Cool clock, Ahmed
Fabulous. A kid makes a techy creative science project clock and takes it to school and he gets arrested. Brilliant. God bless America.
At a press conference this morning, Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said charges won’t be filed against Ahmed Mohamed, the MacArthur High School freshman arrested Monday after bringing what school officials and police described as a “hoax bomb” on campus.
Boyd said the device — confiscated by an English teacher despite the teen’s insistence that it was a clock — was “certainly suspicious in nature.”
Oooooh yeah, and so is the inside of this laptop I’m typing on, and so is the inside of every computer in MacArthur High School, along with all the phones and tablets and every other ELekTronIck device anyone in the building has.
School officers questioned Ahmed about the device and why he’d brought it to school. Boyd said Ahmed was then handcuffed “for his safety and for the safety of the officers” and taken to a juvenile detention center. He was later released to his parents, Boyd said.
“The follow-up investigation revealed the device apparently was a homemade experiment, and there’s no evidence to support the perception he intended to create alarm,” Boyd said.
So, no harm done. Except to Ahmed, but hey, he’s just some kid. A talented kid, yes, but still just a kid.
Soon after the press conference, Obama tweeted:
Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.
Yaboosucks, Irving police department.
My first reaction: Can someone please explain to Sam Harris that this is one of the consequences of his beloved racial profiling?
But what really scares me is thinking about what might have happened if Ahmed had been a bit more geeky and (quite understandably) less calm and articulate in his reaction to his unconscionably ridiculous and unwarranted treatment.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind having this kid in one of my classes. Sounds like he’s motivated and interested in science already.
@Theo Bromine
Sam Harris? Wow, my first thought: This was at school, not a TSA security theater pat-down. If you ever get around to actually listening to Sam Harris, the profiling thing was all about airport security. Ahmed Mohamed was a victim of the idiots at the school, while tragic, not the same thing as airport security.
I feel terrible for this young man, but I certainly don’t blame Sam Harris, that is just mud slinging. I wonder who we could ask about people that mischaracterize like that? Holding someone accountable for a position they don’t hold, hmmmm, who on earth could we ask about that? That does sound vaguely familiar for some reason.
And to your second point, it was completely ridiculous and unwarranted, I agree 100%. Any examination of his clock would quickly show that it was harmless. The school should have never called the cops, they are to blame. The only good to come from this is maybe Ahmed gets to go to the White House.
goddamn it, handcuffed for his own safety. . . this is one of those times I yearn for the old testament GAWD who did that smiting thang
They handcuffed him, but they didn’t call in the bomb squad. I don’t think the police really suspected it was an explosive device. He was handcuffed for intimidation purposes only.
You know, I don’t know what offends me more; the lies they tell or the fact they think we’re stupid enough to believe the lies they tell.
Well, SamBarge, there is another thing: that there are some people who DO believe the lies they tell. That offends me incredibly.
I imagine my dad is sitting there nodding sagely as the police explain why they had to handcuff Ahmed, and why they had to be cautious and assume this was a bomb. Yes, the world I grew up in is the world of white power and militia mentality.
@Vall: I have read Sam Harris’s position, and also seen his inability or refusal to accept rational arguments against his position on airport security – https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2012/05/the_trouble_with_air.html
Granted that Harris was specifically referring to airport security when he made his recommendation that suspicion of terrorist intent should be focused on what he considers to be an actual threat: “Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim.” But airport policies have now been extended to many public buildings, tourist attractions, sports arenas, etc. The reaction that was “ridiculous and unwarranted” would almost certainly not have happened if instead of a brown boy named Ahmed Mohamed, the clockmaker was a white boy named Andrew Morris. And that is completely consistent with Harris’s suggestion that people who “look like they could conceivably be Muslim” are more likely to be a threat – why should it matter whether it’s in an airport or a school?
If the staff truly suspected a bomb, why did they not evacuate the school? Why did they place it in a desk drawer and then wait in the same room? It’s extremely obvious that no one present, even the teacher in question, truly believed the circuitry was a bomb, and the idea that it was a bomb component simply because it was a bit of circuitry is ludicrous.
This is increased policing of behavior based purely on race, i.e. racial profiling. The connection to Sam Harris’ school of thought, even if he never mentioned school security in particular, could not be more plain. Sod off, Vall.
@Theo Bromine
Re-reading my post, I want to apologize for a harsh and sarcastic tone. Sam Harris is a topic all in itself and I may have bristled a bit for injecting him in this topic. The way you worded it made it seem like you believe Sam Harris invented profiling and somehow forced those views into the Irving ISD policy. And you still seem to think he had some effect on national security policy. I do not agree with the article you linked because it attacks a position Sam Harris doesn’t hold. Harris has put some effort into clarifying his position (http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/what-i-really-think-about-profiling) and if you still don’t agree, that’s fine too.
There is not any easy solution to security, and there are many opinions. Profiling might be great at catching serial killers, but not great in airports, but it still should be discussed. If rational people can’t even talk about the subject, who then makes the policy? I’m not a big fan of binary thinking. Just because something has potential to be abused shouldn’t mean that the tool must be discarded.
I don’t claim to know Ahmed’s thoughts, but I’m pretty sure he never expected the reaction he got. The reason I think the airport and school scenarios are different, is that even Ahmed probably wouldn’t try to board a plane with his clock. To many people, the image of a bomb has evolved over the years from a black sphere with a burning fuse on top, to some sort of countdown timer strapped to a block of explosive. Ahmed’s clock looks kinda like a timer, so that’s where the panic steps in. Even without the brick of explosive, some people would be worried.
Considering that many (or most, I’m not sure so i’ll just say many) of the school shootings involve middle-class white boys, I disagree with your thoughts on if it were a boy named Andrew. It may have been sorted out sooner, but I don’t think it would be a free pass. I would be pretty nervous if I saw Christian Slater, or Winona Ryder carrying Ahmed’s clock down to the school’s boiler room.
@Vall: apology accepted – thank you
Now back to the content of the discussion:
1) You claim that the article I linked attacks a position that Harris does not hold. But Schneier links directly to statements that Harris has made in the introductory page that I pointed to, and the subsequent pages are a compilation of a debate between Schneier and Harris. I listened to Harris’s recent podcast in which he defended his position, and I don’t see an appreciable difference between his current position and what he said in 2012. Harris supports the idea of profiling, apparently because it just makes sense to him; Schneier provides a rational argument that contradicts Harris, but Harris continues to hold that position. Of course, I do not hold Harris personally responsible for the idea of profiling, or for its use in various places, but I consider his approach to this (and some other issues – eg gun control) to be lacking in rationality. I find this particularly disappointing coming from someone who is often billed as a star of the rationalist community.
2) I’m not sure what you mean when you say “If rational people can’t even talk about the subject…” – many rational people are talking about it, here and in other places.)
3) In Harris’s podcast, he said (rather dismissively) that Ahmed’s project didn’t look much like a clock to him. To me, Ahmed’s clock looks exactly like…a clock (but I confess, I’m an electrical engineer, and built a clock rather like that myself some decades ago when I was a teenager).
4) I *was* considering the fact that many of the school mass shootings have involved middle-class white boys when I made my point about “Andrew Morris”. When a middle-class white student behaves like that, people wonder what happened to make him that way. When a brown person named Ahmed Mohammed behaves like that, many people instantly think “terrorism”. And, it’s worth pointing out that Ahmed was *proudly displaying* his clock, not furtively trying to sneak it “down to the school’s boiler room”.
@Theo Bromine
I think we agree about Ahmed, it looked like a clock to me too. I would not be worried if I saw anyone with it, and the comment about the boiler room was a reference to the movie “Heathers.” I guess my point was some people could mistake it as dangerous, they would be wrong, but not unreasonable. Well, I think the whole climate of fear we live in is unreasonable, but if you accept that some people buy into that, it’s not unreasonable.
That is also my point about profiling and Harris. In the article you linked Schneier is explaining why profiling doesn’t work, Schneier says ” However, it isn’t true that almost all Muslims are out to blow up airplanes. In fact, almost none of them are. Post 9/11, we’ve had 2 Muslim terrorists on U.S airplanes: the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber.” The problem is, the TSA agents are still looking for that type of threat. I don’t think Schneier is wrong, he is mistaken in what Harris is saying. Just like when Harris tried to have a conversation with Chomsky, they end up talking past each other because neither side is saying what the other thinks they are saying. From my point of view, Chomsky came across as a total idiot.
What I get from Harris, is, if we are going to use this tool, we don’t need to pretend everyone is a threat. Doing so takes time and attention away from any real threat. My own thoughts on the whole airport thing is, both of those guys are wrong, they AREN’T searching for terrorists. They want to see what YOU’VE got. That is why they search Betty White and little kids, and people in wheelchairs. They know the security theater is useless, they still want to search YOU, so the pretense is kept at all costs. I think it unfairly makes a scapegoat out of already marginalized people, just to keep the ignorant masses afraid enough to let strangers sift through your belongings.
As to what I meant about not being able to talk about it, sometimes people can use sarcasm, harsh words, and deliberate misunderstanding to stop a conversation. I use myself as an example, and I want to apologize again. I don’t have any ill will toward anyone here. I’ve read Benson for years. Before, during, and after FTB. When I put on my introspective hat, I realize I am an asshole sometimes. I don’t identify as “asshole” so that bothers me. I don’t comment often because I struggle with not being an asshole, and I don’t want to dirty up OB’s posts. Thank you for not reciprocating.