Bum Bot: The Future of Hobo Enforcement

[mobo85]

How do you get rid of vagrants and hobos running around at night? Well, if you run Atlanta’s O’Terrill’s bar and grill, you take a meat smoker, attach it to a scooter, and blast them with water. Behold, the Bum Bot!

Of course, some of you probably already know why I know of the Bum Bot- yesterday, he recieved a good boost of publicity by appearing on the first source for American greatness and threat news, The Colbert Report. Behold Bum Bot in all his glory. Hobos beware- the Bum Bot is on patrol!

[Faruiza]

Wow. That thing is…kind of sad. I mean, if he could be sure that the people he’s aiming at really do have malevolent intentions, then that’d be great, but it seems like going after someone who’s just homeless smacks of elitism.

I get his plight. I really do. The homeless are bad for business and brings down a neighborhood. But being homeless is devastating in itself, and nobody wants you, so adding insult to injury just seems mean.

I find myself wondering if this is an extension of the NIMBYism that keeps homeless shelters to a minimum in this country. Actively wanting someone to have to hide and sleep in the cold is really fucked up.

Like I said though, if it were just the bad guys he was getting, well, carry on, then. But it doesn’t sound like he’s all that discriminating.

[mhendo]

We did this story two months ago.

The guy is a self-righteous, publicity-seeking asshole. If he uses that robot to spray anyone on public property, i hope they lock his ass up for assault.

[TheLoadedDog]

@mhendo

The guy is a self-righteous, publicity-seeking asshole. If he uses that robot to spray anyone on public property, i hope they lock his ass up for assault.

I dunno. That TV story didn’t seem to make it clear he actually used the thing. It seems to me that the average drug dealer type would respond to what looks like household-pressure hosing by reducing the machine to scrap. I’d say it never leaves the door of the bar without careful supervision.

I just took the whole thing as a piss take. Sure, it’s a publicity stunt, but it seems to be a successful one, so good on the guy.

[Harmonious_Discord]

I have hated the the way this guy thinks it’s alright to abuse people off his property like this. He’s using the public sidewalk and harassing people not on his property. His methods would get him sued if they were different people he was targeting. I await the day I hear that he’s going to court or the people have destroyed the thing.

[matt_mcl]

Speaking as someone whose circle of friends counts a number of people who have been homeless or obliged to panhandle in order to eat, this guy is a very special kind of shithead. Oh, yeah! That was definitely a segment of society that needed yet another thing dumped on their head!

[samclem]

Just to add more info to this thread(and perhaps the previous one on the same subject)"
The guy(Rufus Terrill) is a gadfly at best, an asshole at worst. He’s an active letter writer to the papers in Atlanta.
He ran for Mayor of Atlanta in 2001.

He opened his restaurant in 2005. Back then, he used a

10 million candlepower spotlight to drive away loiterers at Renaissance Park, across from his restaurant.

He often carries a gun and also takes photos of men hanging around outside O’Terrill’s restaurant on Piedmont Road. “That runs them off,” he said. “They hate to have their photos taken.”

But while he is hard-nosed in combating aberrant street behavior, Terrill opposes an ordinance that would ban panhandling from the downtown “tourist triangle.” His establishment is outside the triangle boundaries.

“We feel it’ll push a lot more people on us,” he said. “Big money has decided to protect its interests. There should not be a tourist triangle. All areas should be equal.”

So, in 2006, he runs for Lt. Governor.

From a pre-election poll

If the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor was held today, whom would you vote for Greg Hecht, Griffin Lotson, Jim Martin, Steen Miles, or Rufus Terrill? (Democrats only)

Jim Martin 29%
Greg Hecht 24%
Steen Miles 20%
Griffin Lotson 4%
Rufus Terrill 2% Undecided 21%

And, from 2008, Terrill admits he has used the water cannon

Late at night several times a week, Terrill powers up the 4-foot-tall, 300- pound device and reaches for a remote control packed with two joysticks and various knobs and switches. Standing on a nearby corner, he maneuvers the machine down the block, often to a day care center where it accosts what Terrill says are drug dealers, vagrants and others who shouldn’t be there.

He flashes the robot’s spotlight and grabs a walkie-talkie, which he uses to boom his disembodied voice over the robot’s sound system.

“I tell them they are trespassing, it’s private property, and they have to leave,” he said. “They throw bottles and cans at it. That’s when I shoot the water cannon. They just scatter like roaches.”

NOt judging the guy, just providing info. Most cites from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

[Colophon]

Y’know, on this side of the Atlantic the phrase “Bum Bot” conjures up a whole different image.

[Ice_Wolf]

@Colophon

Y’know, on this side of the Atlantic the phrase “Bum Bot” conjures up a whole different image.

Eyebrows were raised and quirked down here an’ all.

It’s one thing to enforce anti-vagrancy on your own property, but he’s being a bit of a sticky-beak using that machine on other people’s private property. I suppose the homeless who get accosted are too powerless to take him to court for common assault, and so he can continue.