Marine veteran Cordie Lee Williams speaks to police officers at an anti-lockdown protest May 1, 2020, at the California state capitol in Sacramento (Facebook image)

A viral video shows a Marine veteran, with apparent success, urging police officers in tactical gear preparing to break up an anti-lockdown protest at California’s capitol to stand down.

The Guardian of London reported the California Highway Patrol had announced it would bar any protests at the state capitol in Sacramento because demonstrators at a previous rally did not practice social distancing.

Nevertheless, video by California resident Joshua Coleman shows protesters gathered on the steps of the capitol on May 1 chanting: “Whose house? Our house!” and “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”

The video shows Marine vet Cordie Lee Williams speaking to the officers through a megaphone.

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“In the face of tyranny, in the face of freedom, are you going to sit there in your riot gear against peaceful protesters?” he asked. “Or are you going to say, ‘You know what, it’s time to stand up for my country. Because I took an oath of office and it said, ‘I will defend all enemies, foreign and domestic.'”

Williams told the officers, “You might lose your job, but I’d rather lose my job than lose my soul.

“What are you going to tell your little boy or your little girl tonight? That you took your baton and you crushed somebody’s skull, who was a mom? Is that what a tough guy does? That’s not what honor, courage and commitment means in the Marine Corps.”

Williams pressed further.

“We always have in the military, we have ‘what’s a lawful order,'” he said. “And you’ve gotta check your nutsack when you’re given an order, and you’ve gotta say, ‘Is this a lawful order or is this a bullsh– order?’

“When something’s a bullsh– order, and it doesn’t pass the sniff test, that’s when you say, ‘Sergeant,’ that’s when you say, ‘Colonel,’ that’s when you say, ‘General,’ that’s when you say, ‘Governor, I’m not doing that. I didn’t sign up for that.”

The officers then appeared to leave.

See the video: