[vanviegen]

You are meaningfully misquoting here ("doing their job" not "following orders", which has a different ring to it, at least for me).

Also, apparently they do have brains capable of thinking because: "Eventually, they accepted that we were journalists and that they disagreed with detaining us."

[szmarczak]

Ah yes. Let me detain you for 8 hours for doing what you're legally allowed to do. Sorry for my mistake, it's all paid by the taxpayers anyway.

[vanviegen]

Apparently they were given information by the US embassy that these people were an "active thread". Perhaps they could have figured out that this was bullshit sooner, but I don't think it's the police who are at fault here.

[szmarczak]

The wording is so ambiguous, they should've determined what's the threat first. Or else anybody could point at anybody and say "active threat".

Most likely they still would've been kicked, but without being detained.