Homemade Robot Patrols Atlanta Streets 324
Josh Fink brings news of an Atlanta resident who has created a remote control robot to scare off criminals during the night. Rufus Terrill, an engineer, uses it to patrol the streets and encourage drug dealers and other shady characters to move on. Local residents call it his "Robocop." From CNN:
"It's a barbecue smoker mounted on a three-wheeled scooter, and armed with an infrared camera, spotlight, loudspeaker and aluminum water cannon that shoots a stream of icy water about 20 feet. Operated by remote control, the robot spotlights trespassers on property down the street from his bar, O'Terrill's. Using a walkie-talkie, Terrill belts out through the robot's loudspeaker, 'That's private property. You guys need to get out of here.'"
If it's Robocop... (Score:5, Funny)
It's extra funny (Score:4, Funny)
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8)
Re:It's extra funny (Score:4, Funny)
Assault (Score:4, Informative)
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Then again,
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I've seen these sort of things many places to discourage hobos more than deer or whatnot.
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An "aluminum water cannon" sounds a lot more like a firehose than a "sprinkler". There are generally very specific legal co
Re:Assault vs Industrial Accident (Score:2)
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Heaven knows, some of those drug dealers could use a shower.
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I didn't read TFA of course, but if this happens in California or Britain or some crazy liberal place like that, even YOU can't hit trespassers, certainly not for things like littering or using needles or stealing your stuff so long as they don't threaten you personally... your only (l
Re:Assault (Score:5, Informative)
NIce (Score:2)
WOuldn't it be smarter to put lights in the area that are on 12-6 every morning.
Add a sprinkler system that goes on and off randomly and people will stay away.
The trouble with lights... (Score:5, Insightful)
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In the article it talks about the criminals leaving when a light is shone on them.
I wonder if any nerd do gooders in Atlanta would help this guy?
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There is a part of me that wonders if we'd have much less crime if we got rid of all those street lights that are everywhere. I understand them at business parking lots that want customers after dark. I don't understand them along road sides and such.
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Re:NIce (Score:4, Informative)
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It would still earn you a visit from the water police. (And yes, that's despite the fact that the normal police can't be bothered to get rid of the vagrants!)
Just push it over (Score:5, Funny)
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Steenking Stairs. (Score:2)
Re:Just push it over (Score:5, Funny)
Dalek Tipping
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i'm surprised (Score:4, Funny)
Yet.
So... (Score:2)
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Can you say "better than being tasered?" (Score:5, Funny)
Hagin adds, "Then, it becomes an assault no matter where it happens."
Assault? That seriously puts kids and the super soaker company in serious trouble? WTF?
Seriously, assault? Perhaps, since the robot is black, it should only presume to act like the black night in Monty Python's 'Holy Grail' movie?
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Whether it'd be prosecuted is open to question.
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Re:Can you say "better than being tasered?" (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't even smoke, and that is not the point. I fervently believe people should have the right to smoke. It is 100% a personal liberty issue. Now, as for how it can be marketed and sold, I'm up for debate. I'd be fine with it being restricted to small scale growing for personal consumption, like marijuana is often produced in Medical Marijuana states, or Canada (Note that these places don't restrict it that way, its just most commonly produced that way.)
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You can't very well fucking do that if the asshole smoker is lighting up right next to the door you need to get in (as they always do), now can you?
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The ones I like better are when....
I'm sitting outside, by myself, away from anyone else (because maybe I'm just freakin' antisocial sometimes, ok?). Someone who DOESN'T smoke happens to walk where I am. That is, goes out of their way to walk through what's obviously a smoking area, which isn't a normal traffic route, and then complains that I'm smoking.
It's fine an all, I usually pull out another cigarette, and offer it to them. When they give me a disgusted
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I don't even smoke, and that is not the point. I fervently believe people should have the right to smoke. It is 100% a personal liberty issue.
Except that smoking causes health problems and other issues for other people. Some people who work a certain establishments might not have the option of "moving their lazy asses." It's easy to tell them to find another job. But today, that's easier said then done.
I believe the person who is slowly destroying the vital organs of themselves and others should be the ones that "move their lazy asses." I know, I'm fucking crazy.
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If non-smoking establishments were really all that desired they would be raking in the cash, and become ubiquitous. This isn't true, since they need to legislate the playing field.
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That's a patent lie. Studies to show a clear link. That aside, it show a complete lack of logic to expect otherwise.
"..top being a pussy and move upwind." next to the next smoker.
Second hand smoke is a Group A carcinogen.
Other Group A carcinogen: asbestos, radon, benzene none of which I want people spewing the air.
Second hand smoke is a risk at normal environmental levels.
http://www.epa.gov/smokefree/pubs/strsfs.ht [epa.gov]
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But it's ok for people to sit at a bus stop with car exhaust spewing in their face in volume?
I'll take hell for my smoking when you're ready to dress down every Hummer owner you see. Until then, bite me.
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Man, it's always racial (Score:2)
How long do you think it will be before it gets stopped in a 'random check' and tasered for 'resisting and officer?'
Well actually... (Score:2)
It's funny. Laugh. No really, otherwise I will get out my robot and *flash* my light on you... Erm...
Yes, assault (Score:2)
Hense the term Assault AND battery.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assault [reference.com]
Most kids are playing together, so it's not assault;however, a sudden attack by a super soaker is assault, but society accepts that. Barring some extreme case.
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And yes I am implying 90% of Americans are quite mad.
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- It doesn't take SWAT teams to do a lot of common police work
- Taser guns are not a requirement for all situations
- Just a little more visibility from what used to be called a 'beat cop' would help make our streets quite a bit safer. "move along now" no arrest needed, no police state required.
- Small government that encourages communities to help themselves often works out to the betterment of said community. Note
Type O (Score:3, Insightful)
No bashing (Score:4, Informative)
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Seriously, though - I found this odd too. Those criminals are showing an awful lot of respect for other people's property.
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I predict, within the first 20 posts someone will be remarking how they would destroy it if they encountered it.
Why would any slashdot poster do that?
I'd try to hack the damn thing, and take control over it. It can't be using anything more sophisticated that off the shelf parts. You'd likely just have to buy a remote control of the same type and frequency and turn-the-tables.
Fortunately for this guy, I don't live in Atlanta, am not a drug dealer and am not a bum.
because /.ers are weenies? (Score:4, Insightful)
Talk tough behind a computer screen but when it comes to the real world /.ers are weenies.
Normal people and this includes the homeless and drug dealers don't want a hassle.
The simple fact is that it is terribly easy to setup a neighbourhood watch and get rid of trouble, it just moves to the next area were people don't want a hassle and are unwilling to keep their area safe.
Where ever someone is creating trouble there is someone else who isn't doing anything about it.
Ask yourselve what you would do, as a drugs dealer you rely on you being to dangerous to confront and to much hassle to call the police to go undisturbed, this robot breaks the rules. It doesn't have to be afraid and so it puts the dilemma in the drug dealers shoes, create a scene he wants even less then a normal citizen or just move on.
I think it is an intresting idea, but most of slashdot will probably freak because of the camera and big brother idea's. It ain't a solution and sooner or later it will lead to trouble, but it is an intresting idea nonetheless. Would a CTV setup in a local area that can be seen by anyone in that area be an acceptable way to get a neighbourhood watch going? Or is you neighbour watching what you are doing the same as the state?
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I wouldn't destroy it... with my own hands. I'd build a waterproof robot and show that piece of trash!
Oh, wait, they used to have a show on that sort of thing, and it wasn't very entertaining.
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I wonder why they'd think that.
This won't last long (Score:2)
Oh no it's the pusher man (Score:5, Insightful)
Drug pushers don't exist. No one has to push drugs -- they sell themselves.
I disagree (Score:2)
Or Peer pressure
I agree most people arent forced via violence but you are underestimating the other pressures of life
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That's what I thought till I received an offer, on the street, unsolicited, to try some crack. After a very brief conversation it became apparent the guy making the offer wasn't just some guy looking for someone to share a rock with, he was a crack dealer. I was approached by a prostitute (actually a girl promoting a brothel - the rapidly delivered "menu" was fascinating) that night too. I guess being out on your own at 4.30am in a
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Droids (Score:2, Funny)
Love to see this in my neighborhood (Score:2)
And the water cannon? That'd get you shot.
Psychology & the Police (Score:5, Insightful)
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Vigilante Justice is illegal for a reason (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Vigilante Justice is illegal for a reason (Score:5, Insightful)
As far as 'legal measures', the police cannot be everywhere, 24/7. You think the residents haven't called them before?
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Please note that I did not indicate that it was the correct answer...only the best one.
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You'll have to build your own assault-chopper, as I'm not inclined to share a human waste related weapon.
Re:Vigilante Justice is illegal for a reason (Score:5, Insightful)
There's nothing wrong with citizens taking these types of minor things into their own hands. I don't want a world where every time I step on someone's grass they call the police. The reason we are moving in that direction, as a society, is because a small small small number of people are so trigger happy (with real live guns) that even the minor everyday cases of someone protecting themselves runs the risk of becoming a life or death situation. So we all live in fear.
The reality is that the police cannot be everywhere at once, and if someone has a safe way to protect themselves like this, then they should be allowed to do it. Yes, it is probably assault according to the letter of the law, but not according to the spirit of it.
Re:Vigilante Justice is illegal for a reason (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know where in Atlanta this guy lives, but the worst neighborhood in the city is English Avenue. I can't remember the statistics I read at the moment, but I think it had something on the order of 300 murders (let alone everything else) in 2006. In a single neighborhood.
Now, you know how many cops patrol that area? Two. Two! That's not even enough to have even any officers in the area all the time! When it's that bad, exactly what legal measures do you suggest he follow?!
Nifty, but time for the next level... (Score:2)
Plus, you know, if the thing really pisses off a dealer, it'd be nice to be a good distance
You! That's Private Property... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, You! In the ski mask. You're trespassing. You knocked me over. Stop that. You and your accomplice are in violation. Cease lifting me up immediately. Don't put me in the bed of that pickup. That's theft. Stop driving away, that's (garbled) Come (garbled) back...
Re:You! That's Private Property... (Score:5, Funny)
take stand, then assault; homeless==dopedealer?? (Score:3, Insightful)
So, the bot-operator sits on the Board of the daycare which occupies part of the footprint in question. He doesn't own it. Homeless people are lumped in with drug dealers. He admits to firing the bot's water cannon at 'extremely stubborn' people.
BTW, the 'bot is *not* autonomous as claimed in an earlier comment; the guy is pulling the switch.
Where I come from (which is admittedly not Atlanta or anywhere near there, as indicated by the audio transcription above) firing a water cannon at someone is assault, hassling dope dealers setting up shop in your neighbourhood with a 'bot is really freaking cool, and treating the homeless the same as dope dealers (lifestyle and intention overlaps notwithstanding) is a recipe for escalating social dysfunction.
I admire Mr. Terrill for taking a stand, and doing so with a geek gadget ups his score. I do not understand the lack of differentiation (in both the video report and this thread) between a homeless man and a Misery Merchant. How is it this is not even on the radar?
I suspect I might be on the cusp of a hearty karma smackdown, but WTF?
I actually go to O'Terrills (Score:4, Interesting)
He actually owns most of the entire block, and everyone supports him. That poor shitty homeless shelter down the street sure fucks things up all around the entire area.
He has actually ran for Gov. I believe, and came in last every time, but hell.... I think cities need crazy old guys like this.
Before you bother white knighting for the 'poor homeless chaps' down the road, you should hang out for a couple of hours, and watch them smoke crack, huff paint, and harass poor passer-by.
Robot wars! (Score:3, Funny)
Soon, the whole thing escalates to a super-serious Robot Wars on the city streets!
Mechanical gangs fighting it out for street territory!
Soon, everyone would be too scared to go out at night in case they run into a gang of robots; barricading themselves in their homes and lying awake in horror to the sounds of the metallic carnage going outside their windows!
Melodrama aside, it would be pretty cool to watch the all-out robotic street brawls --from a distance. It'd be like something out of Terminator.
Re:Well, it's an idea... (Score:5, Funny)
Some anti-theft/bashing upgrades needed (Score:4, Interesting)
2) Some strategically placed handles that can be electrified
3) When all else fails, a beeping self-destruct countdown timer
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This is slashdot. Here we'd 1) jam the signal to incapacitate & nab it
2) reconfigure & overtake the rf control
3) refill it with gasoline & tape a burning zippo to the nozzle.
4) send it back to the owner and make it look like an accident
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Or him... (Score:5, Insightful)
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If he wants to get away from the assault problem of the water cannon, he could install a security system siren and/or a tear gas cannister (or pepper spray, or skunk sc
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The better solution than g
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Re:Well, it's an idea... (Score:5, Funny)
In spray paint.
On its shiny metal ass.
rj
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I happen to remember a Tyrell, but not a Terrill...
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