Policing by Consent

I do not intend to discuss the reasons for the recent riots in the U.K. Only an intellectually and morally castrated liberal could fail to explain their cause.

What interests me is the idea of policing "by consent": the proposition that the police should apply the law only when people accept it, the people in question being, supposedly the local criminals. Public safety is here, clearly, a secondary consideration.

By extension, I suppose there should also be fines and imprisonment "by consent":

Judge: Mr Brown, I am sentencing you to three years imprisonment. Are you cool with that?

Mr Brown: You gotta be joking, geezer. No I ****ing ain't. [exit, waving two fingers and chortling]