You can be charged, but the charge often doesn't stick. Yelling, swearing, and insulting police officers is largely protected speech under the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court and the First Circuit Court of Appeals - which covers Rhode Island - have repeatedly held that citizens have a constitutional right to criticize, question, and record police performing their duties in public. The line is "fighting words" and true threats: language that, by its very utterance, provokes immediate violence. That is a high bar, and most yelling-at-police arrests don't clear it. When Rhode Island police charge disorderly conduct based only on what you said to them, a Rhode Island disorderly conduct lawyer will move to dismiss on First Amendment grounds. Those motions succeed more often than people realize, especially when there is body-cam or bystander video showing you never touched the officer, never advanced, and never used genuine fighting words. Don't plead to a First Amendment case.
