People are way less likely to mess with you when you actively show them your balls.

I totally understand. I guess what I mean by what i wrote is that YOU have to walk in the room, and TELL them they need to get their shit together...no writing memos, no asking for meetings. You're going in already on your back foot. I'm saying, unprompted, before another incident, you stop the higher ups in the hallway, you walk into the office or you interrupt them, and TELL them this shit is childish and a waste of time, and until there is a legitimate issue, you won't be attending anymore meetings to prove you aren't a problem. I had a supervisor go on a power trip, and he tried to suspend me from my job. I immediately went to his boss, interrupting a 15 person meeting, and told him this was not acceptable, and not the way to manage a team. The next day i was told that they decided not to suspend me, and i replied that no, they were told by their supervisor that they weren't going to. He asked how i knew that, and i told him that i went over his head because of his recent behaviour. Shit stopped fast when he realized people will not tolerate it.