Blaming the wrong people

We all remember the "Clock Boy" incident where a young,` yes Muslim,high school student disassembled an alarm clock threw it in a shoe box then took it to school? Though technically he didn't "build" anything, he took something partially apart and put it in a different box. He did absolutely no electronic assembly what-so-ever. even I could disassemble a clock and throw it in a metal box and say I built new clock.It had wires coming out of it and it did look weird, though I wouldn't have called it a "bomb" Of course in this day in age the school thought it looked suspicious when he showed the clock to the teacher, the teacher warned him having something like that might concern people. It did and he was sent to the principal's office where the principal said the "invention" looked dangerous and called the police. This was after he was given plenty of time to explain to school officials what the device could do, and refused. Let's be absolutely clear here  the school called the police and described the device looked like a bomb  to them. The police arriveed and again gave "Clock Boy" a another chance to explain, he refused and they arrested him.  It took a long time for "Clock Boy" to finally explain himself, The charges were dropped the same day with an apology, if they were ever even officially filed.

Within a few days news spread with the usual twist, police 'profiled" another Muslim for just using his "gifts".Once again the "police acted stupidly" and now the City or Irvine Texas has to pay. They trampled on the constitution.President Obama invited "Clock Boy" to the White House to show off his "?invention". Clock Boy got calls from tech companies and colleges, all for disassembling a common digital alarm clock. However I need to point something out here, the school should be the focus of the lawsuit, not the police. Of course the lawsuit is filed against "The City of Irvine" which incorporated both the school and the police, but let's be clear going after the police is much more attention grabbing than going after  than school district. The police protocols are under attack, not how the school reacted. The picture of  "Clock Boy" being taken away in handcuffs will be center stage, because there are no pictures of him being questioned by the principal. We often lecture how we should never "blame the victim" however I believe a number of the school "incidents" don't get the attention until the police get involved. That way if something goes wrong we can always blame the perfect scapegoats.....the police

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Grandma in Florida

My dad and I are in Florida for the month of March because the wnters in Cape May are horrible. I also can't stand dad complaining about the wind up there 24/7. So a few years ago my mom started looking at places to rent or even eventuall buy. We were down here during the very beginning of COVID so while we flew down, we drove back. Later it was  determined we would drive down, something my father always wanted to do. So this year my father was determined so with a lot of planning (not really) he mapped out a three  day road  trip fro, Cape May down to West Palm Beach. We took the ferry .over to Delaware and proceeded down to an overnight in North Carolina and another somewhere in Georgia. I managed to pick up seven new counties in Georgia and North Carolina. No bad if you ask me By now you're wondering what this has to do with my Grandma. Well when my grandparent got older they bought a house in Naples, Florida.   They beccame snow birds, just like most people in their seventi
More Posts to Mattes's Madness

One Contact - Five Lighthouses--W9C

Back in the summer I wrote an entry in here about my Lighthouse phone contact with Bill,N8ET , so now I had to top that with a five lighthouse PSK contact in Wisconsin! I was orginally going to wait until I got the card like my other contacts but I think at this stage of the game you can take my word for it. This contact was with a husband and wife team also known as "Team Cheese"--WI9TC (I love the callsign). Like the contact with Bill, they were in the line of sight of five lighthouses located on the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan. As soon as I saw them on the BeaconBot (the e-mail reflector used to notify people of lighthouse activations-) I knew I had to take my best shot. There were tons of stations dying to get a contact. Well after some monitoring of the waterfall and waiting for a break in the QSO's, I dropped my call. Unfortunately I was getting overpowered a lot so I actually wound up waiting for quite awhile. Although I have to admit it was also fun just
More Posts to Mattes's Madness

Twenty Seven years later

If we've been friends on Facebook for more than a year you'll know I have told this story countless times. However it's a story worth telling since it'sa how I started writing. I was having dinner wi th a girl from high school. on the way home we stopped by Fusco's Market to get her cigarettes and I got a root beer. I got home to find my dad sleeping on the couch while my mother and brothers were out. I went upstairs, just started typing and never stopped/ A year later she wrote in my yearbook "Just keep doing what you're doing, smiling, writing and touching my life." I have ,written articles, spoken in front of Congress, written poetry for countless people, and done so much more. I admit my writing sometimes gets me into hot water; Here it is twenty seven years later and I'm still doing what I promised her! People say my writing is a gift so it's fitting I started the night before my 19th birthday!! Cheers to 46!! (it's tomorrow)
More Posts to Mattes's Madness