Concerned Detroit citizens raise $50K for downtown Robocop statue

Will Brinson

Screen shot 2011 02 18 at 11.48.32 AM 309x195 Concerned Detroit citizens raise $50K for downtown Robocop statueEvery city has its heroes.

Chicago has Michael Jordan. High Point has Fantasia. And Philadelphia has Rocky. 2/3 of those people have a statue.

You know who doesn’t have a statue? Robocop, the pride and joy of Detroit.

But he could be getting one, because a bunch of citizens who happen to love lasers and ass-kicking robot cops just raised $50,000 to erect a statue of their hero in downtown Rock City.

Let’s start at the beginning, though, when a “concerned citizen” inquired to Mayor Dave Bing whether or not the city could fix its obvious problem:

Screen shot 2011 02 18 at 11.41.50 AM Concerned Detroit citizens raise $50K for downtown Robocop statue

The esteemed Mayor responded exactly like you’d expect:

Screen shot 2011 02 18 at 11.44.29 AM Concerned Detroit citizens raise $50K for downtown Robocop statue

From there, a Facebook group (well, actually an event, but whatever) was created to generate support for the Robocop statue. It got a casual 7,280 “yes, I’m attending” replies.

So someone hopped on Kickstarter and fired up a “Detroit Needs a Statue of Robocop!” fundraising project.

And that project has raised — as of Friday, February 18th at noon EST — $58,987.

Once you pick up your jaw, think about this for a second: Detroit is easily one of the most downtrodden cities — economy-wise — in America right now. Businesses are collapsing and the only propping up the local economy is Miggy Cabrera’s dependence on scotch.

And yet, there’s enough money to build a statue of a half-man/half-robot who fights crime. Surely some brilliant economist out there can parlay this into erasing the national debt.

Or making our entire country look really freaking awesome.

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