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Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

bbc.com

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Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#71

Post by Ollinson »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #18
mtimjones wrote: post #14

I encourage everyone to dig into this story a bit more. This family acted in a provocative way, and now they to attempt to punish the school and taxpayers.

Just to remind you: the great Civil Rights era cases were all plants, and care was taken by the organizers to find a presentable defendant with a clean record. Lady Chatterley was a plant, too.

I think people are more disgusted by how self serving the "plant" is. Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus to support a movement. Ahmed Mohammed brought a dismantled clock in a suitcase to school to further the political ends of his father's career.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#72

Post by TeMPOraL »

swang wrote: post #67
jaxomlotus wrote: post #9

Sorry, that seems opportunistic. I felt bad for him, but no way he was scarred to the tune of $15 million. Even the bad experience had a major upside - he was offered an internship to Twitter and an invitation to the White House. Schools are budget-deprived enough without adding frivolous lawsuits to the mix. In this case everyone involved in suspending him should have been seriously reprimanded and an apology given…

I am really confused by the negative reactions because it seems like Ahmed's family is following the American Way by suing for $15 million. But seriously, isn't this how it always has been with incidents like this? If they want to sue they don't want to sue for $2 million because the school will probably tryo to settle for ~$500K. If you set it at $15 million, it anchors the price point higher and they may get $3 mil…

Just because it's a stereotypical "American Way", doesn't mean it's right. The negative reactions may come from the fact that rent-seeking is harmful to society. Moreover, this particular case is an abuse of public goodwill, and many of the commenters expressing negative sentiments probably fell for the hoax and were supporting this kid publicly.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#73

Post by TeMPOraL »

gjkood wrote: post #65

I see plenty of comments saying that the parents orchestrated this. If you truly believe this, I can only assume that you are not now or never have been a parent. If you truly believe that a parent could send their child into a situation where there is a high probability of a fatal or long term negative outcome for the child, then you do not know what being a parent is. There are plenty of bad parents, but believing…

> If you truly believe that a parent could send their child into a situation where there is a high probability of a fatal or long term negative outcome for the child, then you do not know what being a parent is.

I pass such "parents" on the street every day. Begging is an organized operation in big cities in Poland, and there were reports that children are actually drugged or fed alcohol, so that they're asleep. Fatalities happen.

There's a lot of sad stuff going on in this world.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#74

Post by jrs235 »

kelukelugames wrote: post #55
oxide wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't disagree more. Schools & cities both ought to live in fear of lawsuits to stop this kind of nonsense from occuring as a kneejerk reaction and give common sense an opportunity to prevail.

Living in fear might be too strong. There needs to be a monetary deterrent discourage abuse. For example, the Internet often claims police brutality will drop if the settlements were paid from their pension.

This punishes tax payers who didn't do it. To discourage abuse those that did this should be fired. We need personal accountability.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#75

Post by swang »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #72
swang wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am really confused by the negative reactions because it seems like Ahmed's family is following the American Way by suing for $15 million. But seriously, isn't this how it always has been with incidents like this? If they want to sue they don't want to sue for $2 million because the school will probably tryo to settle for ~$500K. If you set it at $15 million, it anchors the price point higher and they may get $3 mil…

Just because it's a stereotypical "American Way", doesn't mean it's right. The negative reactions may come from the fact that rent-seeking is harmful to society. Moreover, this particular case is an abuse of public goodwill, and many of the commenters expressing negative sentiments probably fell for the hoax and were supporting this kid publicly.

The "American Way" part was a joke.

But it wasn't a hoax dude. It actually happened. He got arrested for pretty much _no_ reason whatsoever.

There are two separate events

1. Ahmed was arrested for a pretty dumb thing and most likely because he was a brown kid it made it easier for them to assume it was a bomb or hoax bomb. Whatever they want to call it. I'd have to see how often "hoax bombs" were actually used to arrest someone before I say they racially profiled him for sure, but my gut feeling is that there isn't a high incidence of hoax bomb arrests.

2. Ahmed's family is suing for $15 million. Not Ahmed, who probably has little choice in the matter.

I am sure suing for so much money has brought bad publicity for them, but at the same time that issue is separate from the incident of him being arrested, which happened.

Using the term rent-seeking is a bit over the top unless you really believe this entire thing was staged.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#76

Post by fleitz »

smileysteve wrote: post #53
fleitz wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that getting called into the office for your homemade 'clock' is not a big deal, and certainly not a $15m big deal.

If by 'called into the office' you mean handcuffed, told that you are being expelled, and catching the news cycle. Not to mention being the topic of a national debate with some pointing out your race and guessing as to whether or not you are a terrorist.

He's not the only kid to get in trouble with the police at school. I dunno man, I'm from Canada, and this is like $100K tops, obviously we don't have the same legal climate as the US but $15m seems a little steep, I do realize it's the opening offer.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#77

Post by fleitz »

Ollinson wrote: post #70
fleitz wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sheds light on the issue in that his parents likely orchestrated the whole thing.

It's unfortunate that the "hoax" label on this clock story is being considered by some a conspiracy theory. All it takes is 15 minute to look into the political history of the kids father and the nature of the clock that he "built" to realize something is amiss.

Yeah, his father is certainly a very savvy man, no doubt about that.

I do think even orchestrated the police took it a little far, however, probably not $15m far.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#78

Post by ltorresv »

dllthomas wrote: post #62
jaxomlotus wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should schools really not take security seriously though? Do we really want people second guessing themselves when it comes to safety? That precedent is asking for trouble.

How does safety enter into it? Everyone knew it wasn't a bomb. Some people thought it was pretending to be a bomb, other people contend that it wasn't pretending to be a bomb. How are you worried about people second guessing themselves, in that context? Schools have procedures for when there's a suspected bomb. They don't look like what was done, here. There was never a suspected bomb - only a suspected hoax.

Everyone knew it wasn't a bomb? Really? AFAIK he was asked what it was and he was uncooperative although we won't ever know since his family refused the public release of the police records.

Anyways, if we're going with hearsay then we should mention the boy's sister was suspended for making a bomb threat so I'd doubt the average teacher would just brush this off as "definitely not a bomb".

Now, seems like in your mind it would've been better for the school to send a SWAT team after him. I'm sure that wouldn't be seen as a negative thing by anyone.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#79

Post by dllthomas »

ltorresv wrote: post #78
dllthomas wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does safety enter into it? Everyone knew it wasn't a bomb. Some people thought it was pretending to be a bomb, other people contend that it wasn't pretending to be a bomb. How are you worried about people second guessing themselves, in that context? Schools have procedures for when there's a suspected bomb. They don't look like what was done, here. There was never a suspected bomb - only a suspected hoax.

Everyone knew it wasn't a bomb? Really? AFAIK he was asked what it was and he was uncooperative although we won't ever know since his family refused the public release of the police records. Anyways, if we're going with hearsay then we should mention the boy's sister was suspended for making a bomb threat so I'd doubt the average teacher would just brush this off as "definitely not a bomb". Now, seems like in your mi…

Better? No. More consistent with "we thought it was a bomb"? Yes. At which point, the discussion of what should be done when you think there's a bomb becomes germane. So far as I understand it, no one involved is claiming that they thought it was a bomb.

Far more conspicuous than relative lack of force (which, depending on particulars, might possibly have been a fine reaction to an actual bomb) is the apparent lack of any move to evacuate other students.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#80

Post by DrScump »

swang wrote: post #75
TeMPOraL wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because it's a stereotypical "American Way", doesn't mean it's right. The negative reactions may come from the fact that rent-seeking is harmful to society. Moreover, this particular case is an abuse of public goodwill, and many of the commenters expressing negative sentiments probably fell for the hoax and were supporting this kid publicly.

The "American Way" part was a joke. But it wasn't a hoax dude. It actually happened. He got arrested for pretty much _no_ reason whatsoever. There are two separate events 1. Ahmed was arrested for a pretty dumb thing and most likely because he was a brown kid it made it easier for them to assume it was a bomb or hoax bomb. Whatever they want to call it. I'd have to see how often "hoax bombs" were actually used to arr…

"But it wasn't a hoax dude. It actually happened. He got arrested for pretty much _no_ reason whatsoever."

The whole "homemade clock" claim is what was a hoax, regardless of any subsequent panic about its application. (If you aren't clear on the backstory, look it up. It's just a mass-production A/C-powered clock taken out of its case. For example, see: http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICRONTA-Large-Red-Display-Digital-A...)

Regarding the reaction: hindsight is a handy thing, but we live in an era where schools routinely go into complete lockdown if some kid or staffer thinks he might have spotted a weapon.

When you read the article carefully, some things pop out:

1) BBC makes no mention here of the whole "homebuilt" concept itself being a hoax, e.g. a "homemade" clock (why the suitcase?) that was really just a disassembled, mass-production A/C-powered clock).

2) Lawyer letter stating, "Irving Police officials immediately determined that the clock was harmless" is false. Beat cops aren't qualified to make any such analysis; even things as innocuous as an unattended backpack get further analysis by specifically trained personnel.

3) "Ahmed's father ... once stood as a presidential candidate against (Sudanese President) Bashir." That's a pretty strong theoretical motive for a publicity stunt.

In any case, they leveraged the fauxtrage into a full scholarship to The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community... so, mission accomplished.

Another article, however, claims the following: "(Teacher) did escort Ahmed to the office, where the letter alleges that five police officers, the principal and the assistant principal performed an "interrogation." During that time, he was allegedly not permitted to contact his parents and was forced to sign a letter of confession under the threat of expulsion." Now, if that is true, that warrants investigation and corrective action on its own, completely unrelated to religion, national origin, or who "made" the item, or why.

Meanwhile, this article says that his older sister claims to have been suspended 5-6 years earlier over alleged threats to blow up her school:

'The sister claimed after the arrest that she had been suspended from a school for several days. “I got suspended from school for three days from this stupid same district, from this girl saying I wanted to blow up the school, something I had nothing to do with,” she said, without providing evidence or proof.

The episode occurred around 2009, she said. The scare happened in “my first year of attempting middle school in America. I knew English, but the culture was different, the people were different,” Eyman said.

“I got suspended and I didn’t do anything about it,” she said.'

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/23/ahmeds-si...

If true, that's an interesting pattern.

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