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Robots Are Being Used To Shoo Away Homeless People In San Francisco (qz.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: San Francisco's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has been ordered by the city to stop using a robot to patrol the sidewalks outside its office, the San Francisco Business Times reported Dec. 8. The robot, produced by Silicon Valley startup Knightscope, was used to ensure that homeless people didn't set up camps outside of the nonprofit's office. It autonomously patrols a set area using a combination of Lidar and other sensors, and can alert security services of potentially criminal activity.
In a particularly dystopian move, it seems that the San Francisco SPCA adorned the robot it was renting with stickers of cute kittens and puppies, according to Business Insider, as it was used to shoo away the homeless from near its office. San Francisco recently voted to cut down on the number of robots that roam the streets of the city, which has seen an influx of small delivery robots in recent years. The city said it would issue the SPCA a fine of $1,000 per day for illegally operating on a public right-of-way if it continued to use the security robot outside its premises, the San Francisco Business Times said.
In a particularly dystopian move, it seems that the San Francisco SPCA adorned the robot it was renting with stickers of cute kittens and puppies, according to Business Insider, as it was used to shoo away the homeless from near its office. San Francisco recently voted to cut down on the number of robots that roam the streets of the city, which has seen an influx of small delivery robots in recent years. The city said it would issue the SPCA a fine of $1,000 per day for illegally operating on a public right-of-way if it continued to use the security robot outside its premises, the San Francisco Business Times said.
I find it remarkably hypocritical that the SPCA of all organizations is chasing homeless people away from their local headquarters. Don't they realize that people are animals too, and deserving of at least the same caring and consideration that they'd give to homeless cats or dogs? Do they think that horses and cattle are deserving of their attentions but homeless humans aren't?
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Yes because none of them would suffer their whole lives from fetal alcohol syndrome or anything.
Then perhaps all those Republicans who are hellbent on outlawing abortion because it "kills a person" should enact laws to penalize pregnant women who smoke, do drugs, drink excessively or are obese. After all, shouldn't poisoning their "child" for nine straight months count as child endangerment?
In fact, if they're so concerned about the "child" then they should make it a requirement for women to have twice monthly visits to verify they aren't endangering their "child" through any of the above. You know, like a former convict has to report to a probation officer.
There. Problem solved. No more fetal alcohol syndrome. Just like outlawing abortions means no more women getting abortions.
Listen, buddy: If someone is legitimately breaking the law, then sure, let's arrest them and give them due process. But demonizing all of the homeless, because of some bad actors? That's just being a jerk. Are you aware that the majority of the homeless don't want to be? Or are suffering from mental illness of some sort? Or are drug addicts, and since there's no mechanism to get them off drugs, they're stuck in an endless downward spiral? What about honorably discharged veterens who are homeless? They served their country, now they're just scum so far as you or some others are concerned? What about homeless children? Should they just be 'shooed away' and forgotten, too?
Here's an idea that you'll probably like: why not just put them all up against a wall, men, women, children, all of them, and just shoot them dead? We'll make them dig their own graves first, even. Then no more homeless! You'll be happy then, right? </extreme_sarcasm>
For what is supposedly the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth, I think it's absolutely shameful that we have any homeless problem whatsoever. Instead of demonizing the homeless, we should be working to solve the problem -- and I don't mean "ship them off somewhere else", either. We treat ANIMALS better than we treat the homeless.
Let's try to cut through the hyperventilating and click-bait headlines a bit, shall we?
First, keep in mind that the SPCA complex takes up an entire city block, and that they were having a real issue with safety and crime on their property. Prior to this, SPCA employees were literally not able to safely use some of the sidewalks due to discarded needles, obstructions, and so on.
Second, the robots are set to detect any illegal trespassing or activity, and simply report it to human security personnel. It's not like the robots have mounted tazers that drive the homeless out, running for their lives. In fact, people have vandalized the robots by tipping it over, covering its sensors with BBQ sauce or feces, etc. These robots are completely harmless, and in fact, are downright defenseless.
City Hall is great at lecturing others to be tolerant and risk their own safety while they can just nudge the police commissioner to quietly push homeless toward someplace where they don't have to look at them. I mean, we can't have homeless tents blocking off City Hall, right?
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It's very strange that the SPCA of all organizations is acting like that rich tech bro a few years back who published a diatribe about how the homeless people on his building's street weren't being sufficiently controlled by the city.
My idea for fixing the problem is to re-open state mental hospitals. Almost all of the homeless problem is due to mental illness and drug addiction. Where I live, there are 5 massive, closed mental hospital complexes within 50 miles that housed thousands of patients each before the deinstitutionalization wave of the 70s and 80s. Why not reopen them as voluntary treatment centers again? Instead of beating and lobotomizing patients, give them the help they need to fix whatever problem is interfering with them having a normal existence.
So your response to Petty crimes is a death sentence? Has it occurred to you that maybe you're part of why society is so fucked up in the first place?
I was thinking SPCA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., cough, cough, people are animals too. I wonder it they shoo away injured dogs, or have robots chase lost kittens, it's like seriously dude, check yourself, what the fuck. What you do, is guide them to the right organisations to provide them assistance, you do not treat them worse than stray dogs or cats. Only fucking America.
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People coming home from WWII got ticket tape parades and a booming economy. In an era where a high school diploma could net you a decent job, they had advanced training on top of that. As a society, it was understood that the women pressed into the work force by necessity would be vacating those jobs en-masse as soon as the troops came home. Even manual laborers made enough for a single income to modestly support a married couple.
Does any of that ring true for Vietnam?
Gulf veterans get respect, but no booming economy, no jobs being vacated, and everyone thinks you need a degree to pump gas (I'm only slightly exaggerating on the last one).
There is no equivalency between displacing kids looking for alcohol and a supposedly compassionate organization buying a robot to (quite literally) inhumanely drive off people whom society has failed.