We have a saying where I am originally from: "mouth mek fi talk." I don't get to hit people who verbally abuse me. I have to either answer back and/or walk away. If I instead drop them with a hard right, I catch a case.
My first job right out of high school for one year before heading to uni was as a bank teller. We were taught that the customer is always right and not to talk back to them. At 18 years of age, I was able to exhibit quite a bit of self control in the face of angry and aggressive people. It's not rally that difficult.
It's called professionalism.
Good post and in most circumstances professionalism is the best route to go.
Where you are from there are also very many sayings about showing respect for others are there not? There are also sayings about
how you conduct yourself as well.
Professionalism works most of the times, but it does not work when you are dealing with people who see your professionalism as weakness.
Regardless of whether you think police officers "deserve" respect, the moment we start to remove their authority, we all lose.
I am pretty sure that one of the problems with where you are from is police abuse of authority.