The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday cleared the police department to accept a donation of a “Spot” robo-dog thing from Boston Dynamics to help fight crime and shit, KTLA reports.
The robot, donated by the Los Angeles Police Foundation nonprofit booster group, will be deployed by the LAPD in response to “incidents involving active shooters, assessment of explosives, hostage situations, natural disasters, hazardous materials assessment, barricaded suspects and search and rescue missions,” but won’t actually have any weapons, lethal or otherwise, mounted on it. Yet.
Critics were already complaining that the robo-dog thing would be used to harass people in communities of color. “We know that we’re not going to see robo rover peddling up the streets of [rich neighborhoods] Brentwood or the Palisades,” said Paul Freedman of the LA Community Action Network. “This is going to be deployed in areas where we blow up firework semis.”
It’s not clear what the fuck Freedman was talking about with “blow up firework semis”, but it sure sounded like he enjoys blowing up semi trucks filled with fireworks, which is kind of crime-ish.