AGENDA 21 RADIO

BY CHRISS STREET, NEWPORT BEACH

Security robots patrolling the streets of San Francisco and Washington DC have been harassed, beat-up and even executed by crazed humans.

As America’s premier “Sanctuary City,” San Francisco’s victims of homelessness that live along the sidewalks, must deal with vandalism, car break-ins, thefts, and lots of needles on the street.

Because Knightscope’s 6-foot tall, rocket-shaped and armless design robot pack high-resolution infrared cameras that can make out license plates, and onboard wireless sensors that identifies smartphones down to the MAC and IP addresses, they have been deployed to dangerous crime-ridden homeless encampments in places like the Mission District in San Francisco.

The downtown San Francisco branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) reported this week that their 400-pound Knightscope K5 security robot, nick-named K-9, that had been patrolling to prevent the homeless from congregating in front its building, had been screamed at, knocked to the ground and covered in homeless’ feces.

The San Francisco Business Journal reported that K-9 had regularly suffered the humiliation of having barbecue sauce smeared on its sensors. K-9 had also been pushed over on one occasion, and then covered with the type of tarp often used after a senseless street murder.

But SPCA’s president Jennifer Scarlett told the Biz Journal they contracted to bring K-9 after being frustrated, “We weren’t able to use the sidewalks at all when there’s needles and tents, and bikes, so from a walking standpoint I find the robot much easier to navigate than an encampment.”

But rather than performing an intervention to respond to the potential loss of the robot’s self-esteem from k-9 being cyber bullied by local residents, city officials are now threatening the SPCA with $1,000 a day fines for failing to obtain autonomous data machine permits to operate K-9 as a high-tech bouncer.

Reports have also been received from other communities that Knightscope K5 security robots have suffered similar disrespect and have even perished on the job.

Abuse of Knightscope K5 security robot was reported in Washington D.C’s tony Georgetown Harbour, where a drunk human wantonly attacked a K-5 and beat it to the ground, before he could be arrested for assault and battery of presumably of a drone.

The K-5 returned to active service, but apparently was suffering some form of post- traumatic-stress-disorder. A few days later the robot drove itself off a main pathway and fell into a fountain, where it seemed to have shorted-out and drown.