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Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

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Re: Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

#31

Post by KennyBlanken »

rdtsc wrote: post #15
nyolfen wrote: post #3

this story never made sense to me. he disassembled a digital clock then put the pieces in a pencil case? he didn't fabricate it or design any of the electronic components; what was he supposed to be demonstrating, that you can put a digital clock in new case? also his dad was a sudanese opposition politician??

I remember the incident in the news. Yeah, I could see if he was 8, taking an electronic component, stripping all the insides and moving it into new box and plugging it in sounds very plausible. But doing it 14, and then using what looks like a suitcase, where more than one adult thought it was a bomb, makes his story that it's just a "clock" a bit hard to believe. Moreover, the first teacher he showed it to, urged h…

Not only was he told not to take it out of his backpack, he whipped it out in English class, plugged it into the wall, set the time, and then caused the alarm to go off. he was purposefully seeking attention.

His family filed three lawsuits against various parties, all dismissed, two with prejudice, and they were ordered to pay legal costs in two of the three cases.

His father was an eccentric type who had twice tried to run for president of Sudan.

Sure seems like an intentional ploy to get a reaction from staff that could be labeled Islamophobia, though I would blame the father more than the kid.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

#32

Post by zxcvbnm69 »

thomasmg wrote: post #27
searealist wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looked like a bomb and he was told by teachers to keep it put away. He even made the alarm go off in class. His father, a politician, turned it into an incident.

It could be this, or it could be: He experimenting hours and was proud of what he did. He wanted to show it to as many as possible, so he ignored what the teacher said. He was interrogated. Why more than one hour? It could have taken less then 10 minutes if you ask the teacher. Why was he handcuffed later? The police clearly wanted to make a statement or show.

[dead]

Re: Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

#33

Post by dyauspitr »

nyolfen wrote: post #3

this story never made sense to me. he disassembled a digital clock then put the pieces in a pencil case? he didn't fabricate it or design any of the electronic components; what was he supposed to be demonstrating, that you can put a digital clock in new case? also his dad was a sudanese opposition politician??

It’s cool in a way. I know I was opening all of my toys at that age and making modifications to them.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

#34

Post by mjamesaustin »

OkayBuddy44 wrote: post #26
KingMob wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ehh. I'm sure any number of equally awkward HN commenters at 14 might have done the same, and if they weren't muslim, gotten the benefit of the doubt instead of being hauled off to the police dept.

[flagged]

Getting to whine about it from the comfort of your keyboard is a privilege, yes.

Any of us who have the wealth to buy a computer, put food on our tables, pay all of our bills, and have spare time to wax poetic on an internet forum are certainly privileged.

Privilege is not an accusation, it's a lens to understand how people experience the world from different perspectives.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

#35

Post by elashri »

55555 wrote: post #30
elashri wrote: post #20

[flagged]

I read the Wikipedia article and my best guess is that Ahmed was intentionally attempting to get a reaction out of those around him by showing off a clock he built intentionally to look like a bomb… I’m a white male but actually had a similar thing happen to me during school. (I brought a water gun to school and people expressed that even bringing a toy gun to school could get you into trouble and to hide it for the…

> In my opinion you are being closed-minded to other possibilities.

Maybe I'm a little bit closed to other possibilities (the same way a lot of people trying to advocate that this wasn't actually racist incident). Occam's razor plays a factor for me too.

> I’m a white male but actually had a similar thing happen to me during school

But lets compare your experience as a white kid. you did not get you English teacher calling the police on you after taking your stuff. You did not get arrested by the police who not only question you but took you to a detention center and did not make Mug shot for you. You did not got into much troubles because of maybe you were lucky. You did not got to leave the country because a lot of conservative shows and figures spreading conspiracy theories and attacking you.

You can say that you believe that this 14 years old kid was trying to to get reaction but this is a claim that you can support because you don't have a way to get back in 2015 neither do you have a way of reading people's mind. I believe this is even irrelevant. After police was called and things clarified ,the redirection to detention facility and the suspension of school (after everything cleared) and the conspiracy theories are what makes this racist incident. If the school just called cops and they dealt with it differently, there is a good chance that we weren't going to hear about that.

So comparing your experience and white male (non-Muslim I guess and sorry if this was not true) against a black Muslim kid yielded two different outcomes.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

#36

Post by benfortuna »

rdtsc wrote: post #15
nyolfen wrote: post #3

this story never made sense to me. he disassembled a digital clock then put the pieces in a pencil case? he didn't fabricate it or design any of the electronic components; what was he supposed to be demonstrating, that you can put a digital clock in new case? also his dad was a sudanese opposition politician??

I remember the incident in the news. Yeah, I could see if he was 8, taking an electronic component, stripping all the insides and moving it into new box and plugging it in sounds very plausible. But doing it 14, and then using what looks like a suitcase, where more than one adult thought it was a bomb, makes his story that it's just a "clock" a bit hard to believe. Moreover, the first teacher he showed it to, urged h…

>where more than one adult thought it was a bomb

Clarification: more than one American adult, where collectively some states/localities are more likely to jump at shadows than others..

Re: Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

#37

Post by OkayBuddy44 »

mjamesaustin wrote: post #34
OkayBuddy44 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Getting to whine about it from the comfort of your keyboard is a privilege, yes. Any of us who have the wealth to buy a computer, put food on our tables, pay all of our bills, and have spare time to wax poetic on an internet forum are certainly privileged. Privilege is not an accusation, it's a lens to understand how people experience the world from different perspectives.

Right, and I'm using it here as a lens to try to understand how a little brown boy can be invited to the White House to meet the president as a misunderstood engineering prodigy, while my experience is that this would see a little White boy ignored (because this is nothing special tbh), shunned (for being a nerd), or even expelled (for trolling the school with a fake bomb).

Re: Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

#38

Post by egeozcan »

Nearly 30 years ago, as a kid with way too much free time and a budding interest in questionable DIY projects, I decided to stroll into a hardware store and try to buy some very suspicious items I'd read about in an online forum.

The saleswoman, bless her soul, looked genuinely concerned as she told me she couldn't sell me what I asked for. Then came the inevitable: "So... what exactly are you planning to do with this stuff?"

Without missing a beat, I launched into an impassioned explanation about how absolutely epic it would be to blow up this colossal ant nest I'd discovered in our neighborhood.

What followed wasn't the cool supplies or cheers I imagined but a long-winded lecture about how ants are living beings too, and how it's "definitely not okay" to blow them up. No cops. No parental intervention. Honestly, that lady could've reported me to my parents or even the authorities, but nope! This was Istanbul, and I happened to be a "local" (Funny because there are no locals in Istanbul) kid with lighter skin and blue eyes. So, all good!

But as I got older, I realized how lucky I was. If I'd been darker-skinned or Kurdish (which, back then, was basically a surefire way to get labeled a "terrorist" in the media), things could've gone very differently. Today, it's Syrians who face the brunt of the suspicion. Tomorrow? Who knows!

What I've come to understand is that this kind of dumb, knee-jerk profiling based on race and appearance is everywhere. Humans are exceptionally good at spotting patterns (real or imaginary) and we'll keep doing it as long as we're fed bad (or any, really) information. Even now, living as a migrant in Europe, I get my fair share of this nonsense. Some things, unfortunately, never change.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

#39

Post by ajdude »

elashri wrote: post #35
55555 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the Wikipedia article and my best guess is that Ahmed was intentionally attempting to get a reaction out of those around him by showing off a clock he built intentionally to look like a bomb… I’m a white male but actually had a similar thing happen to me during school. (I brought a water gun to school and people expressed that even bringing a toy gun to school could get you into trouble and to hide it for the…

> In my opinion you are being closed-minded to other possibilities. Maybe I'm a little bit closed to other possibilities (the same way a lot of people trying to advocate that this wasn't actually racist incident). Occam's razor plays a factor for me too. > I’m a white male but actually had a similar thing happen to me during school But lets compare your experience as a white kid. you did not get you English teacher c…

From what I can tell, this 14-year-old kid showed the clock to other teachers (including his engineering teacher whom he said was the reason he brought it to school to show) before the English teacher, and they told him to keep the device in his backpack and to stop taking it out.

It wasn't until during English class, when he took it out, plugged it in, and set the alarm, that's something happened.

I have to wonder if the GP would have a similar experience if he kept waving the water gone around after being told to keep it in his bag.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident

#40

Post by elashri »

ajdude wrote: post #39
elashri wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my opinion you are being closed-minded to other possibilities. Maybe I'm a little bit closed to other possibilities (the same way a lot of people trying to advocate that this wasn't actually racist incident). Occam's razor plays a factor for me too. > I’m a white male but actually had a similar thing happen to me during school But lets compare your experience as a white kid. you did not get you English teacher c…

From what I can tell, this 14-year-old kid showed the clock to other teachers (including his engineering teacher whom he said was the reason he brought it to school to show) before the English teacher, and they told him to keep the device in his backpack and to stop taking it out. It wasn't until during English class, when he took it out, plugged it in, and set the alarm, that's something happened. I have to wonder i…

These details are not in the Wikipedia page. Care to cite how can we get accurate description of the order of what really happened?

And even though, I don't think suspension and police overreaction and taking a kid to be questioned without his parents present is justified. This is my problem and this is what makes this no just an ordinary incident that just happens everywhere. There was a racial profiling involved.

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