Beyond the Broken Window, by Petra Bartosiewicz | Harper's Magazine

Assistant chief Paul McDonagh was the man with the unenviable task of explaining the Seattle Police Department’s drone program to the public. In October 2012, a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation revealed that the department had secretly purchased a pair of camera-equipped Draganflyer X6 drones two years earlier. Soon after, McDonagh stood in a local community center before a roomful of citizens who were shouting “shame” and “murderer” and “no drones, no drones, no drones!” One woman, who stood next to a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, yelled, “This is a whole fascistic direction that needs to be stopped.” As McDonagh continued with his presentation, the crowd shouted, “Fuck you, Mr. Police Officer” and “You’re full of shit!”