http://www.scribd.com/doc/290859889/2015-11-23-City-of-Irving-Demand-Letter
Demand Letter
Charles Anderson November 23, 2015 Page 8 overreaction was that the responsible adults involved irrationally assumed that Ahmed was dangerous because of his race, national origin, and religion.
Let’s face it; if Ahmed’s clock were “Jennifer’s clock,” and if the pencil case were ruby red bedazzled with a clear rhinestone skull
and crossbones on the cover, this would never have happened.
The Aftermath
The Irving ISD and City of Irving Police Officers with whom Ahmed came in contact that day were tasked with the same responsibilities toward Ahmed as they were for all the other students. Ahmed never threatened anyone, never caused harm to anyone, and never intended to. The only one who was hurt that day was Ahmed, and the damages he suffered were not because of oversight or incompetence. The school and city officials involved knew what they needed to
do to protect Ahmed’s rights. They just decided not to
do it. Their after-the-fact attempts to couch their
deliberate disregard of Ahmed’s rights as being motivated by concerns for the safety
of the other students has only added to the harm Ahmed and his family have suffered. Ahmed endangered no one. Some aspects of the damages Ahmed has suffered as a result of this are quite difficult to quantify with certainty, though they are clearly severe. It is difficult to say how much monetary damage is caused by any of the following: - Ahmed having his 14-year-old face superimposed onto a famous image of Osama bin Laden
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beard included
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appearing below a blogger’s rant against the “parents of this little terrorist in training;”
-
Ahmed being turned into Glenn Beck’s latest object lesson in how “this
is really kind of the final throes of weakening us to the point to where we
don’t ask any questions, to be ready for final con
frontation, total confrontation,
”
while Mayor Beth Van Duyne, listens and nods, putting her imprimatur
on Beck’s delusional conspiracy theories;
-
Ahmed being portrayed as the “Clock Boy” on a
Halloween costume website; -
having Ahmed’s name, and particularly his likeness, forever associated
with arguably the most contentious and divisive socio-political issue of our time; - Ahmed feeling the burden of responsibility for his siblings being harassed
and scared to go to school, for his father’s business suffering greatly from Mr. Mohamed’s absence, for one of his sisters being fired from her job,
and for neither of his older sisters being able to find schools in Qatar; and - the loss of security t
hat goes with having Ahmed’s Irving home address tweeted out, and being labeled on Beck’s show as “pawn” of the architects of a “global jihad.”
Charles Anderson November 23, 2015 Page 9 Other damages are more conducive to quantification. Ahmed and his siblings had the right to a free and adequate public education, just like every other American child does. Ahmed first attended Irving ISD in pre-K, and he and all of his siblings had gone to school nearly exclusively in the Irving ISD. When, two days after the incident, in coordination with the City, Mr. Cummings went onto the MacArthur High School intercom system and called Ahmed and his family liars, he took that opportunity away from Ahmed and all of his siblings. Ahmed also has suffered severe psychological trauma during his involuntarily separation from his grandmother and extended family. This trauma has since been amplified due to the global media attention this incident has gathered. Ahmed and his siblings know that his life has inalterably changed. Ahmed will now forever be associated with bomb making wholly without basis. Many believe that Ahmed and his family are terrorists, similar to those responsible for the September 11th attacks on the Twin Towers. This false characterization brings both short- and long-term challenges. In the short-term Ahmed fears for his physical safety after receiving many threatening emails. In the long-term, we adults should know that
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despite Ahmed’s efforts to be strong, and to prove that he is “a good boy” –
he will experience pain and suffering as result of this for the rest of his days. A large segment of potential employers will steer clear of Ahmed to avoid controversy, despite his many obvious talents. There is no other way to put it:
Ahmed’s reputation in the global
community is permanently scarred
. One also would anticipate that Ahmed, quite reasonably, will have a lifelong fear of the law enforcement and educational establishments that have let him down so terribly. Consider for a moment the true reason that Ahmed brought the clock to school. He was trying to impress his teachers. Anyone who has been around teenage boys knows that they are looking for leaders and mentors. They yearn to find acceptance in the results of their labors, whether it is in sports, the arts, or something technical. Ahmed was reaching out that day. Irving ISD and the Irving PD unceremoniously slapped him away, and then sought to cover their mistakes with a media campaign that further alienated the child at the center of this maelstrom. What must that do to a young man? Finally, Ahmed and his family lost their home. The address that was tweeted out for the entire world to see was the only home Ahmed and his five siblings had ever known. This family left their home in Irving because of a very rational fear for their physical safety. On an elemental
level, the Mohamed family’s life as any of them had known it evap
orated that day at the hands of the Irving ISD and City of Irving. While many people online were gleeful to see them leaving their home in Irving, Texas, U.S.A., Ahmed and his family miss Texas. They miss their friends. They miss their grandmother. They miss their extended family. They miss their neighbors,
many of whom cried hugged them as the Mohamed’s left their home.
They very much
appreciate the hospitality they have received in Qatar, but it’s not Texas.
In ways that are virtually impossible to comprehend, this thing turned the Mohamed
family’s lives upside down.
All semblance of what they knew before has vanished. But even after the scale of the eruption became clear, rather than trying to calm the waters, Irving ISD and the City of Irving launched a public relations campaign against Ahmed. They stoked the flames.
Charles Anderson November 23, 2015 Page 10 They tried to push responsibility off on the victim
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Ahmed. They have even implied publicly that what has come of this has been good for Ahmed, as though the resilience of this fine boy and his fine family somehow excuses what they did. It does not, for there is no excuse. As Justice
Clarence Thomas once said: “This is a high
-
tech lynching.”
Demand
As a result of the above-
described violations of Ahmed’s constitutional, sta
tutory, and common law rights, and the damages flowing from those violations, we demand the following: 1. Ten million dollars as compensation for the damages Ahmed suffered at the hands of the City of Irving and its employees. 2. A written apology from Mayor Van Duyne acknowledging that she has never
been presented with any evidence that Ahmed was a “pawn” in any “civilization jihad” or that the events here were planned by Ahmed’s family or friends as part of an “influence operation.”
3. A written apology from Police Chief Larry Boyd acknowledging that Ahmed Mohamed never intended to threaten anyone, and that his detention, interrogation, and arrest were wrongful and were made at a point in time when there was no reasonable suspicion to believe that Ahmed had committed a crime or was about to commit any crime. If you fail to comply with the above demands within sixty days from the date of this letter, you should expect that we will file a civil action addressing the causes of action and events described in this letter. If you have any questions concerning these matters, please do not hesitate to contact me. Very truly yours, Kelly D. Hollingsworth
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2015 05:06PM by Fox News.