Adverse circumstances and heated verbal attacks by angry citizens sometimes triggers a (natural) response on the part of police officers to respond in kind, or, at the extreme, with verbal abuse in the form of threats to use their lawful powers of arrest for intimidation purposes where, in fact, any such use of arrest powers is unlawful under the given circumstances.

Typical examples with potential to trigger verbal abuse by police would include responding to members of the public who are indeed complying with a lawful order to disperse, or to vacate a specific area, but who do so while expressing their verbal disagreement or displeasure with the officer's command. They may even choose to insult the officer personally, but provided their actions do not constitute a threat to the officer or a refusal to obey his lawful orders, and as long as their manner of expression does not constitute...
[ View Full Essay]