AOC fact-checked after ripping NYPD's 'racist' robot dog

FPI / March 4, 2021

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has deployed a crime-fighting robotic dog.

"Digidog" weighs approximately 70 pounds, is equipped with lights, two-way communication and video cameras, the NYPD said.

"The robot is fitted with cameras to search an area and send back real-time footage and is powered by artificial intelligence to navigate on its own," the NYPD said. "The cyber canine can also climb stairs, see in the dark, and run at about three-and-a-half miles an hour. It was designed for emergency situations that would otherwise be too dangerous for human officers."

Digidog is also "racist."

That's according to socialist New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The Daily Mail reported, "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has denounced the NYPD's new crime-fighting robot dog, appearing to accuse the department of racism for deploying the device for testing in only low-income communities of color."

AOC tweeted: "Shout out to everyone who fought against community advocates who demanded these resources go to investments like school counseling instead."

She added: "Now robotic surveillance ground drones are being deployed for testing on low-income communities of color with under-resourced schools."

Blogger Don Surber did a fact check and found that AOC may be barking up the wrong tree.

"The United States spends about $750 billion a year on public education using local, state, and federal dollars," Surber noted in a March 2 post. "New York City spends $28,000 per student."

Digidog cost the NYPD $75,000.

"Let's see, that works out to 7 cents a student for 1,126,000 students," Surber noted. "Eureka. She found 7 cents to improve the education of every student in New York City."

Ocasio-Cortez argues that the robot dog is racist because it is deployed to poor neighborhoods, particularly those with non-white people.

"Well, that is where the crime is," Surber noted. "Call it white privilege or whatever, but street crime is much lower in affluent neighborhoods. And crime is the main reason people leave poor neighborhoods."

Surber added:

"The problem in poor neighborhoods is not racist robots. Schools are well-funded and public housing is plentiful.

"No, the major problem is thugs, drugs, and murderers. Criminals are the oppressors. There was a reason AOC's family fled Queens for Westchester County when she was 5. And it wasn't because of racist robot dogs."

Free Press International