Question for the "Home of the Brave"

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After reading about 9th grade kid who built a homemade clock and brought it to school and got arrested, I can't hold back anymore. I have to ask these questions. Here in the "home of the brave," if it can be called as such, do people here fear and loathe too much, and why? What the hell happened to this country to sink this low?

I'm just saying this is disgraceful.

I does concern me, the criminalising of childhood.

The increasing use of police forces seconded to schools should be stopped, especially when in concerns school discipline which the schools are failing take responsibility for.

It is also a waste of police time a public money.

We were the home of the brave and "This flag don't Run". Now it is all fear all the time it seems.

I think people feared and hated this boy, not just because they thought his clock was a bomb, but because he's a dark skinned Muslim with a clock mistaken for a bomb. Were he a white, Christian kid, I think it would be doubtful anyone would have made a peep about the clock.

I have just read a UK newspaper article about this boy, which says hatred of Muslims is commmonplace and growing in the US. It is becoming violent. Should I believe what the press tell us?

This story doesn't seem to demonstrate an indictment of the school authorities or anything like that. If I ran into a thing that looked like that, without knowing what it was, I would freak. Pop culture has taught us to fear things that look like they were made by Wile E. Coyote. That's a good thing.

I doubt it. We've had Muslims/Arabs in this country for a long time. Had the kid been a WASP I'm betting the same thing would have happened since they get cuffed and dragged from school over silly s**t as well. It's more a combination of paranoia, CYA mentality, and just stupidity than racism,

A few years ago we had a rather long thread going about some elementary school in Michigan (I think) where school "authorities" confiscated a batch of birthday cupcakes someone had brought in because each one had one of those green plastic toy soldiers on top of it.
That's just one example but it's that kind of utter stupidity that does it.

If someone's intent is to be a bomber more thought is going to go into the bomb and it's employment. It's not a job for idiots to undertake with any hope of success. Freaking out over something in plain view that looks remotely like a bomb isn't doing anybody any favors.

It'll more likely be the kid no one ever notices that has a well designed bomb hidden in a false compartment sewn shut in the bottom or back of a backpack. It'll go BOOM without anyone ever being close to suspecting anything. That's the threat but there is no way to detect it without turning each school into the security equivalent of a maximum security prison. Who the f**k wants that?
The chances of getting struck by lightning are greater than being killed by a bomber. Why even worry about it?

I've just seen the Stand With Ahmed Facebook page. From now on this kid has it made.

Because the powers that be, on the right and on the left are fearmongers. That is how they stay in power. But your point about them treating a WASP the same way is well made. They would have, but because of how this went down, the professional race whiners are once again coming out of the woodwork.

While I think there is doubtlessly an increase, it's hardly a case where lynch mobs are threatening the lives of Muslim Americans. Then again, it probably matters more when taking into account region, as there was efforts by locals in Mississippi from allowing Muslims from building a new community center when they outgrew their old building, or in Texas, where locals set up pig racing outside a Mosque. In my neighborhood, I see Muslims in their traditional clothing at the store almost everyday, and nobody hassles them, so I think it really depends on the "where and the who."

The whole thing is pathetic - supposedly learned people (the teachers and the school administrators) who can't tell a clock from a bomb, not to mention the police who apparently can't either (but then they can't seem to tell a handgun from a cell phone, or a taser, so their failure here is less surprising). Of course, the idea that anyone thought there really was a bomb and yet didn't evacuate the school suggests that something else was going on or the stupidity involved here is even greater than just not being able to tell a bomb apart from a clock - i.e. not enough intelligence to evacuate the school if there's a bomb in the school.

How'd we get here? At its core, ironically, is a lack of education - after years of neglecting our schools now we're seeing the results - people too dumb to not do these things, people who have no practice engaging in critical thinking or forming their own opinion, who are thus gullible and easily manipulated, who look to religion and Fox News to tell them what to think and do and after all that we're left with people who combine xenephobia and paranoia into one disasterous cocktail.

Regardless of what motivated it, a bigger point is too much police involvement in schools.

Also people need to get real. Bombs aren't typically hooked up to an old fashion wind up alarm clock like in old movies, and even if it was there not real to assume it would be.

Home of the brave---somewhere you have to be brave to go to because of all the racism, xenophobia or general hatred you'll face. The world is full of homes of the brave.

Noöne, which means it's more fun to pick on some convenient scapegoat and make their life hell.

No more than against any other group.

I think based on the fact that most Americans attribute 9-11 to Muslims, and the Muslim stance of killing Christians and Jews (a very large percentage of American population are in these demographics) the attitude toward Muslims is mostly warranted.

While I dont necessarily share all the views of the populace at large, I see no reason to trust them either. However this incident is quite troubling as it indicates our level of hysteria is extremely high.

No more than against any other group.

I think based on the fact that most Americans attribute 9-11 to Muslims, and the Muslim stance of killing Christians and Jews (a very large percentage of American population are in these demographics) the attitude toward Muslims is mostly warranted.

While I dont necessarily share all the views of the populace at large, I see no reason to trust them either. However this incident is quite troubling as it indicates our level of hysteria is extremely high.