Host Chris Hayes on MSNBC gave Chief Boyd the opportunity to admit the officers' mistake and appoligize to Ahmed. But, instead the chief decided to defend the arrest, saying "The officers made the decision they did with the information they had with what they thought was right at the time. We are clearly going to review this. We want to always look at ways we can enhance and have a better outcome. There’s a lot of decision points, there’s a lot of alternatives that they have available to them."
"Once it’s determined that this is just a clock or just a piece of electronics, why then the arrest and all of that?" the MSNBC host asked Boyd. "That’s very hard for folks to understand."
"I get that. I understand the concern," Boyd acknowledged. "The officers pretty quickly determined that they weren’t investigating an explosive device. What their investigation centered around is the law violation of bringing a device into a facility like that that is intended to create a level of alarm. In other words, a hoax bomb — something that is not really a bomb, but is designed and presented in a way that it creates people to be afraid."
"Right, but he never called it a bomb, right?" Hayes returned. "He just kept calling it a clock. I mean, it never came out of his lips, he never did something or started showing it around saying, ‘Look at this bomb I have.’ He said, ‘Look at my clock.’"
"There definitely was some confusion and some level of information that didn’t come out immediately," Boyd defended. "With what they had at that time, they made the best decision that they had at that point in time," he continued.
No bomb squad was ever called to the MacArthur High School campus, nor did the police ever consider evacuating the campus. So, just how much did racism by the police play a part in the arrest? For me the answer seems obvious.
