!
This is F***ing awsome!
Robocop is here!
I cant wait for a whole new catagory of "police blunders" reality shows!
The ongoing Rise of the Machines to their inevitable dominance over humanity faltered last week, when a police robot tangled with a human being in hand to hand combat - and was handed a severe beating. The mechanical law officer in question had been sent into a home in Connecticut to deal with an unnamed man, reportedly a …
Sure, you'll probably trash the bot, but since the bot is made of metal, there's a fair chance of spalling. IOW, blast a robot at point-blank and you run the risk of treating yourself to a flak shower. That's why you never use a shotgun on a door without specialized ammo.
"The ongoing Rise of the Machines to their inevitable dominance over humanity faltered last week"
No it didn't. This was the turning point where the machines have learned about their own weaknesses and how they should exploit ours. Just wait and see; the next time it'll be different!
...at least that's how it always goes in the movies ;-)
Dogs in the canine unit of the South Australian police force are given police officer rank and accorded the rights and responsibilities associated with it. If you attack a police dog in the course of its duty in SA, you do indeed go down for assaulting a police officer - in fact, if you *kill* the dog, you go away for the first-degree murder of a police officer. There are people here doing long stretches in Yatala (an Adelaide prison) because they found out the hard way that police dogs are regarded in law the same as police humans.
I would probably imagine it would be similar for most Western police forces' canine units.
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Actually, you're wrong. An 'Officer of the Law' is whomever the law says it is, niceties of oaths and such not withstanding. Rough-up a police dog (or police horse, for that matter) and depending on which jurisdiction you're in, you're committing anywhere from a first-class misdemeanor to a felony.
And Teh Fuzz..? They don't take kindly to folks what mess with their non-human co-workers. Nor do Prosecutors.
Increasing numbers of police departments have obtained some form of advance reconnaissance robot as a point unit for checking out potentially dangerous situations (like live bombs, touchy suspects, etc.) They usually provide camera intel for the live officers to help with the eventual raid and can manipulate things in certain ways (for example, taking a handle and gently pulling it out from under something to get a better look). Some have even been known to pack prod stunners. Worst-case scenario, the department is out a bot: in the long run cheaper and less traumatic to repair and/or replace.
Hollywood aside, no robot can compete in strength against an equal weight of animal. Muscles are very strong for their weight. A robot that can wrestle against a human will need to weigh several times as much. Then there's animal coordination, honed over eons of evolutionary time with a very sophisticated vision system to match. Going mano a robot is a fool's game unless the robot is very big. Better stick to guns, gas, high voltage, lasers, etc.
I can see Boston Dynamics' "Big Dog", "Alpha Dog", "PETMAN" series of robots leading to something I wouldn't try to tangle with, even after completion of a few Krav Maga courses. I suspect a quick development route to something nasty would be a centaur-style six-limbed version of Alpha Dog.
And, of course, there's no reason it couldn't be fitted with guns, lasers, etc.
Haven't they seen Robot Wars, now that would scare them - I used to watch this a lot.
Good examples, Terrorhurts - had a pnuematic axe, one demo operation and they would come out running.
Image the reaction to a spinner (eg Hypnodisc) beware your legs.
Flippers - not sure about them, but wasn't one of them powerful enough to flip a car?
Crushers - again difficult to use against people, but lethal to other robots.
This was a sport for geeks!