(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- In a post on Instagram last week, podcaster Joe Rogan blasted the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for approving a measure to allow the city’s police department robots to use “deadly force.”
Rogan called the decision “f*cking tremendously insane” that would have “terrifying implications.” He said for anyone to vote in favor of “robots gunning people down” is “nuts,” but for a majority of supervisors to vote for it “is just bonkers.”
But Rogan wasn’t the only one to view last week’s decision as crazy.
The proposal, which authorized law enforcement to deploy remote-controlled, ground-based robots to use deadly force when there is an “imminent” risk to the lives of officers or the public and alternative methods of subduing the threat do not work, was initially approved by the board of supervisors in an 8 to 3 vote on November 29.
The vote immediately sparked outraged debate as well as protests from civil rights groups concerned about the “militarization” of law enforcement, which (surprise) they believe would disproportionately affect “communities of color.”
The blowback was so enormous that on Tuesday, just one week after voting to approve killer police robots, the board of supervisors voted to bar police from using them.
The supervisors sent the issue back to a committee for additional review, leaving the door open for an amended version of the policy to return to the board for another vote.
District Supervisor Dean Preston, who voted against the measure last Tuesday, called this Tuesday’s reversal vote “crucial.”
Preston said in a statement that at a time when there have been more people killed by San Francisco police than any other year on record, the board should be looking for ways to reduce the use of deadly force, “not giving them new tools to kill people.”
Supervisor Hillary Ronen, one of the other three who voted against last week’s proposal, said of Tuesday’s reversal, “Common sense prevailed.”
