http://twitchy.com/coucy/2023/09/22/nyc-mayor-eric-adams-unveils-large-roomba-with-a-camera-that-will-patrol-subway-stations-n2387612
It's no secret that New York has had a crime problem these past few years, or that much of that crime has been centered in and around the cities sprawling the underground subway system. The subway at night can be a scary place even at the best of times, but now New York Mayor Eric Adams and his administration think they've got a solution: a four hundred and twenty pound robot that will wander around the New York subway stations at a breakneck speed of 3 MPH recording stuff.
Robocop this ain't.
katie honan (@katie_honan) ~ NYCMayor with the robocop, which cannot make the heart with the mayor because it has no arms.
The large oddly shaped hunk of plastic will also be able to serve as a sort of mobile call box it seems, so you can have a blank expressionless plastic thing to scream into while you're being mugged underground. Do you feel safe yet?
The choice by Adams to pantomime making a hand-heart with something that has neither hands nor a heart is a fun one, making for one of the more awkward photographs in recent memory.
VICE (@VICE) ~ Mayor Eric Adams instructed the press to write, "Eric, job well done,” and then tried to make a hand-heart with the robot, which has no arms.
http://www.vice.com/en/article/k7znmw/nyc-mayor-announces-new-nypd-robocop-that-needs-a-cop-to-guard-it?utm_medium=social+&utm_source=VICE_Twitter
We have to assume that the reception this photo has gotten on Twitter can't be the one the Mayor had hoped for.
International Vaxed House of Demon Kat (@Demonkatz) ~Hope its affairs are in order cause it's gonna be under the 7 train soon.
[b]Hum (@humrashid) ~ This is a waste of New Yorker tax dollars. This mayor is insufferable.
Matthew “Dimpled chalice of Elmo tears” Arnold )@matthewmarnold) ~ The robot/AI apocalypse is going to be so dumb.
Rachel Jake (@dambvegetables) ~ They're gonna count vandalizing that thing as assaulting an officer aren't they?
Christian Finnegan (@ChristFinnegan) ~ It is every New Yorker’s civic duty to stick wads of gum on these camera lenses.
And this has to be the ultimate indignity for the poor 'bot.
Crittxr (@Crittxr) ~
http://twitter.com/i/status/1705228015620231321
Defunding the police hasn't seemed to have done much good to clean up the mean streets (and subways) of Gotham, but maybe throwing some money into a weird robot to patrol and beep at malefactors will do the trick.
But don't bet on it.