Digidog already knows what it means to be the ugly dog.
If anything characterizes New York residents, it is their passionate love affair with canine friends.
Branded a demonic spawn, the robot dog was seen as a ground surveillance drone
Being accompanied by one of these pets offers an absolute guarantee that you will immediately strike up a conversation with someone. It is a resource as effective as Tinder and much more socializing than taking a child by the hand, no matter how cute the child is.
The dogs are the true kings of the Mambo in this city. Quote the expression dog life in the Big Apple it is synonymous with aristocratic existence.
Except for Digidog, possibly the only dog ever thrown out of New York after a couple of horror appearances, or sci-fi dystopia images.
Qualified as a “demonic spawn”, he belongs to the mechanical-technological race. Digidog is a robot dog that the metropolis police (NYPD) incorporated, at the end of 2020, as a futuristic tool that would allow to reach very dangerous places for flesh and blood agents.
“He is going to save many,” said the police officers. “It will protect the police and the citizens,” they insisted.
On the other hand, New Yorkers were mocked and repelled. John Miller, Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism, reported the cancellation of the leasing agreement ($ 94,000) and that it was being returned to Boston Dynamics, the manufacturer.
The contract was signed until August to evaluate the robot’s capabilities. They have advanced the return, and for now they reject his incorporation to the team, because he became “a target” to feed the citizen complaint about racism and surveillance. “People applied language that turned him into the devil. The comments lacked the correct information, but it damaged public confidence, ”Miller stressed.
Digidog is defined as a four-legged unit, weighing 32 kilos, with cameras, lights, two communication channels and artificial intelligence “to move.” His stamp scared when in February he made his first intervention, in the Bronx.
Following national turmoil over Geoger Floyd’s death under the knee of Agent Derek Chauvin, recently found guilty of murder by the Minneapolis jury, the contraption came amid scrutiny of the work of law enforcement and its funding.
“Wow, a robot dog!” Exclaimed comedian Trevor Noah in one of his Daily Show . “What a great way for the police to explain that they have a lot of money and that it should be defunded!” It only echoed the cry “defund the police”, which still reverberates in the streets of this country.
Legislator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, voiced her rejection of “robotic surveillance ground drones deployed for testing in low-income communities.”
A Boston Dynamics spokesman said they have manufactured about 500 robot dogs (their price can go up to $ 270,000), but only four served as police officers. In addition to the until recently New Yorker, there were others in Massachusetts, Hawaii and the Netherlands. “They are not designed to be used as weapons, inflict harm or intimidate people or animals,” he said. According to Miller, the monster has been used half a dozen times in the city. In one he starred in delivering food to hostages in a home invasion in Queens.
It happens that there is no visual record of that. However, in mid-April, a video did go viral in which a detainee is seen being taken out of a social housing building in Manhattan. Then Digidog emerges as if nothing, standing on its docks. This added to the fury.
Councilor Ben Kallos, who compared that scene to one of the chapters of Black Mirror (the titled Metalhead ), referred to “the militarization of the police”.
“There can be no minimum wage, no affordable flats, no sick leave, no childcare,” said Jamaal Bronw, a congressman from the Bronx. “Instead, they take taxpayer money and put it into police robot dogs?”
Bye, bye Digidog.
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