The idea of a Robocop statue in Detroit was funny at first, when it began as a tweet from the mayor David Bing. But when a web campaign launched an effort to make the statue a reality, I found it more sad than hilarious. The blog Super Gay Detroit breaks down the many reasons it is unnecessary and insulting to the city. (If it matters, I’m a huge fan of the movie.)
The fact is Detroit is one of America’s most economically devastated cities and could use a lot more than a Robocop statue. But people on the internet who mostly don’t live there thought it would be funny, so they’re getting it.
That will give Boing Boing and Twitter something to talk about for a day, but the people of Detroit will be staring at a statue of a movie character for the rest of their lives, reminded of how their fellow Americans are willing to mobilize and donate money on the internet when the cause is their own detached ironic amusement. Maybe I need a sense of humor. I Can Haz Cheesburger statues for every city!
The project was funded through Kickstarter, the same website that Ted Rall used to raise cash for the trip to Afghanistan. The Robocop project brought in double the money he did in a fraction of the time–I guess having the backing of an 80s reference is quite helpful. I was thinking of launching a campaign to build a statue of Rambo in Afghanistan. And maybe do some reporting while I’m there.
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Being a native Detroiter who was a kid when the Robocop movie was made, I remember how bothered I was by the image it cast on my city. But it was also during a time where we were terrorized as citizens by gang violence… the Errol Flynn’s of my childhood morphed into the Young Boys Inc., of Judge Greg Mathis. I think that is one of the things that made Detroit so apropriate a setting for the film. We were already being terrorized by the crack drug culture… and the city governement (where Kwame Kilpatrick would style his Mayorship upon) was ridden with malfeascence. To be able to see, if only in film, a Robocop who took on the corruptiong at risk to himself (which he did, don’t forget that), was refreshing.
I never understood the split between what locals are proud of and what is an offense… there all kinds of moments that come to my mind… Bubba Helms after the ’84 World Series and there was an incident at the International Freedom Festival where a lady had her jewelry ripped from her throat.
Yeah, the money COULD be used to do other things, but would it have the same effect as having a relatively inexspensive statue whose prescence is not measure by the same metrics that finding a traditional use for the money may have.
Haven’t been in Detroit since last October… and I bet Eugene Brown is still on the police force capable of putting a bullet in someone… I think it could do the same thing that the ‘Cheesehead’ has done for Wisconsin… or did we forget that it was once a derisive slap at the state and the fans of the Packers..?
Ultimately it’s not *that* harmful of a project and money can be raised for this and other, more important things at the same time, but it’s an example of the internet being too in love with its own memes and ironic references. Funny for a day on Twitter, not a real statue that exists forever.
“The blog Super Gay Detroit breaks down the many reasons it is unnecessary and insulting to the city.”
Sort of how Eminem’s ad for Chrysler was a fine little whitewash of how Chrysler is the reason that Detroit is in such grave financial trouble now?
You probably COULD raise money for that Rambo statue.
I understand where you’re coming from but I couldn’t disagree more. How can American’s spend money on a statue when children are starving in Uganda?! But people won’t always rally around causes that are so great they are hard to fully comprehend. How can $5 turn Detroit from a decaying city into a potemkin village? It can’t. And frankly, what does Detroit have to do with me? Mostly nothing.
But you know what $5 *CAN* do? Make a freaking Robocop statue. And you know what most people like more than Detroit? Robocop. Also, Robocop connects me to Detroit and reminds me why I should care about it.
As far as Ted Rall goes – the reason Robocop raised money faster than him is because Ted Rall is unknown to most people and has never defeated OCP. If he had, say, blown up an ED209 with a missile launcher on national television, I guarantee his fundraising efforts would have been more successful.
Sure, if the people of Detroit collectively really have something against Robocop, then by all means, they should choose not to erect this statue. It’s their city.
The times we live in today are times of deep, dark irony and they echo the insanity of that fine, fine film on so many levels that the Robocop statue and the timing of it — it’s really just fantastic I think… in that.. the cockles of my heart are being warmed by the thought of it.
And anyway, it’s not going to hurt the economy. Someone’s going to get paid to make it. Someone’s going to get paid to put it up. Some local news guy is going to report on it. Some hot dog vendor is going to make a few bucks as tourists shuffle by to have their picture taken by it. And they will. I know I would.
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i’d forgotten that rambo played buzkashi. unfortunately that scene is completely ridiculous, mostly for his hair and wifebeater. that ish don’t fly in afghanistan.
If the RoboCop statue came with a relocation of the San Diego Comic Con to Detroit, permanently, it’d probably be worth it.
But I can’t see it drawing much tourism. I think Salem has, or had, a statue of Elizabeth Montgomery of Bewitched, courtesy of some cable network, but Salem already has lots of tourism, and is near a reasonably healthy large city.
If we gave the City of Detroit $50,000 cash, they’d just waste it anyway: