The humiliation of 9th grade student Ahmed Mohamed
The title of this article deliberately mirrors that of Dr. Jerry Coyne’s article at Why Evolution Is True. I agree with Dr. Coyne that we have created a society in which “infractions” that three decades ago when I was in primary school would have been ignored or, at most, resulted in a lecture about how to behave now result in police arrest. This is both counterproductive and idiotic.
We have to stop thinking in terms of “security at all costs”. I’m tired of taking off my shoes when flying. I’m tired of taking off my belt when reporting for jury duty at the San Jose Federal court. Which happened two years ago and will likely be repeated when I report for jury duty again this coming monday.
Below is the mail I sent to the Irving, TX police department prior to reading Dr. Coynes article.
to: lboyd@cityofirving.org, bredburn@cityofirving.org, jspivey@cityofirving.org, bjolley@cityofirving.org
date: Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 6:31 PM
subject: the arrest of 9th grade student Ahmed Mohamed
I’m a 54 year old white male software engineer who grew up in a middle class suburban family that attended a Protestant church. In other words I’m a member of a demographic you could reasonably expect to support you. Yet every time I read about incidents like the arrest of 9th grade student Ahmed Mohamed I become more firmly convinced the police cannot be trusted to exercise good judgement and it is reasonable for me and my neighbors to fear an encounter with the police.
In my opinion the officers involved in that incident are not competent to issue parking tickets let alone arrest people. And your department’s defense that
“It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”
and that you
wanted “a broader explanation” from the teen
is absurd. Hang your heads in shame.
P.S., I’m also appalled at the behavior of the school staff. Your officers should have defused the situation (pun intended) instead of escalating tensions. Get a fucking grip. </krader>
I’ve included the “religion” tag on this post because I strongly suspect that the skin color and name of the student, suggesting he is a Muslim, was a factor in how he was treated. I have no love for Islam. As an atheist I dislike all religions. Nonetheless I feel it is wrong to discriminate against a person solely due to the religion you believe they adhere to.