Social Uprisings and Police Posture

I've written previously about my displeasure for the over-militarization of America's police forces. I generally think that units like LAPD's original SWAT are important, but that law enforcement would benefit from a more unarmed posture. That being said, there is a different history here in Chile that directly impacts the relationship the police have with the general public.
You may remember a guy named Augusto Pinochet that led a military coup in 1973 and continued to be Chile's dictator until 1990. Well I can only imagine that some of the Chilean police force's posture comes with that historical lesson in mind. March 29th is "Dia del Joven Combatiente" or "Day of the Young Combatants". It's a multi-day festival and protest that celebrates and mourns the death of the Vergara brothers twenty years ago. The protests tend to turn very violent and Cait received an email from the embassy a few days ago, warning foreigners of the disturbances.
With all that in mind, here are some pictures of the Carabineros de Chile(State Police) that we've been seeing around the city. In taking a picture of the graffiti above, Cait and I walked through what we
can only imagine to be the remnants of pepper spray. As soon as we saw the graffiti, announcing this year's protests, our eyes began to water, we began sneezing and I had some trouble breathing. We'd been walking through an area that was likely to see some action and had been commenting on what seemed to be an unusually heavy police presence. These fully armored Carabineros were all around us... and while their numbers were impressive... for many of these guys, the uniform you see is their daily getup. Even the private security officers you find at retail stores wear bullet proof vests every day. Maybe all of this is why Chile was ranked as the safest country in South America...