161–170 of 225 posts
Isn't this just a remotely controlled gun? If we'd be talking about AI making its own decisions that's a different thing. In addition to this I feel better decisions would be made when the person holding the gun isn't threatened by his or her life.
Cops in america already shoot way too many people. Do you think giving them the ability to do that from a remote location is going to help?
I can't possibly imagine how anyone thinks this is a good idea. US police are already over-militarized and under-accountable. We as Americans need to stop worshiping "men in uniform" including all levels of law enforcement and military and hold them to the same standard as any other member of society -- stop giving them everything they want and stop spoiling them when they call us unpatriotic.
I agree that killer robots are a bad idea. Asking a cop to walk into an active shooter situation isn’t great either.
I don't think valuing a cop who doesn't want to do their job, but still demands to keep it, over innocent civilian lives that they were hired to protect is a great situation, either.
Delivery drivers have more dangerous jobs than police officers do, and they're asked to walk into situations where they can be murdered, and are statistically more likely to be than cops, literally everyday, multiple times a day.
Cops are often the highest paid employees on a government's payroll, and it is very common for over 50% of a municipality's total budget to go towards cop salaries and benefits. In my state, cops earn a median salary of over $105,000 a year before overtime, bonuses or benefits, and they can earn over $250,000 a year with overtime. They can retire after only 20 years of working with a full pension that they can draw from for life. In my area, they're also given special mortgage rates of about 2% versus the more common ~6%+ as of late. For comparison, software engineers in my state only have a median salary of $89,000.
Delivery drivers barely make minimum wage, they often have no benefits, and their employers tend either pay them off the books or classify them as independent contractors.
Cops are rewarded even more handsomely than military members are, for the very miniscule risk they take on. This is what they signed up for, often because the rewards are that good.
When people say "defund the police" this is the kind of shit they are talking about. There is no reason for a police force to have access to lethal robots. None.
I can't possibly imagine how anyone thinks this is a good idea. US police are already over-militarized and under-accountable. We as Americans need to stop worshiping "men in uniform" including all levels of law enforcement and military and hold them to the same standard as any other member of society -- stop giving them everything they want and stop spoiling them when they call us unpatriotic.
The military is held to a much, much higher standard than regular law enforcement. Their rules of engagement are much stricter.
See also quite a few murdering of civilians conducted by private military contractors such as Blackwater (now Constellis; in particular the Nisour Square massacre). Some were charged for the crime they committed (or for a lesser crime of manslaughter) but were later pardoned.
Since this is HN it is also obligatory to mention Chelsea Manning who leaked many crimes committed by the military (in particular the murdering of the journalists Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen from an attack helicopter). She was the only person convicted for that incident. Nobody was charged with the murder of the journalists. (But they did [finally] charge Julian Assange for helping Chelsea Manning reveal these crimes to the public).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Train citizens to drive robot non-lethal surveillance drones, do paperwork, cut funding for rage prone meat bag policing. Maintain minimum required force of trigger happies for all the shooting scenarios. Our secular society isn’t anymore sacrosanct than religious based choices. It should be readily reorganize-able as logistics demand. Optimizing for 24/7 status quo politics, profit margin optimizing and rent extract…
> Train citizens to drive robot surveillance drones, do paperwork Aka hire more cops. A cop in the US is just a citizen with 3-6 months of tactical and paperwork training.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The military is held to a much, much higher standard than regular law enforcement. Their rules of engagement are much stricter.
> The military is held to a much, much higher standard than regular law enforcement. Their rules of engagement are much stricter. I respect the military much more than I do the police, but it would still be a good idea to cut down on the fetish made at least of militarism for its own sake (a big, though probably not the main, part of the problem with US police forces).
What I find funny if not sad is when both law enforcement and militia types follow suit, or at least try to.
There's nothing more pathetic than overweight law enforcement that can't even run a mile decked out in camouflage tactical gear they barely know how to use, with the wrong attitude thinking they're an operator or some such.
It's like institutionalized stolen valor almost, they want the honor and respect without the level of hard work actual Special Forces put into it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bystanders. You can't bet someone elses life based on how well a taser may or may not work. LTL is a real dice throw.
People do not in fact immediately fall over just because you shoot them. The idea of shooting someone with a pistol or rifle caliber to stop them from doing something in a split second is firmly a movie trope.
Another dramatic example, which I read about in the wonderful "Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present" [2] is the death of the 1930s bank robber Baby Face Nelson.
He got in a shootout with two FBI agents. They shot him in the abdomen. He then advanced on their position while they continued shooting at him, hitting 8 more times in the legs. Still he managed to keep going and killed one of the agents and seriously wounded the other (who would later die of his wounds, as would Nelson).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiff:_The_Curious_Lives_of_Hu...
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Bloodletters-Badmen-Narrative-Encyclo...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree that killer robots are a bad idea. Asking a cop to walk into an active shooter situation isn’t great either.
Why not make a robot that takes down the shooter? Doesn't need to kill. Just tackle the person and pin them down. A bit of armor would do it, right?
When people say "defund the police" this is the kind of shit they are talking about. There is no reason for a police force to have access to lethal robots. None.
Well, they probably are looking into this because they were defunded and don't have enough officers.
https://abc7news.com/sfpd-budget-defund-the-police-departmen...