I feel that we are worse off now than we were even 100 years ago. Here in Nicaragua, we have at least three different levels of policing within the police department with the lowest level directing traffic and being school crossing guards. The highest levels get to use military weapons and have the "honor" of accompanying the paramilitary (mercenaries and riff-raff private army of the gruesome twosome). There is another group of paramilitary charged with keeping "public order". Then you have the military "keeping the country free of interlopers. All cross boundaries and can shoot first and ask questions later. No-one is safe from these marauding forces...
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I couldn't even begin to name all the different "policing" agencies we have here in this country. But the different levels are federal, state, county, precinct (county), and then municipal(city). Even the school districts have their own police departments in a lot of areas, including the school district we live in. It is really insane just how much and many police agencies we have to have here in the USA.
It isn't uncommon that the different agencies end up at odds with each other either. I've been following a story in the state of New Mexico where a local police department is having issues with the county sheriff. The police even went as far as arresting the sheriff for interfering with police activities within the city's jurisdiction. A full SWAT team from police department surrounded the sheriff's office and had rifles locked and loaded and trained on the sheriff's department employees in "case some trouble" erupted.
Reminds of drug cartels or motorcycle gangs having a "turf war".
Our police are equipped with military style weapons and vehicles that were "donated" by the federal government when they updated the army's equipment. Of course it was also mandatory that those local agencies had to follow federal guidelines and agree to federal programs. I think that all started about the time that the DOJ started rolling out 'civil asset forfeiture' where the law enforcement agencies can confiscate property of people who are suspected of criminal activity.
Those are types of things we expect to hear about in countries such as yours where a dictator is in charge but it happens right here in the "good old USA". We really are worse off in one sense than people living under a dictatorship and that is that we believe in the "illusion" of our freedom. We need to admit our failures like a drunkard does in his acceptance when he joins an alcoholic recovery program.
At least those living under a dictator have enough sense to realize it, we are like blind people when it comes to realization, we just don't see it even though we stare right into it everyday.
Unfortunately, there are still people who follow the dictatorship blindly.