Lee Heidhues 11.29.2022
Attn: Supervisor Connie Chan – D1 San Francisco
Connie
Whatever shred of Progressive “In Solidarity” credibility you may have had was just buried this evening.
Your blatant cave in with your YES vote to approve Police killer robots puts you firmly in league with the worst law and order reactionaries in San Francisco.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-could-approve-the-use-of-killer-robots-17618170.php
It is beyond disgraceful.
Only three of your comrades had enough guts to stand up to this Orwellian proposal. You were missing in action.
If you think that bowing to the reactionaries in District 1 is going to save your political career, forget it.
The Progressives are abandoning you in droves.
The reactionaries don’t trust you due to your Chameleon like behavior in office.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 11.29.2022
San Francisco police will be allowed to use robots to kill people in limited emergency situations under a controversial new policy approved by city supervisors on Tuesday.
Police leaders said they want the ability to deploy robots with lethal force during extremely rare cases against violent suspects such as mass shooters or suicide bombers. But critics, including a minority of the board, strongly objected to the policy over concerns that it could be abused and allow police to kill people too easily.
Following an impassioned debate, supervisors approved the policy in an 8-3 vote. They adopted an amendment that requires one of two high-ranking SFPD leaders to authorize any actual use of a deadly robot.
Several supervisors remained deeply skeptical that police need the extraordinary ability to kill someone with a robot. Supervisors Dean Preston, Hillary Ronen and Shamann Walton voted against the policy.
“This is a local police force here to protect us. This is not the U.S. military that we are arming,” Preston said at the board meeting. “There is serious potential for misuse and abuse of this military-grade technology, and zero showing of necessity.”
Ronen unsuccessfully sought to amend the policy to require police to exhaust non-lethal options before using a robot with deadly force. Peskin later proposed a successful and less restrictive amendment that lets police use a robot to kill someone if they have tried other de-escalation tactics or concluded that they would not be able to subdue the threat with alternative options.
“This is a big deal,” Ronen said. “This is opening up a Pandora’s box that could change our society in a significant way.”
Lee's Perspective 