A view to a kill

Drones are in the news this week, and while not as much as some other topics, I had a fool’s hope that they would remain separate.

They didn’t obviously, but we’ll get there. Last week the White House issued two executive orders aimed at expanding commercial and public safety use of drone operations domestically and establishing a drone task force to evaluate drone threats. That preceding sentence is as innocent as it could possibly be written and if you can’t help but feel disconcerted anyway, I assure you that you aren’t alone.

Of course, I don’t mean to infer we don’t need more drone regulation, we have desperately needed it for roughly 20 years or so, I’d wager. But this is not legislation, and it should send a chill down your spine when you hear an executive order titled, “Unleash American drone dominance.” A title that stupid should be reserved for 80s action movies, not American politics.

Especially when we see the government using MQ-9 Reaper drones to surveil American protesters. Yes, the same drones they used to fire missiles at terrorists, and not for the first time either. With the National Guard, and yes now even Marines, deployed to U.S. streets I worry how this will shake out. The history of the National Guard being deployed to quell civil dissent is written in blood, and drones have proven to be a terrifyingly effective weapon in urban environments.

I use this space often to remind members of the security industry that their work is meant to protect people, above all else. If the tools of your trade are being harnessed to violate their primary principle, it’s time for all of us to take a step back and ask what we should be doing.

We should be doing better.