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> If a pig drags someone to the cells because they don't do what the pig wants, the pig just has physical power, not authority.

Really? Whose cell is it? Would anyone else on that street with the physical ability to drag you somewhere be able to do the same?

More broadly though, the point being made here was that cops have authority over you regardless of whether or not you as an individual recognize that authority (in response to the original claim that this what distinguishes expertise from authority). I can deny the legitimacy of the state all I want but it doesn't change the fact that the state exists and that it shapes what my life looks like. Sure, authority is given by society as a whole, but I as an individual am not the one deciding who gets it.