Ever been to Sicily? I counted 3 different types of police and heavily armed military units patrolling the streets on regular basis. That was well before the pandemic. Maybe that's how some places are run
It wasnt heavily armed & riot police deployments that surprised me it was their deployment in what seemed like fairly quiet upper middle class neighborhoods.
I only saw that once before - in altamira caracas.
Ive seen plenty of armed police in Italy but they were focused in highly trafficked city centre/touristy areas. Italy seems pretty excessively militarized but the pattern of deployment is normal.
