FBI surrounds house of Saudi student after sightings of him with pressure cooker pot

I don't recall them treating them terribly either. They asked him why he was carrying around a recent used method to kill a bunch of people. Doesn't matter what his intention was, it's common sense that they'd respond to that. In fact the FBI would be incompetent by not responding someone "casually" carrying around a rice cooker. Don't blame those who try to protect us, but the terrorists that make us paranoid and take these necessary steps.

Akin to calling on someone having anything on a plane post 9/11. I agree. While it was a radical conclusion and an unfortunate circumstance for the kid, crying wolf after a wolf attack isn't a bad look.

Damn you all need a lesson in Racial Privilege 101. This typically manifests as white privilege, but in this case most anyone (well, men) who doesn't "resemble" the ethnicity of the Tsarnaev's (or Middle Eastern men, given the country's continued overanxiety towards such racial descent) is more likely to be targeted by paranoid citizens who assume anyone that fits that narrow, prejudiced visual bill is a prospective terrorist, regardless of their actual actions.

For example, if I was walking around with the same pressurized cooker pot, the chances of someone calling the FBI on me would be slim to none. In fact, with families visiting for Mother's Day this weekend, I'd bet TONS of people around the country, from all races and walks of life, were transporting pressurized cooker pots filled with wonderful food to share with their families. So why weren't they stopped?

Because they weren't of Eastern European/Middle Eastern descent. Because they weren't walking alone, like Oukaz. And because - and here's the kicker - they weren't 18-24, the same age range of students as the Tsarnaevs. Because Oukaz simply embodied these three physical and behavioral characteristics at this time, he was stopped and questioned. But none of them merit such a response.

It also bothers me a lot of you say you'd stop anyone carrying a similar pot who looked "shady" with it, or "without a certain reason you can see." Cooker Pots 101: they typically have lids on them to like PROTECT THE RICE, so how are you going to tell from a distance what is a "certain reason" or not? Are you just going to call the cops on anyone skulking around with a pot? Because I'm sure even if I made it look like I was surreptitiously creeping with one, I wouldn't be stopped. And the argument doesn't even work in this case, because Oukaz was actually using it to make rice to actually serve his friends.

Plus he's a student - he's a smart guy. Where in the article does it state he was shadily transporting this cooker? By the look and logic of the situation, Oukaz was probably walking quite normally with the pot as he was getting ready for dinner with his friends. So please explain to me how in this situation you could have determined he was carrying it around "without a certain reason you can see."

The "certain reason" you all claim to see is that he's a Middle Eastern student, you racist pimentos.

tl;dr if you claim to call "wolf" after a "wolf attack," then call it on every person carrying a cooker rice pot for whatever purpose, not solely a Middle Eastern student walking alone with one to serve his friends some goddamn rice.