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A comment on 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School.

Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by austenallred on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @10:07AM (#10226664)
This hits way too close to home. Not because I have brown skin, or because I've ever been arrested for making "a bomb" that is not a bomb, but because when you're that age you're constantly surrounded and disciplined by people who don't understand you. Or what you're doing. Or why it's cool. I'd be willing to bet part of the reasoning around his arrest is, "Why would a student need to make his own clock?"

I wish I could reach out to the boy and say, "Hey, it gets way better. Later on you can surround yourself with people who not only understand but respect you. You get to spend all day building cool stuff, and you actually get paid very well to do so."

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by piqufoh on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @10:57AM (#10227063)
Exactly. To quote the Police spokesman; "He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation" and "The concern was, what was this thing built for?"

Why shouldn't he make his own clock?! Why does there need to be a 'broader explanation'? How can one develop an interest in anything if you must first provide an adequate explanation? sigh

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by soggypretzels on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @11:13AM (#10227190)
Why are you trying to teach me English? This teacher should be arrested for trying to overthrow the government... What is the "broader explanation" for this English textbook?
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by swagswag on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @01:43PM (#10228404)
Communicate with others.
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by masklinn on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @02:15PM (#10228622)
Sounds like a way to organise the overthrow of the government. Are you some sort of community organizer?
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by _nedR on Thursday September 17, 2015 @02:00AM (#10231786)
We got a commie here!
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by puranjay on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @03:47PM (#10229302)
Man, have these people never heard of "art for art's sake"?

Why does anyone do anything that isn't obviously beneficial?

Why climb K2? Why spend years writing a book only a handful will read? Why paint? Why make free software? Why modify a car?

Everything about this damn incident is making me angry

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by zerohm on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @02:36PM (#10228772)
I shudder to think what this Police Spokesman would do to a kid that made a full adder in Minecraft!
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by owen_griffiths on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @11:16AM (#10227216)
And those guys learning to fly the planes without the landing, why can't that just be an interest! With terrorism, if you want to avoid false negatives, you are going to have a lot of false positives.

NB I totally agree it would be a douche move to charge this kid with some BS, but investigating unusual behavior is much more understandable.

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by peu4000 on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:29PM (#10227806)
Right, but this is a child who is an American citizen, not a Saudi who's been in the country for a few months.

I mean, I can't imagine what kind of monster automatically jumps to bomb when a kid makes a clock. Is that how we want to live, constantly being suspicious of everyone different?

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by bosdev on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:21PM (#10227729)
It seems pretty logical to me that we would treat people who want to learn to fly without landing differently than a teenager who builds a clock.
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by kjdal2001 on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:21PM (#10227723)
Clock ownership and general interest in technology are neither suspicious nor unusual behaviors.
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by leohutson on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @07:31PM (#10230701)
> if you want to avoid false negatives, you are going to have a lot of false positives.

Not necessarily, because the more people you alienate, the more enemies you create, and the more genuine threats you will face.

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by X-Istence on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:54PM (#10228002)
The Hacker Manifesto by The Mentor from Phreak Magazine still applies:

http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by krupan on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @07:30PM (#10230697)
I can't believe I had never seen that until now. Thank you for sharing.
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by technomalogical on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @11:42AM (#10227432)
You can: Anil Dash setup a Google form for people to leave messages of support. I encourage you to leave your own kind words: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ws7e8WyQvrsLfhSFvdGot3n9NWK...
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by tomjen3 on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:10PM (#10227636)
I would like to do a little more than reach out to him. He is a nerd and we should protect members of our tribe who are in trouble.

Can we make a go found me for getting him into a private school?

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by puranjay on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @03:48PM (#10229316)
Reports say that his family is does pretty well for itself.

He's also been invited to the White House afaik. That should be a confidence booster :)

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by tschlossmacher on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:31PM (#10227819)
AMAZING IDEA.
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by throwaway1967 on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @01:26PM (#10228280)
That's a great idea, get it started and the kid will have $100 from me.
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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by balls187 on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:35PM (#10227844)
> I wish I could reach out to the boy and say

He's on twitter.

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