enough to know what a clock is and what it does.

Yeah, yeah. You wanted more than him telling you it is clock....because, you know, it had to be something more to it than that....and you didn't once base your thinking on the kid's skin hue, or his name.

Sure. I buy that.

[RufusTFirefly]

32. What time is it, Chief Boyd?

Time for you to retire.

[Taitertots]

33. He just admitted his officers acted illegally.

There was no probable cause to support the arrest. He admits that they were aware that no threat existed and unaware of any intent to cause alarm.

[NutmegYankee]

37. Bullshit. Nt

[Lee-Lee]

38. I wonder is the boy may be somewhere on the autism spectrum

His video kind of gave that impression to me.

If so, that can explain his giving short, factual response and not grasping the situation and that he needed to explain more.

And I'll bet Irving gives their officers zero training on dealing with such individuals.

I still can't figure out why the school even called the cops...

[enough]

40. I'm not an expert, but I did not get that impression at all from the video of Ahmed describing

what happened. He seems like a carefully-spoken young person describing what was certainly a difficult and puzzling situation with a lot of poise and directness. He's surely still processing what happened, as are his parents.

[BumRushDaShow]

41. "If so, that can explain his giving short, factual response and not grasping the situation"

Most immigrant POC who come to the U.S. have no concept of the U.S. virulent form of racism - and notably that by a number of LOE. When these folks come here, they are often fleeing a whole different dynamic of violent oppression that is light years away from the nonsensical color line justice practiced in the U.S.

This is why you see so many references about black parents giving their sons (and daughters) "the talk" (and it's not the birds and the bees). It's for survival.

[Maven]

42. ...

[RedCappedBandit]

43. As a rule, I assume everything a LEO says is a lie. nt