Detroit, you have suffered an emotional shock. I will notify Kickstarter

By W.W. | IOWA CITY

MAYBE social-networking sites can't topple dictators, but they can put up the money for a statue of RoboCop in downtrodden Detroit.

A little over a week ago, some guy from Massachusetts suggested via Twitter to Detroit's mayor that the city raise a monument to RoboCop, "a GREAT ambassador for Detroit." The cult-classic 1987 Peter Weller vehicle, you will recall, was set in a militarised, corporatist hellhole Detroit of the future. Detroit's Mayor, Dave Bing, politely brushed off the idea in a tweeted reply: "There are not any plans to erect a statue to RoboCop. Thank you for your suggestion." But the idea didn't then disappear for eternity into the unattended abyss of the municipal suggestion box. Once unleashed upon Twitter, savvy use of social media swiftly transformed an amusing suggestion into a concrete plan to put a RoboCop statue in the Motor City. A "Build a Statue of RoboCop in Detroit" Facebook page popped up, with a campaign on Kickstarter to "crowd-source" the funds to create the statue quick on its heels. Within days, the Kickstarter campaign shattered its $50,000 goal, and plans are afoot to situate a metal replica of the iconic half-man, half-death-machine constable in Detroit's Roosevelt Park, across from the picturesque decay of Michigan Central Station.