14yo kid builds a DIY clock, accused of making a bomb...

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2cvbloke

2cvbloke

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An absolutely disgusting example of the world we live in today:

Code: 
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece
 
Certainly an example of how paranoid and frightened some Americans are.....They also forget that less than 300 years ago they too were immigrants...
 
Best safe than sorry are my thoughts, considering the past in American schools etc, he's been invited to the white house today i believe,
 
martin-f said:
Best safe than sorry are my thoughts
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Thing is, if there was a suspiciously wrapped up lump of stuff, or a container of liquid with wires coming from it, then yes, he could have built a bomb, but, from the pictures, I see an LED display, a PCB with clock timing components, a battery and a power cable, basically a re-purposed bedside alarm clock, all built into a neat case, no signs of anything bomb-like, it's just the stupidity of a "teacher" (referred to as so, as the only teaching they did that day was how to alienate someone who is different) that caused the whole thing, because the kid was brown-skinned, had a non-american name, and happened to not be a christian, they assumed he was a suicide bomber...

Had it been a white kid called Billy-Bob Jones who went to the local church every sunday, I bet you he wouldn't have been accused of bomb-making at all...

Like I say, a disgusting example of the world we live in today, the lives of the many spoiled by the stupidity of the few...
 
2cvbloke said:
Had it been a white kid called Billy-Bob Jones who went to the local church every sunday, I bet you he wouldn't have been accused of bomb-making at all...
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Have to say I agree with you. 100%.
 
Well I respect your opinion 2cv, but I also have my own, and I think they reacted in an appropriate way, put it this way it I saw something like that and I was boarding a plane I would report it and wouldn't get on until it was checked out, but as a forum we try to steer away from discussions like this so best left,

I must agree it is a sorry state that we have to do this but I feel its necessary in this day and age and it will only get worse, it will help us all to stay vigilant at all times.
 
martin-f said:
it will help us all to stay vigilant at all times.
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Vigilance and xenophobia are two different things, eyeballing someone with a rucksack because they have a different coloured skin is not being vigilant, it's racial profiling, and to do that to a kid who could potentially be the head of NASA someday, it's setting a really bad example for others, being afraid of being treated like a criminal for having intelligence and soldering a bunch of wires together in a project would really put off many kids from becoming electronics engineers in the future...
 
The whole situation is just odd and a massive overreaction. I think the teachers and the police have watched too many Hollywood films if they think that was a bomb. The fact that the kid was arrested, handcuffed and denied access to his parents during questioning for over an hour just shows how badly the whole situation was handled and why it's made headlines around the world. If they really thought it was a bomb why wasn't the place evacuated?
 
So I guess it best for peeps to blow things up then do something about it after is the way to go then silly me :-doh
 
martin-f said:
So I guess it best for peeps to blow things up then do something about it after is the way to go then silly me :-doh
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Considering that most of the bombings and attacks have occurred before people realised they were up to something, then, it already is a "bomb first, ask questions later" situation, someone who builds such devices isn't going to make themselves known, but to accuse a child who is interested in electronics of committing such an act because he's brown, a muslim and named Ahmed Mohammed is not on, in any guise of so-called "vigilance"...
 
martin-f said:
Race is not an issue here it something that looked like a bomb to an untrained eye ;),
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But like I said earlier, had it been a white kid with a western name and went to a christian church, I'm willing to bet real money he wouldn't have been accused of making a bomb, just told to switch the thing off and put it away...

If identifying a bomb is the issue, then maybe people who made the accusations (teachers, police, etc.) need to be taught about what a bomb looks (and smells) like outside of fictional movies and TV shows, hell, I could buy a lump of grey plasticine, stick some coloured coiled wires into it and have a digital clock stuck to it, looks like a fictional bomb yes, but, it ain't real...

Infact, that's the most basic way to identify a potential bomb, a mass of something, be it a liquid in a bottle or a lump of clay-like material, the basic of basics are you need something that goes boom, the only "mass" in that kid's collection of wires was a 9V PP3, and unless you buy Duracell, they aren't exactly going to blow up...
 
Ok 2cv, forget all ive said your 100% correct and I am totally wrong again :(, I cant get nothing right :(.
 
Logic and common sense, that's all that's required, both of which are a rare commodity sadly...
 
2cvbloke said:
If identifying a bomb is the issue, then maybe people who made the accusations (teachers, police, etc.) need to be taught about what a bomb looks (and smells) like outside of fictional movies and TV shows, hell, I could buy a lump of grey plasticine, stick some coloured coiled wires into it and have a digital clock stuck to it, looks like a fictional bomb yes, but, it ain't real...

Infact, that's the most basic way to identify a potential bomb, a mass of something, be it a liquid in a bottle or a lump of clay-like material, the basic of basics are you need something that goes boom, the only "mass" in that kid's collection of wires was a 9V PP3, and unless you buy Duracell, they aren't exactly going to blow up...
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Indeed, that was my point, at the very least the police should at least have been able to see that it isn't a bomb, even if the teachers couldn't and it should never have gone further than that. No humiliating public arrests in front of the school or an illegal questioning session needed.
 
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