[a3n]

Imagine you make an omelette every morning, or a grilled cheese sandwich every lunch. Imagine when you first start this habit, you make every meal with care. If you've seen the movie "Chef," remember the scene where he's making a grilled cheese sandwich; I've never seen such care.

But you're not Chef, you're just a guy making a routine breakfast or lunch. As time goes by you get used to the routine. It's just an omelette or sandwich, you'll never think of each particular one once it's consumed. If there's a hole in an omelette, or the bread in the sandwich is skewed, you won't even remember it later in the day. It's just a thing you do every day, and despite any earlier desire to be the best omelette or sandwich maker, the only really important thing is that you've eaten.

Those cops do that job every day, and the only important thing to them is that they've taken someone off the bus and searched them, and they can then report that. Discovery of contraband is just a bonus.

The do it every day, and unless they find something they will never see "you" ever again. In fact they don't even see "you" during the event. You're just a resource so that they can make a report.

You're just a resource.

Would it ever occur to you to apologize to your sandwich for being less than perfect?

Would it ever occur to those police to notice the individual, in a routine played out every day, and apologise or even acknowledge?

You're just a resource.

[guard-of-terra]

Hairdressers and doctors (and even more so baristas) have all the same situation, and yet they usually find means to be polite.

So no, it's not excuse, never was, never will be.

[a3n]

It's not an excuse. It's a description.

The difference between civilian occupations and law enforcement is that cops look for bad. They see everyone with suspicion. It's a conflict, where the occupations you list all participants have essentially the same goal. An interaction as described with cops is not voluntary and both sides have different motivations: to get away as quickly and non-disruptively as possible, vs trying to find evidence of any crime you might have committed.

[guard-of-terra]

When you buy something, you have very different motivation than seller does, there's a conflict of interests.

Most people aren't criminals so police should be polite by default. They should be providing an example first, looking for criminals second. Unless they're on the chase of a known criminal, of course. Unfortunately, these days it is not enforced by anything, so we should take steps to restore those affairs.

[lordnacho]

Right, next time the police are impolite I'll go to the competition.

[guard-of-terra]

That is neither excuse for them nor for you.

[T-hawk]

Hairdressers, doctors, and baristas operate in a market of free choice. Their motivation to be polite is that customers will go elsewhere if they don't.

Police officers have a monopoly in their industry. If you're being detained, you can't choose to take your business to another police jurisdiction. You're stuck with them no matter how rude they decide to be.