The Silent Impact of Robocop

The Robocop statue has been a pretty divisive topic. I'm not really sure how I feel about the symbolism of Robocop, or that so many people outside Detroit donated money, or that a group of people who have been in Corktown for only a few years are building a seven foot statue in their backyard.

Either way, while you might think it’s stupid, the Robocop statue fundraiser has accomplished what you had probably not even thought of attempting: raised thousands and thousands of dollars for a Detroit project. I certainly did not think $50,000 would be donated to the construction of a Robocop statue, especially in less than a week. Some people claim that this is not impressive because one businessman in California donated half of the money. In response, I would say that it's almost equally amazing to raise $25,000 in less than a week. So, it seems like this is a challenge. If you think you could spend that money on something better or more creative, start your own fundraiser or present your own plan, because the possibility is clearly out there.

A Hamtramck artist may have just proven this point without even realizing it. The Detroit News writes that “Marianne Burrows was irritated with the recent online fundraising campaign to create a statue of the sci-fi movie icon and launched her own $50,000 drive for something she thinks is more useful: an art park.” The goal is to provide $2,000 and some empty land to 25 artists.

The irony is that Burrows apparently would not have come up with the idea of raising money for this project if she had not been pissed off about the Robocop statue.

And, in defense of Robocop, when I was thinking of ways this $50,000 could be better spent in Detroit, I was thinking of maybe feeding malnourished children or buying new textbooks and supplies for DPS students. But again, I’m not personally making the effort to raise money, so more power to Marianne Burrows for pursuing her own idea.

I don't think the Robocop statue will make or break Corktown, and if it ends up convincing a lot of people to visit Detroit for the first time so that they can discover that it's much more than a place with a Robocop statue, I think that's a good thing.

It is definitely possible that this only happened because the idea of a Robocop statue is kind of stupid and therefore spread quickly on the internet. In the end, if it turns out that people are more willing to donate money to a statue of Robocop than to more useful things, I think that says more about humanity than about this statue.