People are frequently "straight up disrespectful" to me in my work. I have to maintain professionalism and composure at all times, and if I were to suggest otherwise I'd get laughed at best. I don't see why it's hard to ask for cops to do the same. A real threat that I need to call security for is very easy to distinguish from a person just being an asshole.

> The parent described a story from a different reality - one where people are people, where communities have basic expectations of conduct, and authority is respected on all sides. The cop was angered and snapped (bad), but was stopped by their partner (good, and it's one of the reasons cops have partners!). The parent was a kid who behaved like an asshole in a moment, by their own admission. Plenty of teenagers act like that, it's an age-old more. The judge did not act as a proxy for the angry cop to retaliate, but instead reacted correctly by both praising the civic attitude (to the chagrin and I imagine further embarrassment of that cop), and addressing the behavior that is not welcome in a civilized community.

So why did he not give the cop community service then?

> And then people are surprised and saddened when LEO start acting like robots and default to treating you as threat to be mitigated as much as legally allowed in context.

yeah that would be pretty petty, given that most people in their lives are able to perfectly deal with such behaviour, whether it's their job or in personal life, without a judge to slap annoying people on the wrist

what is this prima donna behaviour?

it is them that need to work to deserve their uniform, they need to understand it is an honour they have to keep up, be the better person. if you can't do that, you have no job wearing that uniform.

but I guess their narcissism must feel strengthened by people like you arguing this is perfectly reasonable behaviour for officers of the law

you can have it both ways, you just need to want it

Police do need authority and respect in order to do their jobs, of course. But at the same time their position of power and their role as maintainers of public peace mean they should have a thicker skin rather than thinner. They should be able to keep their professionalism and composure in the face of adversity better than the average person, and someone being verbally disrespectful towards them is at the lower end of that.

Police officers who think their pride needs to be put first in the name of authority may be common around the world but that doesn't mean reactive cops are a good thing.

It's perfectly legal in the US. In fact it's legal to lean out your window and yell at them. It's protected speech here, and for good reason. Otherwise the cops could just say your speech made them feel disrespected and you could get penalized. The first amendment in the US has been interpreted pretty broadly to protect a lot of speech that in other countries could get you fines or jailtime.