News · moment 15 of 18
Digidog for Hostage Standoffs Instead of Human Negotiators
from K5 & Digidog | The Tim Dillon Show #362 · #362
3 min
News
He mocks the idea of deploying Digidog into hostage standoffs instead of trained human negotiators, comparing it to absurd hypothetical "ticking time bomb" torture-justification scenarios, plus a GPS tracker for stolen cars.
- Tim describes Mayor Adams's plan to deploy a 70-pound remote-controlled robot dog in hostage standoff situations instead of police negotiators.
- Officials invent scenarios that barely or never happen—like the ticking time bomb—to justify controversial policies, the way torture was rationalized post-9/11.
- Politicians used to ask candidates about torture in hypothetical ticking time bomb scenarios during elections, as if the country would actually hold back in a real emergency.
- Tim points out that hostage negotiation requires a trained human to talk the suspect down, not a robot dog—nobody ever sent actual canines into those situations.
- Police are also introducing Star Chase, a GPS tagging system that attaches to stolen vehicles to track their location.
- An autonomous security robot, which Adams compared to a Roomba, will be deployed in Times Square subway stations starting this summer as a seven-month pilot program.
Eric AdamstortureJohn KerryThe Sum of All Fears