[willy]

first Cy let me say that i dont second guess any cop, but from what i saw there, no violence, no previous contact with this kid, so no history of problems. what do you have, a kid skate boarding where he is not supposed to.
From what i saw there you have kid who is speaking cool, trying to be cool in a situation with a cop, in front of his buddies.
You can confront that kid about any percieved disrespect right up in his face without yelling at the top of your lungs and implying his parents are not doing a good job and that he will someday get killed for calling someone a dude and that the cop feels he can kick his teeth in or put a boot up his *** like his parents should be doing.
Cops should escalate only when they are confronted with a suspect that is not responding to the least aggressive action needed.
If I was the supervisor of that officer I would have pulled him aside and had a talk with him. If it had been my son and he was treated like that then I would be confronting first my son and setting him straight and having him apologize to the officer and then I would be speaking with that officers supervisor.
That kid will never trust a cop, even if he should again. His opinion of cops will be affected the rest of his life. Do you think that kid will ever forget that confrontation, and not in a positive way knowing that he did something really wrong and that he deserved being humiliated and threatened.
Nah Cy, I along with many officers I know would have handled that firmly but without losing our cool and would have had a much better result.
Just my opinion.