Yesterday,
the story of a 14-year-old hoping to impress his teachers with a
homemade clock who ended up in handcuffs instead turned Ahmed Mohamed
into an instant celebrity. Police have decided not to file “hoax bomb”
charges against Ahmed, but social networks are still seething with
outrage over the egregious treatment of a person of color
simply wanting to participate in technology.
The 14-year-old’s day ended not with praise, but punishment, after the school called police and he was arrested.
Ahmed talked to the media gathered on his
front yard and appeared to wear the same NASA T-shirt he had on in a
picture taken as he was being arrested. In the image, he looks confused
and upset as he’s being led out of school in handcuffs. “They arrested
me and they told me that I committed the crime of a hoax bomb, a fake
bomb,” the freshman later explained to WFAA after authorities released
him. Irving Police spokesman Officer James McLellan told the station,
“We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would
simply only tell us that it was a clock.” The teenager did that because,
well, it was a clock, he said. On Wednesday, police announced the teen
will not be charged. AT A PRESS conference today, police in Irving,
Texas, released this photo of the homemade clock 14-year-old Ahmed
Mohamed brought to his high school. Though police acknowledge Ahmed
never claimed the device was anything but a clock, they arrested him
anyway on suspicion of making a “hoax bomb.” Irving Police Chief Larry
Boyd said today the department wouldn’t be filing charges.
This photo provided by the Irving Police
Department shows the homemade clock that Ahmed Mohamed brought to
school, Wednesday, Sept.16, 2015, in Irving. Police detained the
14-year-old Muslim boy after a teacher at MacArthur High School decided
that the homemade clock he brought to class looked like a bomb,
according to school and police officials. The family of Ahmed Mohamed
said the boy was suspended for three days from the school in the Dallas
suburb. Social media reacts Outrage over the incident — with many saying
the student was profiled because he’s Muslim — spread on social media
as #IStandWithAhmed started trending worldwide on Twitter with more than
100,000 tweets Tuesday morning. The school’s Facebook page is roiling
with sharp criticism of the way the teen was treated, and the hashtag
#engineersforahmed is gaining popularity.
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Many criticized the school on Facebook.
Its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, posted his support. “Having the skill and
ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest.
The future belongs to people like Ahmed,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Ahmed, if
you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you. Keep building.”
Carl Bass, CEO of Software firm autodesk, asked Ahmed to make something with them.
Google Tweeted from its science fair
account, Google tweeted that it would save Ahmed a seat at the show (and
Urged Him to bring his clock)
Myself would have love to extend same
ivitation, my offers wont be too nice for you because We’ve got dogs and
gadgets and tons of other cool things to tinker with. We’d love to
build some digital clocks with you.
Thousand of other tweet from techies have been collected at the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed
