[ExI] usage question

[Gary Miller]

Damien Broderick asked

> What am I missing? I've never heard this expression, but I'd guess it
> means "You're acting like a bad child, I'll have to report you to
> your mother and have her perform some severe correction." Or could it
> mean, "I see your mama the crack ho is out on the street hustling her
> booty"? Or is it just that for (white?) working class USians, mothers
> are sacred and must *never* be so much as *mentioned* by *anyone*
> except in tones of deepest respect.
>

In the intermixed racial rural neighborhood which I grew up in 30 years ago, 
even then bringing
the opponent's mother into a verbal conflict was an invitation to fist 
fight. This was true regardless
of the ethnic background of the participants.  As nonsensical as it seems, 
if you did not respond to
a comment about your mother with either violence or an even worse verbal 
comment
designed to make the other participant initiate violence, you were regarded 
as a coward of
the lowest form not even brave enough to defend your mother's honor.

Only the closest of friends engaging in mock combat could get away with 
dissing each others mothers
and escape physical combat.  And I have even seen good friends get into fist 
fights when that type
of mock verbal combat got out of hand and one or both of them let the words 
escalate to irrational anger.

Police officers are human beings too and are trained to be aggressive and to 
take control of the situation.
When a suspect does not become docile or passive in defusing the situation 
they always come out on
the losing side of the game.  It's my feeling that this individual was so 
confident in social standing and rank in the
the community that he felt his righteous indignation would win out over the 
police in the long run, which in fact it did.