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Ok, but then it's not a criticism since you completely leave out the central issue of the source of authority. In particular, your clarification implies that y

• AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  Well, it's "will of some large subset of the people". It's probably not ever the will of the muggers. In particular, it's rarely voluntary on the part of the person being arrested. And that's kind of the point. We, the majority of the people, voluntarily bestow on the police the authority to act, within limits, on our behalf, up to and including the use of force. Having done so, however, those police have (within those limits) legitimate authority even over those of us who wanted there to be a police force, even when (in that encounter) we do not voluntarily submit to them. So: Is that a voluntary system? Yes and no. You could say it's voluntary that we set it up. But it's not voluntary when you're on the receiving end.