TIL: Building a clock in Texas is illegal

[Ichinisan]

What does a teacher have to see before these actions would be appropriate?

Do they need to see anything at all? If not, there would be no reaction to bomb threats via phone / email.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Looks like Steve Jobs was a terrorist too. He made this bomb:

It even has big capacitors! Nobody needs capacitors that big! That tape deck is pretty suspect too, maybe it blows up when it reaches the end of the tape?

 

[WelshBloke]

Lol.

I cant believe that people are saying its OK to arrest people purely because they are carrying some electronics.

This is fucking hilarious.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah it's pretty sad. The US mentality is too much based on fear. The terrorists have won. It's beginning to be the same in Canada too. You should see the conservative ads, I wish they were a joke. Ex:

 

[WelshBloke]

Yeah it's pretty sad. The US mentality is too much based on fear.

This seems based more on pure stupidity and prejudice.

Its funny because its so stupid, its funnier because people are defending it. :awe:

I'm looking forward to someone being taken down by a full SWAT team because they were carrying their new video card home.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm looking forward to someone being taken down by a full SWAT team because they were carrying their new video card home.

Sadly I could almost see that happen. "Nobody needs a circuit board with that many fans on it, this has to be some kind of weapon of sorts!" :awe:

 

[Jeff7]

I've been saying for a decade now that terrorism is the new Red Scare.

Every generation needs some kind of moral panic issue to focus on. We don't have any large predators hunting us in the wild these days, and violent crime is fairly low, but our brains are still wired on some level to think that something is out to get us. Terrorism is extremely unlikely to harm any one person, but it's got people sufficiently paranoid to think that, coupled with their perfectly legitimate knowledge accumulated from primetime TV and movies with slapdash writing, a small electronic assembly is automatically a bomb.

Yeah...I used to travel on planes with a lot of computer parts, which of course looks like 80's action flick explosive controllers with all of the circuit boards & stuff to your average non-nerdy person. I would print out labels for everything & would always pull TSA aside to explain what I had in my bag before it went through so they wouldn't flip out because I didn't want to cause a commotion (never had a problem because of that).
...

Luckily it was in checked luggage, because this ultrasonic sensor might have caused a few problems in a carryon. (They don't care nearly as much about what goes into checked luggage. I had my carryon completely unpacked during one trip because I had a lot of electrical cabling in there. One airport didn't care. The return trip though, they needed the contents to be taken almost completely apart.)

The sensor is a metal cylinder with a button and some lights on the end, and a long cable coming out of it. You know, top-quality pipe bomb construction.
It doesn't have a countdown timer on it though, so going by movie logic, that means it can't possibly be a bomb.

Looks like Steve Jobs was a terrorist too. He made this bomb:

It even has big capacitors! Nobody needs capacitors that big! That tape deck is pretty suspect too, maybe it blows up when it reaches the end of the tape?

Cut to a tense scene of someone trying to scotch tape some more audio tape to the cassette before it gets to the end.

Then they find out that the person mistakenly built the thing with an auto-rewinding player, so it wouldn't go off anyway.

Lol.

I cant believe that people are saying its OK to arrest people purely because they are carrying some electronics.

This is fucking hilarious.

But if they do it enough, eventually they'll find someone who's truly guilty of something, and prevent a terrorist attack. Better to be 100% safe in a police state, I guess.

With datamining as common as it is, with no end in sight, at some point we'll be able to analyze someone's online habits and determine with 98.5% certainty that they'll commit a violent crime within 1 year. Then we'll be deciding if we want 100% certainty, 99%, 70%, or what, before preemptively arresting someone. Minority Report, without the wacky psychic aspect.

 

[WelshBloke]

But if they do it enough, eventually they'll find someone who's truly guilty of something, and prevent a terrorist attack. Better to be 100% safe in a police state, I guess.

Laughter is the enemy of fear. We need to keep pointing and laughing at these idiots as much as possible.

And everyone that goes along with them.

 

[z1ggy]

Laughter is the enemy of fear. We need to keep pointing and laughing at these idiots as much as possible.

And everyone that goes along with them.

It's a matter of how far people are willing to let their local (and federal) government go to "keep them safe". Only us rational folk who don't constantly live in fear of "terror" every day are the ones who can speak up when our freedoms slowly erode away.

 

[Exterous]

Then, at worst, there should be a short investigation and that be the end of it. To extend this into a suspension and potential criminal charge is asinine

That's all there was.

So about your reading ability...

he was suspended until Thursday.

So it's "asinine" to tell a kid that his device has the appearance of a hoax bomb and to tell him that there are possible consequences for building a hoax bomb?

Man - you and your reading ability again. I never said any of that. Unless you think you can't tell him that it has the appearance of a hoax bomb and that there are potential consequences without arresting him, suspending him, questioning him without his parents present etc.

 

[CZroe]

Lol.

I cant believe that people are saying its OK to arrest people purely because they are carrying some electronics.

This is fucking hilarious.

They aren't. Be honest. You know that.

They're saying that it's OK to check it out if it meets a certain level of suspicion.

 

[CZroe]

So about your reading ability...











Man - you and your reading ability again. I never said any of that. Unless you think you can't tell him that it has the appearance of a hoax bomb and that there are potential consequences without arresting him, suspending him, questioning him without his parents present etc.

You do know that "Suspended until Thurday" means "taken out of school for questioning and sent back the very next day," don't you? Who's reading abilities are in question here?

Sent home early due to questioning, basically.

Edit: I was under the impression that this happened on the 16th, which is when everything from social media and this forum to the Republican Presidential Debate blew up about it. It happened on the 14th, which was the very next school day since 9-11.

 

[waggy]

They aren't. Be honest. You know that.

They're saying that it's OK to check it out if it meets a certain level of suspicion.

oh everyone agrees to check it out. the school is in the shitty situation where they have to call it in.

Once the police investigate that should have been the end of it. they had no fear it was a bomb. the kid said it was a clock they even admit it looks like dismantled clock. i'm sure they talked to his engineering teacher who said it was a clock (wich is one reason they didn't call the bomb squad or clear the school). This should have been the end of it. Oh and they refused him his parents wich by law they can't do.

nope. the school suspended him. he was arrested and they were thinking of charging him (that won't happen now).

that is where it went from understandable to into the twilight zone. It went to far.

 

[waggy]

You do know that "Suspended until Thurday" means "taken out of school for questioning and sent back the very next day," don't you? Who's reading abilities are in question here?

Sent home early due to questioning, basically.

yeah and it shoujldn't have happened.

 

[CZroe]

yeah and it shoujldn't have happened.

Are you saying that they should not have investigated it as a possible hoax bomb? That's stupid. Hoax bombs are a big deal too. What if he was put up to it by SJW parents or something and coached to be evasive with his answers? It's pretty clear that he didn't assemble the electronics as he implied.

 

[sourceninja]

...

 

[twinrider1]

We live in such a litigious world these days, so I'm okay with the teacher thinking someone should look at the clock (no matter his race). But it's silly that it went any farther than that.

 

[Ichinisan]

Looks like Steve Jobs was a terrorist too. He made this bomb:

That would be Steve Wozniak.

It even has big capacitors! Nobody needs capacitors that big! That tape deck is pretty suspect too, maybe it blows up when it reaches the end of the tape?

Are you saying no one would mistake this for a hoax bomb if it was brought to school some time around the anniversary of 9/11? Of course this could also be mistaken for a hoax bomb.

 

[Ichinisan]

We live in such a litigious world these days, so I'm okay with the teacher thinking someone should look at the clock (no matter his race). But it's silly that it went any farther than that.

It didn't. It resembled a hoax bomb. They told the kid the implications of a hoax bomb. They decided not to charge him.

Everyone in the Blogosphere and social media lost their collective minds.

 

[waggy]

Are you saying that they should not have investigated it as a possible hoax bomb? That's stupid. Hoax bombs are a big deal too. What if he was put up to it by SJW parents or something and coached to be evasive with his answers? It's pretty clear that he didn't assemble the electronics as he implied.

no i did not say that or even hint it. They can investigate it without the suspension and arrest. There was no need to take it that far for something that appears to be a kid trying to get brownie points at school.

The clock looks to me like something a kid with some extra cash and a little knowledge would do. Nothing amazing but slightly better then what any other child could do.

 

[Ichinisan]

Lol.

I cant believe that people are saying its OK to arrest people purely because they are carrying some electronics.

This is fucking hilarious.

He was briefly detained and they explained the implications of a hoax bomb. They decided not to charge him with anything, and he's back in school today (Thursday).

You're deluding yourself if you don't think it looks like a hoax bomb. If this doesn't meet the qualifications for suspicion that it could at least be a hoax bomb, then nothing does.

Everything went right, but the Blogosphere and social media went batshit crazy.

 

[Ichinisan]

This seems based more on pure stupidity and prejudice.

Its funny because its so stupid, its funnier because people are defending it. :awe:

I'm looking forward to someone being taken down by a full SWAT team because they were carrying their new video card home.

Hyperbole at its worst. Sir, you should be ashamed of this nonsense post.

Sadly I could almost see that happen. "Nobody needs a circuit board with that many fans on it, this has to be some kind of weapon of sorts!" :awe:

"Durrrr yeah!"

 

[shortylickens]

I have the overwhelming urge to head on out, find a craft store, purchase a fat lump of modeling clay, and attach a kitchen timer to it.


But I'd probably get shot on the way home.

 

[Ichinisan]

oh everyone agrees to check it out. the school is in the shitty situation where they have to call it in.

Once the police investigate that should have been the end of it. they had no fear it was a bomb. the kid said it was a clock they even admit it looks like dismantled clock. i'm sure they talked to his engineering teacher who said it was a clock (wich is one reason they didn't call the bomb squad or clear the school). This should have been the end of it. Oh and they refused him his parents wich by law they can't do.

nope. the school suspended him. he was arrested and they were thinking of charging him (that won't happen now).

that is where it went from understandable to into the twilight zone. It went to far.

Once again, you're deluding yourself if you don't think that's what a hoax bomb would look like.

"Suspended" -- more like: taken out from school, questioned, and back at school the next day.

I agree with the decision not to charge him. Despite looking 100% like a hoax bomb would look, there's reasonable doubt that it was meant as a hoax bomb. Even that still doesn't mean it wasn't a hoax bomb meant to get exactly this reaction. For all you or I know, he might have actually hoped the whole school would go nuts, evacuate, and have bomb disposal experts detonate his clock. I'm glad it didn't go that far.

 

[bononos]

He was briefly detained and they explained the implications of a hoax bomb. They decided not to charge him with anything, and he's back in school today (Thursday).

You're deluding yourself if you don't think it looks like a hoax bomb. If this doesn't meet the qualifications for suspicion that it could at least be a hoax bomb, then nothing does.

Everything went right, but the Blogosphere and social media went batshit crazy.

It looks suspicious but the school and police were the ones that went batshit.

The skinny kid didn't need handcuffs. And the police together with the principle were browbeating him into making a statement that he made a hoax bomb. Why on earth wouldn't the principle ask the kid's science teacher about the clock project, but decided to pressure him into making a written statement and then take him down to the station to book him? They reacted like idiots and racists. Read the link from the OP.

And the school letter sounded like the school was patting itself on the back for a good job keeping the kid safe, what idiots.