In another case of “Don’t feed the trolls,” It became clear to this web-veteran that the Internets will probably have their way with the city of Detroit and erect a statue in the guise of the world’s most renowned police cyborg.

The awesome started when Twitter user @MT suggested to Detroit’s mayor Dave Bing that the city erect a statue in the vein of Philadelphia’s Rocky or Milwaukee’s Fonz to somehow “drive tourism,” but probably just for teh lulz. Bing responded in kind, tweeting, “@MT There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop. Thank you for the suggestion,” to which the Interwebz collectively responded “Oh yea? Challenge accepted.” By doing his job and communicating with the good Michiganders of the Motor City, the Mayor unwittingly unleashed a shitstorm of sci-fi proportions when the comment was retweeted and reported far and wide across the blogosphere. Now, OF COURSE, there’s a grassroots campaign to actually make it happen.

Another day, another n00b politician surfing his way straight into a web of crap. Dude thinks, “Hey I gotta get out there on that Internet machine.” Trying to be all hip and modern, using Twitter to interact with constituents. So you tweet about a couple TV appearances, answer a few questions, and BOOM, next thing you know you’re in a Mexican standoff with Anonymous about a $50,000 statue of a science fiction character. I’ve seen it a hundred times.

Now there’s only one way for this story to end. Go toe to toe with the Internet and you will lose, governments. Look what just happened in Egypt!

In an interesting twist, the movie itself had already spawned a running meta-joke in the form of the quote, “I’d buy that for a dollar,” which comes from a goofy TV that characters in the film’s universe watch. People like @for_a_dollar have quickly capitalized on the connection, encouraging Twitter users to donate a buck to the cause. 7 foot tall iron statue? I’d buy that for a dollar! Even more fitting, however, is RoboCop as a metaphor for Detroit as a whole. Formerly James Murphy, the movie’s protagonist was killed in the line of duty, much like General Motors, before rising from the ashes better, stronger, faster, and way more trigger happy.

So, if any of you monkeys out there would like to be a part of this (because, let’s admit it – it’s awesome), someone of course threw up a Facebook fan page, but more importantly a Kickstarter page to ACTUALLY RAISE FUNDING. It will work just like a Groupon. Donate as much as you like or as little as $1, but no one will actually be charged unless the total donations reach the $50k goal. And believe me, they will. Donations currently total just under $18,000, with another 40 days to go.

The easiest way to spread the word is by sharing this link: http://detroitneedsrobocop.com/

Follow WG on Twitter @wannabe_genius and read Mike’s other grumblings @mickeyvee.