Think Spain under Franco. The Federales policemen could shoot anyone. No questions asked.
Think pre-war Spain. It was the murder of conservative parliamentarian José Calvo Sotelo by paramilitary leftists that precipitated the civil war.
I’ve been in a number of Asian and European countries. Three times in Spain—1959, 1965 and 2009. I felt very safe in Madrid and Seville in 1959 and 1965. In 2009, Barcelona creeped me out. I also felt safe in the Philippines in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s with Marcos in power.