By Adrienne Fong

RALLY AGAINST SFPD DEADLY FORCE ROBOTS!

MONDAY, DECEMBER 5

9:30 AM

SF CITY HALL (steps)
1 Dr. Carleton B. Goodlett Pl
SF

See below graphic for more info

Graphic from Oakland Privacy

In a surreal meeting last Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved on first reading a military equipment use policy that explicitly allows the use of robots outfitted with bombs to blow people up. The policy allows 3 high-level command officers to employ robot bombs based on their “evaluation” that other things wouldn’t work. The Robocop policy passed on an 8-3 vote.

This isn’t the world we want to live in. The “evaluations”  of a police department which received 272 recommendations to improve its racist policing practices just six years ago, aren’t adequate. The supervisors admit that virtually everyone who has written to them says no to the killer robots.

From AFSC Alert:

“ The policy would also allow SFPD to re-stock thousands of munitions without civilian approval and would exclude 375 of SFPD’s assault rifles from oversight and visibility. 

Allowing police to arm remote-controlled robots on the streets of San Francisco is dangerous, and like other weapons used by police, will place Black and brown people in disproportionate danger of harm or death. AFSC has been in the thick of the struggle to stop this militarization, in San Francisco and across the state.”

The second vote is on Tuesday afternoon. It needs to come out differently. Here is what you can do to make this happen.

1) Come to a rally and press conference on Monday December 5th at 9:30am on the Polk Street steps of SF City Hall

2)  Email the Board at  Board.of.Supervisors@sfgov.org. (Several members of the board have taken umbrage at the term “killer robots” as hyperbole. Therefore, when you write to the Board, we suggest you use the term “robots that kill” instead). 

Background: David Chiu, then a State Assembly member and now the SF City Attorney, authored AB 481 to require governmental transparency about the use and acquisition of militarized equipment by civilian police agencies. Governor Newsom signed the bill into law. The law requires policies for existing equipment stocks. SF owns 17 robots, which were purchased for bomb and suspicious package disposal. This policy would set out the rules of the road for the 17 robots. No legislative body in the Bay Area has yet explicitly permitted the use of robots outfitted with weapons (bombs or guns) against civilian populations. 

Info from Oakland Privacy