At a press conference today, police in Irving, Texas, released this photo of the homemade clock 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed brought to his high school. Though police acknowledge Ahmed never claimed the device was anything but a clock, they arrested him anyway on suspicion of making a “hoax bomb.” Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said today the department wouldn’t be filing charges.
The story of a 14-year-old hoping to impress his teachers with a homemade clock who ended up in handcuffs instead turned Ahmed Mohamed into an instant celebrity. Police have decided not to file “hoax bomb” charges against Ahmed, but social networks are still seething with outrage over the egregious treatment of a person of color simply wanting to participate in technology.
Along with the outrage, however, has come an outpouring of support from technology’s biggest names.
“Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post that went up on his personal page today. “Keep building.”
Marc Andreessen, co-founder of prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, tweeted a sly joke about the potato clocks he hacked on as a kid before turning his Twitter feed into a supportive retweet storm.
From its Science Fair account, Google tweeted that it would save Ahmed a seat at the show (and urged him to bring his clock).
Master tweeter Aaron Levie, CEO of enterprise cloud company Box, also extended an invitation:
Carl Bass, CEO of software firm Autodesk, asked Ahmed to make something with them:
Thousands of other tweets from techies have been collected at the hashtag, #IStandWithAhmed.
We at WIRED want to extend the same invitation. Ahmed, if you do end up visiting Silicon Valley or San Francisco, come by our offices and hang out! We’ve got dogs and gadgets and tons of other cool things to tinker with. We’d love to build some digital clocks with you.
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Obama Invites Teen Clock-Maker to White House After Arrest
Earlier today, the President added to the groundswell of support Mohamed has received on social media:
Whether the White House will follow up on that offer is unclear. But President Obama isn’t Mohamed’s only high-powered supporter.
In response to his followers, Mohamed Tweeted a heartfelt—and heartbreaking—message of his own:
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Maker Kid Busted for Clock Handcuffed Wearing NASA T-Shirt
Hoping to show off his tech skills to teachers at his school in Irving, Texas, by bringing in a homemade clock, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was instead arrested on suspicion of building a “hoax bomb.” When The Dallas Morning News interviewed Ahmed in his room, he was “fiddling with a cable while a soldering iron dangled from the shelf behind him.” In case his Maker cred needed any more cementing than that, note the t-shirt he was wearing when he was brought to juvenile detention. LINK
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