Before sending any people in, police sent two robots to check out an Ohio shooter barricaded in his house.
Posted 03.05.2013 at 4:00 pm
13 Comments
Coming In
An experimental bomb squad robot from 2001 shows off its dexterity.
Photo by Randy Montoya
An Ohio man has been charged for shooting a robot.
Michael Blevins was charged with vandalism of government property, after drunkenly firing at a police robot in his house. Perhaps what's more interesting is that the police used a robot at all.
On February 23, police responded to a call that 62-year-old Blevins was making threats and had fired a gun in his home, the local Chillicothe Gazette reports. When police arrived, Blevins refused to answer the door.
After verbal negotiations failed, police sent two robots into Belvins' house instead of human officers because they believed Blevins had a lot of firearms. Blevins allegedly shot the larger of the two robots with a pistol.
Police eventually arrested Blevins, whom they reported as being highly intoxicated, and searched his house with a warrant. They found two AK-47-style rifles and a 75-round ammunition drum, which is illegal to own in Ohio.
It is not uncommon for police to send robots, instead of humans, into dangerous situations, as the artificial intelligence blog Singularity Hub points out. We found several examples just over the past year:
Last March, a SWAT team sent a robot into a Utah home when a shooter inside refused to come out. The man, 25, surrendered upon seeing the robot, KSL TV reported.
In September, a Michigan standoff included dozens of exchanged shots and robots sent in to determine the shooter's location.
Just days before the Blevins incident, San Diego police used robots to determine the exact location of a shooter in an apartment.
Or check out this weirdly silent video of a robot rolling into an Oklahoma City standoff scene last August.
In our quick search, however, Blevins was the only person who actually bothered to shoot the entering robots.
Business Insider also wrote about this case, saying, "Michael Blevins is likely just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to armed confrontations between man and law enforcement bot" and "Blevins is likely to be in a long line of libertarian 'folk heroes' who take up arms against perceived robotic intrusion." We're not so sure. So far, at least, robots seem just like a new tool for these standoff situations. They're not exactly Robocops replacing real officers. The humans are still outside, so it seems pretty futile to shoot the robot, and the charges against Blevins reflect that. They're just some expensive government property.
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Oh I understand they are not Robocop which leads me to my question. Just when will they make a realistic Robocop.
This is not a robot. It is a remote control surveillance electro mechanical type device.
Yea, if I had a gun and a six pack or more under my belt, I shoot it too, lol. Of course I do not own a gun and I do not drink. Well, not anymore. Not since I shot and killed the tractor. ;)
It is not the first time, I've seen a couple on YouTube, here's one:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrs1hkMw6eo
What would Andy Griffith do? Bet he'd have gotten it solved without any violent means.
Incredible,the robots have applied widely abroad and hope Intelligent robot era has come quickly!
broket,
I like you icon. I miss robot..... sad sigh.
Yeah, I miss scrolling down under every article and seeing Robot's inane observations as well. Now I need to dig up old Jerry Springer episodes to fluff my self esteem. But he is still here in one or more account, and could possibly be the OG Bubba Gump, who knows?
I don't think it was necessarily the content , but mostly the fact that EVERY conversation on PopSci started with a comment from him, and in many cases, based on its content, set the tone for the whole thread after.
Yeah, glad they're gone, hopefully someone will create an app that lets forum mods simply destroy the OS of PC's that violate their rules, or abuse their forums. That would be awesome. Wouldn't take many full OS reinstalls for even the most attention-starved trolls to give it up.
We can dream....
If you think Norman`s story is astonishing,, a month ago mom in-law basically broght in $7793 sitting there a ninteen hour week an their house and the're best friend's half-sister`s neighbour done this for 4 months and brought in over $7793 part time On there laptop. follow the steps from this web-site...
JUMP30.COM
I would happily take a vandalism charge to shoot a cop robot.
And as far as the topic at hand, I am truly not sure why they haven't built remote control close combat weapons. Think a mini Amrams tank, about 3-4 feet long, with a .50 cal main gun that shoot solid steel (or any other munition sized for it, i.e incendiary, frangible, etc. ) with compressed air, to control penetration and save ammo space/weight. Controlling one of these with a standrad xbox controller with a large LCD screen would be easy and they would be radically hard to fight in an urban setting.
"...hopefully someone will create an app that lets forum mods simply destroy the OS of PC's that violate their rules, or abuse their forums..."
This thought process is subjective and opens a can of worms. I look forward to your login being banned, blocked and your computer blown up, via you own words. Take care. ;)
Vandalism? For police property illegally placed on my property (I assume if they are sending this thing in they have not yet served me with a warrent)?
Even with probably cause, this thing cannot identify itself as a police officer (since it is not a police officer).
Yup, this certainly needs some new buckshot holes.
So Mayan. You look forward to me getting banned and my pc destroyed for what, exactly? 'via my own words'? Elaborate. I haven't broken any forum rules. And I was referring to the spammers who post web addresses for knockoff merch, etc. I'm sure if they knew their pc would be toast they wouldn't bother posting those annoying ads in our forums and comment threads.
Unfortunately we won't ever be rid of people who think internet access and wikipedia make them qualified to espouse their objection to the veracity, quality, bias, or methodology of any article/study that comes into this or any other science site.
I've had an account for over 2 years, and precious few comments, simply because I usually don't know alot about whatever the subject is, and don't think that reading about it on wikipedia gives me a right to form a contrary opinion.
I DO know I get sick of the people on here who feel like they need to comment on EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE, regardless of their knowledge or lack of such. Take Care ;)