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."

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.