An influential civil rights organization that has fought multiple court battles against those infringing on the U.S. Constitution is warning San Francisco – again – against installing killer robots on its police force.
The Rutherford Institute reports it has written a letter sounding the alarm to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors as well as the city’s police commission
Its lawyers are urging the city “to reject a renewed push by police for remotely-controlled, armed robots that can be directed to use deadly force against the citizenry.”
In other words, kill people.
“The last thing this country needs are police agencies armed with killer robots,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute and author of “Battlefield America: The War on the American People.”
“These robots signal a tipping point in the final shift from a Mayberry style of community policing to a technologically-driven version of law enforcement dominated by artificial intelligence, surveillance, and militarization. It’s only a matter of time before these killer robots become as common – and as deadly – as SWAT teams. Moreover, how long before mistakes are made, technology gets hacked or goes haywire, robots are deployed based on false or erroneous information, and innocent individuals get killed in the line of fire?” the warned.
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The background is that the state legislature in California in 2021 adopted Assembly Bill 481, which “requires law enforcement agencies to obtain approval from a county’s board of supervisors prior to taking certain actions relating to the funding, acquisition, or use of military equipment.”
There’s also a requirement that local law enforcement agencies list and define the authorized uses of all military-grade equipment in their possession.
Under that requirement, a plan was submitted to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors by the San Francisco Police Department.
“The SFPD has more than a dozen functioning, remote controlled robots, which are used to gain situational awareness, survey specific areas officers may not be able to reach, as well as investigate and defuse potential bombs, or aid in hostage negotiations,” Rutherford’s report explained.
“However, while the robots are not presently outfitted with lethal force options, critics warn that it won’t take much in the way of weaponry and programming to convert these robots to killer robots. Indeed, some within the robotics industry have cautioned against weaponizing general-purpose robots, which could be used ‘to invade civil rights or to threaten, harm, or intimidate others.'”
Despite the problems that could erupt, on an 8-3 vote late last year, the city’s board adopted a plan “to allow police to arm robots and use them as deadly force options ‘when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers are imminent and outweighs any other force option available to the SFPD,'” Rutherford reported.
Civil liberties groups were outraged and the board backtracked to limit police use of robots for search and rescue, but not for deadly force, Rutherford said.
However, police didn’t give up, stating at a meeting just days ago they are renewing their request to use robots to kill.
Whitehead said, “If these killer robots follow the same trajectory as militarized weapons, which, having been deployed to local police agencies as part of the Pentagon’s 1033 recycling program, are turning America into a battlefield, it’s just a matter of time before they become the first line of defense in interactions between police and members of the public.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: What is behind the current war against America’s children? Why are so many adults killing their unborn children right up to the moment of birth, or even after? Why are millions of kids sexualized virtually from birth, and injected with an experimental “vaccine” proven to be both ineffective and dangerous, then as toddlers transported to events glorifying mentally ill, demonically possessed men dressed as women?
Why are America’s children systematically sexualized at school, and by transgender recruiters on social media platforms like TikTok, seducing many into “identifying” as the opposite gender, or a brand-new imaginary gender, then encouraged to take powerful drugs and hormones and have their healthy breasts amputated or undergo chemical or surgical castration?
Why are our children simultaneously indoctrinated with toxic Marxist ideologies like “critical race theory” intended to condition them to hate and reject their own country, parents, faith, race, gender and themselves? Why are they simultaneously being frightened of the future by being fed lurid, terrifying – and groundless – apocalyptic tales of the imminent destruction of the world due to global warming?
No wonder youth suicides have skyrocketed, as have depression, anxiety, addiction and drug overdoses. Indeed, fentanyl, the No. 1 cause of death of younger Americans 18 to 45, destroys multitudes of children annually.
Make no mistake: The harm being done to America’s children in this multi-front war is not accidental: Children are the primary target.
WHY? How can all this be happening in the greatest nation on earth? Who and what is behind it? And HOW CAN IT BE STOPPED?
Find out in the explosive January issue of WND’s critically acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine, “WINNING THE WAR AGAINST AMERICA’S CHILDREN,” available in both print and state-of-the-art digital editions.
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