R2D2, street justice

A bar owner in Atlanta built a robot to chase away local drug dealers and other unsavories. I'm not sure of the civil liberties implications, but this cracks me up all the same.

I'm not too constitutionally bothered as it lacks the scary armament of RoboCop--it's armed with a squirt gun.

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Late at night several times a week, Terrill powers up the 4-foot-tall, 300- pound device and reaches for a remote control packed with two joysticks and various knobs and switches. Standing on a nearby corner, he maneuvers the machine down the block, often to a day care center where it accosts what Terrill says are drug dealers, vagrants and others who shouldn't be there.

He flashes the robot's spotlight and grabs a walkie-talkie, which he uses to boom his disembodied voice over the robot's sound system.

"I tell them they are trespassing, it's private property, and they have to leave," he said. "They throw bottles and cans at it. That's when I shoot the water cannon. They just scatter like roaches."

Or in other words: "Come Go quietly, or there will be trouble."


via BoingBoing