I think that often, this speech is the result of how the perpetrators felt. They are thrust into a situation, fall back to training that says 'just follow the

I think that often, this speech is the result of how the perpetrators felt. They are thrust into a situation, fall back to training that says 'just follow the rules / orders'. In that frame of mind, they indeed had no choice. Had they taken any other action, they'd have gone against policy as a simple lowly employee. That is terrifying and thus not an option.