I learned as a high school teacher that the best way to untangle fights is to distract, and the best distraction is to ask questions.
One that works great was, “Do you know who I am?” If forces them to consider who they’re dealing with in the context of consequence. Another that worked wonders was, “What’d you have for breakfast? Are you Cheerios or Lucky Charms?” (Seriously!) Challenging them to respond to a question always created a pause, if not stopped the fight altogether.
Looking at that video of the ahole who accosted a woman with a NYPD hat, I see that she responded with absolutes, which her attacker then dismissed and escalated with another accusation. She might better have deflected him by questioning his own accusations, which would immediately throw him on the defense.
I have a good feeling about how online bullies would respond to ,”do you know who I am?”
You’ve just opened the door for every variation of four letter words so to speak.