SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
http://mashable.com/2016/09/16/gun-robot-standoff
Robots have been used for everything from greeting bank customers to grabbing a slice of pizza — and now they seem to be venturing further into law enforcement.
A six-hour police standoff in a Southern California desert ended on Sept. 8 when a robot was used by police to take away the rifle of an attempted murder suspect.
The special weapons team from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department made the call after the suspect, 52-year-old Ray B. Bunge, refused to surrender. He has since been charged with attempted murder, criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon / firearm, robbery and felony vandalism.
During the standoff, Bunge was lying in a "dark open field" in the desert of Antelope Valley, California, when the robot stealthily, quietly snatched the gun sitting next to his feet, according to a Facebook post from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
Police had lost track of Bunge before using a helicopter and special weapons team to find him in a dirt area surrounded by shrubs and fence wiring. That's when they tried distracting Bunge and sending in the robot.
"He looked up and realized his gun was gone and he was exposed."
"While his attention was focused on the vehicles in front of him, the team deployed a robot from behind the suspect's position," the Facebook post explains.
The robot picked up the gun without Bunge noticing before pulling away the fence wiring that had been covering him. At that moment, Bunge finally gave up.
Well, that's a big improvement over sending in a robot with a suicide vest like they did in Dallas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @10:42PM
The jury is required to assume "guilty until proven innocent".
To avoid being sued, the media pretend to do likewise, though in obvious cases there really is no reason for concern.
For the rest of us: was it completely obvious?
Some times it's hard to say how a trial would turn out. Some times it's really really obvious. When there are numerous uncorrelated witnesses (not all one family/gang/etc.) who see the crime, and we have video from several angles... it's clear what the result of a trial would be. The best result is that we don't have to pay to run that trial and the punishment, with the guilty party dead already. This isn't to say that cops should get a free pass to decide this as they please, but really we do want the bad ones dead ASAP.