without the police, Stalin would have been just a fellow with some bad ideas.
Stalin, Hitler, Mao - they didn't kill a single person.
Paid public employees did.
Minor quibble: The "professionals" in Nazi Germany seem to have had plenty of volunteer assistance. Don't know if there was any pay involved. Read Ordinary Men, Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Then there were the Red Guards in Maoist China. Mostly young people egged on by the government. I have a Chinese friend who was arrested by some he had gone to high school with. His offense? One morning he didn't stand in front of his house with Mao's little red book and say "Long Live Chairman Mao" three times.
I have zero doubt the same could occur here, if the circumstances were right. There are plenty of latent authoritarians among us, all across the political spectrum. Human nature?
Stupidity has its way, while its cousin, evil, runs rampant.
