@the100thmonkey I am aware of the legal technicality. But analyse that with respect to the context. They were going to hurt a lot of people to stop them from exercising a civilian right of peaceful protest. But where do you draw the line between excessive force and an act of duty. The court sentencing for manslaughter only re-enforces the fact that police officers just get off easy. A just law would hold the officer in even greater contempt of duty due to his status as a government designated protector and peacekeeper.
The term for this is the banality of evil. Just as Eichmann cleared himself of all responsibility for administrating Nazi camps on the grounds that he was just “following orders”, this is the exact reverberation of such a conveniently apathetic POV stemming from formal sanction.
Stripping away someone’s conscience and give him a license for violence with no accountability is a surefire formula for de-humanising people.
As someone once said, “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”