Giving any organization a monopoly in the use of force is very dangerous, and this demands very strong oversight by the subject populace. Most people trust government way too much, usually when they have not been on the wrong side of abuse. most people also trust their news sources too much, and especially when they say the same things.
Police and prosecutors are human, not angels. Peace officers no more, now they’re law enforcers.
In maybe even most areas in Latin America police are useless at even law enforcement, & ill trained.
But in a few areas I know of personally, citizens do not rely on somebody else for protection of person or property or family. They openly carry really big guns, concealed ones, and may have a bunch of AK-47s stashed somewhere.
The weapons left over from the guerrilla years and the Contra years ended up in big trunks of everybody’s homes. In one incident, some combatants on either side took to crime. A group set up a roadblock to rob a bunch of cars & buses on the road.
One Pepsi trucker took out his AK-4, “I didn’t bring this for nothing’ and began shooting at the robbers. Shots started coming from the trees. Then the grannies & the daddies & the others brought out theirs, and the bad guys were getting a rotten day because a bunch of good guys brought their guns, gun laws be damned. My now-wife and her now-ex were on a tour bus. The tour bus driver took off, taking advantage of the confusion.
Bad guys got a big surprise that day by people who had the means of self defense themselves.