4 ms·

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.

HarryHirsch 11y ago
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.
- Ollinson 11y ago
  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.
mcphage 11y ago
> This family acted in a provocative way Lucky for them, then, that the school and police were as racist as his family expected, and they walked right into his trap.
- metaphorm 11y ago
  exactly. if the school conducted itself in a humane and respectful manner in the first place there would never have been an incident at all, which is exactly the point. there should have never been an incident at all. regardless of whether or not mohammed and his family were well-prepared to exploit the media for a favorable narrative, they were still wronged. even if they deliberately provoked the incident, they were still wronged.
- lingben 11y ago
  This had nothing to do with race. Children have gotten into serious trouble just for drawing guns (see links below). This is a result of "zero tolerance" policies which have been in place for a while now. This child repeatedly brought out a clearly provocative object which he didn't even make and which looked like a count down timer in a small container. He also ignored e very single teacher who politely asked him to put it away. Until finally one teacher got freaked out enough to take action. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486036/Eight-year-old-boy-threatened-expulsion-school-drawing-pictures-Halloween-costumes-included-guns-knives.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486036/Eight-year-o... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/13-year-old-suspended-for-doodling-gun/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/13-year-old-suspended-for-doodli... I don't agree with his arrest just like I don't agree with those kids getting into trouble for drawing guns. But to try to paint this as a race issue is plainly ignorant at best. When you look at the details of this case (the father who is a Sudanese politician, the sister who tried something similar a few years ago, Mark Cuban saying that when he was talking to him he was being fed lines and told what to say, the fact that he didn't make the clock and has not even a cursory knowledge of electronics commensurate with his age or skill - claiming in an interview to 'solder' CPUs, etc.) then it becomes clear what this was really about. I feel sorry for the child because it is clear that his father orchestrated all of this.
  - swang 11y ago
    Neither of your examples were the kids ever arrested. So they suspect he has a bomb, but don't evacuate the school? If someone calls into a school and says there is a bomb, they evacuate regardless of whether its a hoax or not. Also you misquote what Mark Cuban said, just like a lot of news sites that want to focus the narrative that his sister "fed" him answers. "I talked to the kid," Cuban said. "He's from Dallas, and I've talked to the people in the school district. The kid is a super smart kid. Science geek. We talked about science, but while I'm talking to him on the phone, as I ask him a question, 'Tell me what happened because I'm curious.' Right? His sister, over his shoulder, you could hear, listening to the question, giving him the answer. So, I don't know all the details of what happened, but what I do know, when I talked to him about science, when I talked to him about magnets, when I talked to him about creating things, he was very, very engaged."
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      They didn't suspect he had an actual bomb. They suspected he's making a bomb hoax. It's important to teach kids not to make bomb hoaxes.
      - swang 11y ago
        How do you charge someone with a "bomb hoax" unless someone initially assumed there was an actual threat of a bomb? Can you just somehow jump straight to "bomb hoax"? Why do you need to call the police for a bomb threat you know to not be real? If I said something stupid like, "I have a bomb" and the teacher _knows_ I'm lying. The teacher probably sends me to the principal's office or maybe gives me a stern lecture about "misusing words" If he really did something that warranted cops being called why would the Principal need to threaten him with expulsion if he didn't sign a written statement coping to that fact? You either have him dead to rights on making bomb scares or you don't. I honestly don't know if his dad was the cause of him bringing that clock to school. But man if that's true, the dad must have read the school well enough to know they would try to arrest his son on something dumb.

HarryHirsch 11y ago

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.

Ollinson 11y ago
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.

mcphage 11y ago

> This family acted in a provocative way Lucky for them, then, that the school and police were as racist as his family expected, and they walked right into his trap.

metaphorm 11y ago
exactly. if the school conducted itself in a humane and respectful manner in the first place there would never have been an incident at all, which is exactly the point. there should have never been an incident at all. regardless of whether or not mohammed and his family were well-prepared to exploit the media for a favorable narrative, they were still wronged. even if they deliberately provoked the incident, they were still wronged.
lingben 11y ago
This had nothing to do with race. Children have gotten into serious trouble just for drawing guns (see links below). This is a result of "zero tolerance" policies which have been in place for a while now. This child repeatedly brought out a clearly provocative object which he didn't even make and which looked like a count down timer in a small container. He also ignored e very single teacher who politely asked him to put it away. Until finally one teacher got freaked out enough to take action. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486036/Eight-year-old-boy-threatened-expulsion-school-drawing-pictures-Halloween-costumes-included-guns-knives.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486036/Eight-year-o... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/13-year-old-suspended-for-doodling-gun/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/13-year-old-suspended-for-doodli... I don't agree with his arrest just like I don't agree with those kids getting into trouble for drawing guns. But to try to paint this as a race issue is plainly ignorant at best. When you look at the details of this case (the father who is a Sudanese politician, the sister who tried something similar a few years ago, Mark Cuban saying that when he was talking to him he was being fed lines and told what to say, the fact that he didn't make the clock and has not even a cursory knowledge of electronics commensurate with his age or skill - claiming in an interview to 'solder' CPUs, etc.) then it becomes clear what this was really about. I feel sorry for the child because it is clear that his father orchestrated all of this.
- swang 11y ago
  Neither of your examples were the kids ever arrested. So they suspect he has a bomb, but don't evacuate the school? If someone calls into a school and says there is a bomb, they evacuate regardless of whether its a hoax or not. Also you misquote what Mark Cuban said, just like a lot of news sites that want to focus the narrative that his sister "fed" him answers. "I talked to the kid," Cuban said. "He's from Dallas, and I've talked to the people in the school district. The kid is a super smart kid. Science geek. We talked about science, but while I'm talking to him on the phone, as I ask him a question, 'Tell me what happened because I'm curious.' Right? His sister, over his shoulder, you could hear, listening to the question, giving him the answer. So, I don't know all the details of what happened, but what I do know, when I talked to him about science, when I talked to him about magnets, when I talked to him about creating things, he was very, very engaged."
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    They didn't suspect he had an actual bomb. They suspected he's making a bomb hoax. It's important to teach kids not to make bomb hoaxes.
    - swang 11y ago
      How do you charge someone with a "bomb hoax" unless someone initially assumed there was an actual threat of a bomb? Can you just somehow jump straight to "bomb hoax"? Why do you need to call the police for a bomb threat you know to not be real? If I said something stupid like, "I have a bomb" and the teacher _knows_ I'm lying. The teacher probably sends me to the principal's office or maybe gives me a stern lecture about "misusing words" If he really did something that warranted cops being called why would the Principal need to threaten him with expulsion if he didn't sign a written statement coping to that fact? You either have him dead to rights on making bomb scares or you don't. I honestly don't know if his dad was the cause of him bringing that clock to school. But man if that's true, the dad must have read the school well enough to know they would try to arrest his son on something dumb.