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JuniperMesos • yesterday at 11:53 PM • 5 replies • view on HN

> Marvin, 78, said she's not sure how many times she's blocked the path of these robots, which hit the streets of Philadelphia in March. The University of Pennsylvania professor emeritus has made a practice of it to protest "corporations that displace human delivery workers in order to enrich their own bottom line." Her past encounters have circulated online. The Wednesday incident was the first time, however, that the police got involved.

> Officers approached Marvin after she'd been there "quite a long time," she said. They asked her to step aside and let the robot complete its delivery. When she repeatedly refused, they arrested her for disorderly conduct.

Good. I want delivery robots to be able to operate in public, I don't want people like Marvin to be blocking them because they disapprove of the concept of delivery robots or think it's bad that they're displacing human jobs, and I think that a disorderly conduct arrest is an eminently reasonable response from the criminal justice system.

> Marvin, who plans to contest the charge on the grounds of her First Amendment right to protest, has been undeterred by the arrest. She plans to continue blocking Uber Eats robots and chatting with curious passersby who ask what she's doing.

The first amendment doesn't and shouldn't protect interfering with reasonable delivery robot use of the public streets; indeed the law should protect the rights of operators of delivery robots to have their robots deliver items to customers without interference. The criminal justice system should absolutely incarcerate her if she publicly intends to continue interfering with delivery robots.


Replies

crote • today at 12:02 AM

And what about the person's right to continue without being obstructed?

It's a standoff. She's literally just standing there. She doesn't move out of her way to let the robot pass - but neither does the robot move to let her pass!

So why should she be the only one arrested and incarcerated? Why not arrest the robot for the same crime?

Sidewalks are for humans to walk on, not dedicated travel corridors for commercial robots. If those robots can't play nice and yield to pedestrians, then they don't belong on the sidewalk.

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Dusseldorf • today at 12:06 AM

The robot was absolutely free to go around her, I truly don't see how what she did was illegal. The next time my kids are out doing sidewalk chalk and the mail carrier walks by, should the kids be arrested for obstructing mail delivery?

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bradgranath • yesterday at 11:57 PM

1A says she is free to protest human workers by getting in their way in public. Do you think picket lines are illegal? Why is this different because they're robots?

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ysleepy • today at 12:07 AM

Yea, protest should happen where it doesn't bother anyone. Right.

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boesboes • today at 12:00 AM

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