Sorry, can’t accept your implication that the cop would have shot the kids had they not obeyed him. Cops are charged with enforcing laws. They don’t write the laws. In the same way we expect soldiers to carry out official orders, we also expect cops to enforce laws. If you have a problem with the laws they enforce, there is another branch of government with which to lodge your complaint.
I'm assuming the cops told the kids to pack up their stuff and go home. Suppose they didn't. They would have attempted to detain/arrest the kids. Suppose they resisted vigorously?
As I said, all laws are ultimately enforced at the end of a gun, and with government force. That is not, in and of itself a bad thing, and I made no value judgment to that effect. I'm perfectly happy with many laws being made effective by having the force of government behind them. Others, not so much. It's like Washington said, government is like fire: a dangerous servant and a fearful master. That's not to say life is better without fire...we need warmth, hot food, industry, etc. We just need to tend it carefully and closely so it doesn't spiral out of control, because it doesn't discriminate in whom gets burnt.
Then you're a fool.
In the same way we expect soldiers to carry out official orders, we also expect cops to enforce laws.
Do you think that sidearm on their hips is a negotiating tool of some kind?