Detroit Needs RoboCop. Or at Least a Statue of Him

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New York City Police Officer Paul Dean gets a handshake from a person dressed as "RoboCop". TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images.

Sometimes you don’t know you want something until someone tells you that you can’t have it.

Which is exactly what happened when Detroit Mayor Dave Bing declined a Twitter suggestion from @MT that he erect a statue of RoboCop in the Motor City. Once the Internet heard they couldn’t have an ’80s action-flick monument, they decided they really wanted one.

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A Facebook event called Build a statue of RoboCop in Detroit drew thousands of fans and the non-profit group Imagination Station offered its property in Roosevelt Park for the statue as well as an artist to design it. A website, detroitneedsrobocop.com, was set up so that fans and Detroiters could pledge money towards the building of the statue.

(More on TIME.com: See TIME’s review of RoboCop)

So far only about 17% of the needed $50,000 has been pledged but the Mayor’s office seems to have softened their position on RoboCop. A spokesperson said they’d consider erecting any donated “public art.” (via Detroit Free Press)