- Joined
- Jan 26, 2009
- Messages
- 1,584
FFS you two, get a room!! I'm pissed off with your pathetic squabbling!
It's like Punch and Judy, only not so funny.
More stimulating than mindless C&P, though.
FFS you two, get a room!! I'm pissed off with your pathetic squabbling!
It's like Punch and Judy, only not so funny.
FFS you two, get a room!! I'm pissed off with your pathetic squabbling!
It's like Punch and Judy, only not so funny.
EDIT: Myth is not part of 'you two'.
That reads like you see nothing problematical in the practice. Is that right? Even when it concerns minor offences and, indeed, minors? Is it not a tad heavy-handed?being handcuffed when arrested seems to be standard practice in the US even for minor offences, and in any event I don't think it amounts to "torture".
That reads like you see nothing problematical in the practice. Is that right? Even when it concerns minor offences and, indeed, minors? Is it not a tad heavy-handed?
How does an institution get pissed off? These almighty cock-ups come about when nobody is thinking straight but everybody thinks they have to do something or be blamed for inertia. Disquiet about anything must be reported to the designated person and the flow-charts of the designated person will reach a box that says something like "bomb? don't try to tackle this yourself!"
I'm drawing on experience of UK Safeguarding issues here but I suspect we have imported ours from the US. The climate of fear is more about keeping your job than terrorism but independent thinking of any kind will not be tolerated. The absurdity of this case is spectacularly evident but we are unlikely to get beyond the kind of blame culture which prevents a more nuanced and intelligent response.
Here's a case of a teenager charged with possession of naked pictures of himself! :banghead:
There was a New York Post article which I can't find right now
Hey kids! Are you Muslim? Want to visit the White House? Go to school with some terrifying-looking contraption!
dreeness said:The real message of all this:
Hey kids! Are you Muslim? Want to visit the White House? Go to school with some terrifying-looking contraption!
'Real' message suggest a kind of exclusivity of truth to me - and in this case that would ignore the fact that there are two distinct aspects to the story: the result, and the cause. The result may well be a ridiculous overreaction, but I think in many commentator's minds it has eclipsed examination of the cause.
Wow. I find it alarming that anybody calling themselves a Christian would even think of doing something bad to another person, regardless of what colour they are.I haven't read the links above and I'll refrain from suggesting any deeper message about the stories here - I just want to point out that there are places in the US (some in my home state) where, if you are non-white and non-Christian, you don't go after dark. It's not a myth. To my shame, I have relatives who live in some of these places who are quite open about what would happen to any non-white person they caught there. This isn't hyperbole, it's real live racial hatred, and it's ugly.
I agree, though I'm not sure how much it has to do with being Christian versus just hating Jews, Muslims, or any member of any other minority religion.Wow. I find it alarming that anybody calling themselves a Christian would even think of doing something bad to another person, regardless of what colour they are.
I agree, though I'm not sure how much it has to do with being Christian versus just hating Jews, Muslims, or any member of any other minority religion.
Some info on sundown towns here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town
The Surprising Backstory Behind #IStandWithAhmed’s 2-Time Sudanese Presidential Candidate Father
(...)
Incidentally, Ahmed’s family is no stranger to media attention.
The ninth grader is the son of Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, a Sudanese immigrant who has made headlines of his own over the years. A February 2015 profile in the North Dallas Gazette details the elder Mohamed’s activities.
(...)
Mohamed has also run for president of Sudan on two separate occasions. “When I went for the elections in 2010 they were rigid,” he told the North Dallas Gazette. “When I was there my country was worse than I had left it. I saw people starve, and babies, die, and women cry in Darfur. No peace. No justice. So I am back to save my Sudan, so help me God. I’m hope for my country to become great, and to reestablish good connections with America. My country is going through economic hardship because of the embargo, and I would like to lift it.”
(...)
He’d run again in 2015 on a National Reform Party ticket. An April 2015 Bloomberg report referred to the Texan as having “the most ambitious agenda” of the incumbent President Umar al-Bashir’s competitors. The article mentions that the would-be Sudanese president pledged that within 100 days of being elected he would negotiate the lifting of sanctions the U.S. imposed in the late 1990s because of alleged sponsorship of terrorism.
Neither Mohamed nor his party would end up appearing on the ballot.
(...)
Muslim leaders in Texas, meanwhile, doubted his claims to religious and scholarly leadership. “This so-called leader, we have never heard of this person,” Imam Zia ul Haque Sheikh, head of the Islamic Center of Irving, told the Seattle Times. “I believe the whole thing is made up.” In that same interview, Mohamed, who refers to himself as a sheikh, elaborated on his motivations for getting involved with Jones. “He said he agreed to serve as the defense attorney at Jones’ mock trial because the Quran teaches that Muslims should engage in peaceful dialogue with Christians,” the Seattle Times’ Annie Gowen wrote. “But there was also a more pragmatic reason. It was spring break and he wanted to take his wife and five kids to Disney World: to ‘kill two birds with one stone,’ as he put it.” He also claims he didn’t know the trial– in which the Quran was “found guilty” of “crimes against humanity”– would result in the Quran actually being set on fire. According to the Seattle Times, some of Mohamed’s small group of followers asked that he no longer lead prayers, while others refused to drive for his taxi company.
(...)
Whether or not the Mohamed family is living in a “free land” is up for debate. But this week, at least, they’re doing it on primetime TV.
http://www.okayafrica.com/news/istandwithahmed-mohamed-elhassan-mohamed-sudanese-father-backstory/
Oh dear...
What happens when a father is a publicity-addicted crackpot
who will do anything for media attention?
Don't see anything that excuses the treatment of Ahmed when the teachers & cops knew it was a clock & not a bomb.
I reckon this case is down to racism & bigotry.
Hmm,
Not necessarily mutually exclusive.
The kid's father appears to be an attention-seeker with delusions of grandeur and the family are basking in the media exposure. Parents such as this often push their kids into making statements of some sort.
The story as reported has changed somewhat. It turns out that the engineering teacher had expressed interest in rage device, but advised Ahmed not to show it around in case other teachers or students got the wrong idea. The problem arose not because he showed it to a teacher, as initially claimed, but because the alarm went off in a lesson.
The fact that teachers and police overreacted or reacted badly does not mean that it follows that there wasn't something else going on here, for example an attention seeking parent looking for more media coverage.
When I initially expressed scepticism at the story as reported, and asked for more context as to the events, it wasn't because I am a horrid racist or whatever else was being implied. It was because I have seen media feeding frenzies of this sort before, and there is inevitably something else going on and/or an angle which is not being reported.
Yes. The teachers and police are changing their stories.
On the basis of no evidence you were damning the boy. Even the fact that he refused to speak to the police other than to say it was a clock was enough to make him guilty as far as you were concerned. His right to silence and that the police shouldn't have questioned him without a parent being present was irrelevant to you.
If the teacher just didn't want Ahmed to show yhe clock around then why did the school first claim they thought it was a bomb and then that they thought it was a bomb hoax?
Why did the teacher let the boy be detained, arrested and led away in handcuffs if she had only told him not to show it around?
There appear to have been at least two teachers involved - the engineering teacher, who told Ahmed not to show the clock to others as they may get the wrong idea, and the English teacher who was taking the class when the alarm went off and apparently kicked the whole thing off. The principal and school administration were also involved. It wasn't one teacher going off piste.
I am neither determined to blame the kid nor to absolve the school from any blame. My criticism from the start had been for the media - both traditional and social - for hyping up an incident to fit a particular narrative - in this case genius Muslim boy persecuted by white America for no reason whatsoever. The reality, as ever, seems somewhat messier. The fact that the child's father is a well-known local political and religious activist who appears to court media attention may not be coincidental and at the least raises eyebrows. We have seen these sort of pushy parents influencing their kids and creating dramas before in lots of different scenarios. My point then and now is simply that we should avoid jumping on the outraged bandwagon which accompanies stories of this sort and retain some scepticism.
How he "invented" a clock:
Previously, his sister had been suspended from school for three days for threatening to blow up the school.
For many years, his father has tried very hard to be taken very seriously as a "sheikh", an Islamic scholar, and a Muslim Rights Activist. (With very little success.)
Brandishing a suspect device in a crowded public area, on the other hand...Claiming to have invented something is not a crime.
What law or laws are they alleged to have broken? And what law enforcement agency is currently investigating?In the meantime the facts are that the teachers and police acted illegally.
They would never guess.I am opposed to Islamists
Don't worry, maybe the next schoolteacher (or hotel clerk, or flight attendant) will hesitate to report suspicious activity, out of fear of a handful of chuckleheads who shout "Racism!" incessantly.
[IMAGE REMOVED BY MOOKS]
The "racist" police officer involved was African-American.
"ahmed mohamed" handcuffs - Google Image Search
Brandishing a suspect device in a crowded public area, on the other hand...
What law or laws are they alleged to have broken? And what law enforcement agency is currently investigating?
They would never guess.
I'm sorry Quake but the "new" story is identical to the one I heard at the start of this sorry state. That you've just found it makes your original sources inadequate.