anticipate orders

Solution 1:

"Anticipate" does not mean obey.

The definition you are presumably looking at is:

to answer (a question), obey (a command), or satisfy (a request) before it is made

I have emphasized the important part of the definition, which is "before it is made". You only anticipate an order if you do it before the order is given.

While it can theoretically be OK to anticipate an order, in this case it probably means he did something like arresting someone before he was ordered to. He was gambling that the order would be given, but if it wasn't it means he did it without orders, which would be illegal.