Reply #30: Keep things in perspective

[Resistance Is Futile]

This is bad. It's only a few small steps from the order "fix bayonets" to "fire at will."

Not by a longshot. Bayonets are the standard USA/USMC riot control tool. They are used routinely in these kind of situations. Orders to deliberately massacre demonstrators are a long way up in the list of severity and might not even be obeyed. This is not to say, however, that spur-of-the-moment decisions to mow down people who may or may not have been standing near someone who may or may not have been carrying an RPG (etc) are even remotely out of the question.