Kids And Their Toys
When I was a kid I had a toy cap rifle that my grandmother got for me when she visited Colonial Williamsburg. It looked fairly real. From a distance I don’t know if you would instantly know it was a colonial replica as opposed to a working gun.
I would sometimes go down to the corner and shoot it “at” people. Why? Because I was a dumb kid who was given free reign in the neighborhood. Helicopter parents weren’t a thing yet. And my judgment was clearly suspect.
I was never stopped, arrested or even looked at askance.
Now, in Texas, we have a high school kid who built a clock for a school project. He didn’t act like he had a bomb, say he had a bomb, and, in fact did not have a bomb.
He takes his school project to, well, school. The thing is in his book bag and beeps. A teacher looks at it and thinks it looks suspicious, and therefore alerts the authorities.
When police arrive, they take the clock and question the student. The kid says it’s a clock, which, in fact, it is. The officers take the clock, and presumably figure out its not a bomb fairly quickly.
At this point, this could have all been no big deal. An overly cautious teacher overreacted, which is probably not that bad a thing.
But then, after a brief investigations, the police “logically” cuff the kid and take him to jail for having a device that someone may have thought was a bomb. Even though he didn’t say it was or act like it was and it was in his book bag. Which he had with him.
Oh and the school suspended him.
Why did all this happen? The student’s name is Ahmed Mohamed. And he was arrested for his school project choice.
I was a white kid with a decidedly non-Muslim name brandishing a rifle at passers-by. Nothing whatsoever happened to me.
Make your own conclusions.
Originally published at www.thehowlingmonkey.com on September 16, 2015.
