Quote from IanMacQuaide:
I asked some officers, eyeball to eyeball, if they would ever obey an order to disarm citizens w/out a warrant, and/or round up innocent Americans and put them behind barbed wire...either at the behest of their Chief, Sheriff, or Dist. Judge. To a man, they all said "NO, that's an Unlawful order. I'd lay down my badge and walk."
Maybe, maybe not.
Hope we never find out.
Yeah, just like everyone says they won't back down from a fight, or will intervene if they see a beating taking place. And we all know that in reality, most people chicken out in those situations.
If these officers have a riot gun pointed at their backs, and get ordered by their commanders to round up the enemies of the state, they will do it. The ones who won't will be fired or quit voluntarily, and will get replaced by young new recruits who will be trained to adopt the new jack-boot mentality.
When did the police ever lead a pro-liberty revolution? The police are inherently an authoritarian institution. Every dictatorship in the world, the police are the ones who keep it in power. The number of principled pro-liberty police is less than the number who are either just in it for a paycheque, or who think their job is to follow orders, not to question them.
What will stop the police following oppressive orders is if free citizens shoot enough of them dead that they give up, or the heads at the top roll and the policies are changed.