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"Clock Boy" Ahmed Mohamed Seeking $15 Million In Damages

phrackthat writes: The family of Ahmed Mohamed, the boy who was arrested in Irving, Texas has threatened to sue the school and the city of Irving if they do not pay him $15 million as compensation for his arrest. To refresh the memories of everyone, Ahmed's clock was a clock he disassembled then put into a pencil case that looked like a miniature briefcase. He was briefly detained by the Irving city police to interview him and determine if he intended for his clock to be perceived as a fake bomb. He was released to his parents later on that day and they publicized the matter and claimed Ahmed was arrested because of "Islamophobia".

40 of 818 comments (clear)

  1. Integrated very well by Brama · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How much more American can you get?

    1. Re:Integrated very well by andymadigan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, he's moving to Qatar, so apparently he doesn't like the idea of being American anymore. I can't blame him for that, but I have no sympathy for someone who complains their civil rights have been violated and then moves to a country that still practices slavery.

      He shouldn't get a cent.

      --
      The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
  2. Re:Litigious Much by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    >> $15 million? I sure hope he plans on donating a lot of that to science

    Or...he could STFU and leave it with the local school district...which would use it to teach science.

  3. Re: Litigious Much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What did you like about him? His ability to order a clock off the internet, his ability to take it apart, his ability to have his family involved with Cair, perhaps his fathers ability to be involved in failed lawsuits against the city and its manager for the past 2 years, or maybe his ability to get suspended less than 48 hours after being let back in from a previous suspension at a different school?

  4. Fantastic way to lose all sympathy by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No way the school district is going to pay 15 mill to this family that has already emigrated to Qatar. It will probably cost a few thousands in lawyer fees. On the other hand, that clock boy is going to lose all sympathy from most people. It lends credence to the accusation that the boy's father, a presidential candidate in south sudan or chad or some such place is quite media savvy and has manipulated the media and gamed the system.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  5. Lawyers by ardmhacha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am sure that this is all his own idea and no lawyers were involved in the decision to sue for $15 million.

  6. Re:That won't last long... by grahamsz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I assume there's some desire to make it punitive. He was only treated that way because he was perceived to be a Muslim - I bet the school district can't point to a bunch of other cases where white kids have brought in electronics projects and had the police called. I imagine i'm not alone in the slashdot demographic as someone who brought random electronics to school, yet I never got anywhere close to arrest because of it.

    I don't think it matters if the whole thing was orchestrated to show the school district was discriminatory. It appears that they are, and they should have to pay the price of that.

  7. Reads like a script by tompaulco · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This whole story since the day after the incident reads like a script from exactly what the tinfoil hat crowd said would happen. His father is laughing all the way to the bank and laughing at the foolishness of gullible Americans. They not only duped the SJW crowd, but even duped Obama, and they have already cashed in on their successful plan and sounds like they will continue to do so via a lawsuit. Even though there weren't any actual damages, it will be cheaper for the school district to settle, and then raise taxes so that they can afford to keep the school functioning for the other students in the district.

    --
    If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    1. Re:Reads like a script by DarkOx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They not only duped the SJW crowd, but even duped Obama

      Obama is a member of the SJW crowd. The more I listen to him the clearer it is he has never a thought of his own. He has been spooned leftist nonsense from birth and learned to repeat it, sometime eloquently. We should just put a picture of him next to 'Social Justice Warrior' in the urban dictionary.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  8. What is the option by sjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, suing a school just de-funds the school, but what is the option? How else can you force the school to come to terms with the fact that it's principal is a braying ass? You're not allowed to sue a school to force it to re-train or replace a bad teacher or administrator.

  9. Re:Litigious Much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So I'm white and got in trouble all the time as a kid for being a nerd and building/assembling poorly designed shit that looked like a bomb or otherwise dangerous even though it was completely benign. Where do I collect my hundreds of millions of dollars, or are you all a bunch of filthy racists?

  10. Re:WHERE CAN I CHECK MY WHITE PRIVILEGE?!? by swb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I keep trying to play on the relentless oppression of my German people since the Roman empire and how this is a crime that hasn't been addressed and has been repeated over the centuries, from the 100 years war, the Napoleonic wars, the anti-German discrimination against German Americans during and after WW I, the internment of Germans during WW II.

    My people are being picked on, and it's been going on FOR MILLENNIA and I deserve a check in the mail.

  11. gone and stay gone by harvey+the+nerd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The kid and his dad are provocateurs who deliberately baited the school teachers. Dad's sounds like he's been wanting to leave for a long time, probably spent his time dreaming this s**t up. They get nothing and need their visas pulled as undesirable aliens.

  12. Re:That won't last long... by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Ahmed was not detained. He was arrested. At no point would he have felt that he was free to go. Also, 'twenty minutes' seems to be the rule of thumb for how long somebody can be 'detained' before it turns into a de-facto arrest.

    Ahmed was hauled off in cuffs, for zero reason. The American legal system specifically puts a dollar value on damages, as well as having the idea of putative awards. Ahmed deserves both.

    --
    Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  13. Re:That won't last long... by grahamsz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I believe that he is, but i'm not sure the school has the right to demand to know the religion of students.

    Honestly it's likely because he had brownish skin. I wouldn't by surprised if a Christian from the middle east would face much the same discrimination.

  14. Citation required. by Brannon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This smells like bullshit to me.

  15. Re:That won't last long... by grahamsz · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Since when does the quality of his work have anything to do with the discriminatory behavior?

    Sure it was a shit science project, but the question is: "would the school district have behaved the same way if he was white?". If they claim they weren't discriminating then they can surely find examples of other students who've been subjected to the same scrutiny for their projects.

    I brought things at least that bad to school, and the worst i got was told to not be screwing with them during class.

  16. Re:More like $100k by Holi · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This, This why his law suit should go nowhere. To sue for damages one has to show they were financially damaged. Good luck proving that a full scholarship is somehow a financial hardship.

    --
    Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  17. Sympathy only goes so far. by MAXOMENOS · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The school district acted inappropriately. A written apology is warranted. But even I want to tell the kid's family to GTFO at that price tag.

  18. Citation needed. by Brannon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's a good story and all, but is it true?

  19. Re:That won't last long... by hawguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Um, the majority of nerds I knew growing up had the same exact issue. The only difference is none sued.

    They same exact issue? They were questioned for 90 minutes, accused of making a hoax bomb, then taken away in handcuffed to be processed at the police station? Are you *sure* it was the same?

  20. What if it was a bomb? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    He was not making a alarm clock - as was widely reported.

    Rather, he took an off-the-shelf alarm clock, and made it look like a bomb. He did this very deliberately.

    Should the school have ignored, what could have been a bomb, because the kid was a Muslim?

    What sort of litigation would there have been if it was a bomb, and the school did nothing?

  21. Re:Money isn't enough by phrackthat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The police don't have to prove that anyone thought it was a bomb. They only have to show that there was probable cause to believe that Ahmed intended for the device to be perceived as a bomb. Given that his sister had been suspended for threatening to blow up the school and Ahmed had been suspended just two days prior at another school and the fact that the clock was not his design and clearly not intended to function as a clock (as the housing, which looked like a briefcase, would keep one from reading the clock face), they should have little to no problem to show probable cause (which under the law is not 51% probability, just a substantial possibility).

  22. Re: Litigious Much by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, I think I can answer, for everyone, what people liked about him. His desired to take apart a clock he bought.

    Did he really have that desire? Were his motives pure? I dunno. But that's what people are identifying with.

    --
    Your ad here. Ask me how!
  23. Damn straight he should sue for 15M. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The morons who arrested him for NOT MAKING A BOMB. That's right, THEY ALREADY KNEW IT WAS NOT A BOMB. They will ONLY listen if they're hit hard. And the morons who voted them in will vote them in again unless the voters are punished, so it has to be enough money that taxpayers will notice the sting.

    Damn straight sue for millions. Shit, he should sue for ten times that at least.

    It's the only way to make morons who don't get affected by this moronic thought police notice that it's a tragically stupid idea.

  24. Venom by ichthus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Who is responsible for my fear of snakes? Venomous snakes.
    Who is responsible for my Islamophobia? Jihadists/Islamic "extremists"/Islamic terrorists.
    If Muslims want to decry rampant Islamophobia, they should stop being the assholes of planet Earth.

    --
    sig: sauer
  25. Re:That won't last long... by WheezyJoe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    THIS. My bet is they did not once ask him to name his religion or what religious establishment his parents drag him to each week. Nor would they have cared what his answer was. It wouldn't have mattered if had a stack of Joel Osteen books in his locker and a card-carrying member of the "700 Club"... he LOOKS LIKE one of 'em terrerists ya see on TV, and had the NERVE to come to school with a thing with wires and flashy lights on it.

    --
    Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
  26. Re:Litigious Much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    #whitelivesdontmatter

  27. Re: Litigious Much by Oligonicella · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Well, I think I can answer, for everyone"

    No... You cannot.

  28. Re: Litigious Much by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Cool, what else is admirable about him?

    --
    Your ad here. Ask me how!
  29. Scientific method was also promoted by clergy by drnb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What, PRECISELY does him being a Monk have to do with religion not being antithetical to science? Because science means questioning (and looking for the answers in evidence, IOW "that which is seen"), ...

    Yeah, the scientific method, guess what ... in Europe various members of the clergy were partly responsible for its widespread adoption. A bishop in London comes to mind, don't recall the name. Sorry, most Christian denominations don't see science and religion as being in conflict, they study orthogonal topics. These religions specifically state that the discoveries of science, the observations of the workings of nature, are not in conflict with faith.

  30. Re:Bullshit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    An exposed circuit that has a direct line to 120V is not a toy. The fact he was told to put it away and he continually disregarded the instructions to make things worse shows he was stupid. It was also pretty stupid he disguised it, and also refused to explain what it was / what he was doing when questioned. The arrest was completely legitimate due his disregard to instructions and his resistance to ascertain the facts. No one said he was a threat--that is a distortion in the media.

  31. Re:Litigious Much by drnb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With respect to Lemaître we are talking the 1920s. He had studied civil engineering, math and physics. Had a doctorate. He was a WWI vet, a former officer. I don't think becoming a priest was necessary for him to find room and board.

  32. Re: Litigious Much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The whole thing pained me so much. Everyone acted like the 'Little Boy Who Would Get Us To Mars' had been traumatized so much that he would now give up his future career as a scientist.

    The kid took a clock out of its plastic case and mounted it into a different case. WTF?

  33. Re:Litigious Much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    On the other, other hand, my motives were authentic unlike "Clock Boy," who seems to have had questionable motives ascribed to him without supporting evidence.

    FTFY.

  34. Re:Litigious Much by drnb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He was not doing cosmological research when in the army, however he was doing cosmological research as a priest and a professor at a catholic university. Research done with the full knowledge and support of his church, including some funding. A church that fully embraced his discovery. A church that continues to participate in and support serious cosmological research.

  35. Re:A cheaper solution by wisnoskij · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That just stupid. They should of blown him up, then said that he suicided himself with his briefcase bomb.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  36. Re:Litigious Much by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You DO realize that he's moving to Qatar right? The worst school in America isn't gonna be as religiously batshit and backasswards as a country under Sharia.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  37. Re:That won't last long... by AK+Marc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've heard of him. Like the terrorists in France, he was the son of immigrants. Proof that sealing the borders is the *only* option.

  38. Re: Litigious Much by Sun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's because people are ignorant.

    The learning process starts where he did. Take something apart, try to put it together. Hailing him as a genius was being carried away, but labelling him a terrorist was even worse. This is how children learn. It's how we want children to learn.

    Anyone who expects a child that has never learned proper electronics to build an electronic clock from scratch on first attempt is simply ignorant.

    Shachar