I mentioned that, but note at this point it's not just that. Democracy here returned in '83. While there is a structural problem of the police force still employing people from the dictatorship era, it's mostly fresh blood now.

Police officers behaving brutally are a thing of new democratic governments here. Democratic neoliberal pro-business governments like our recent former president took a hardliner stance for police enforcement, encouraging a "heavy hand", but even supposedly "liberal" governments have a difficult time with police brutality. These are young officers harassing the poor, the homeless, student organizations, etc.

Other countries like the US also have a history of the police harassing the poor, activists, blacks, etc. I see it in the news and reading about the history of the US. It's not specific to Argentina.

The difference comes in the meaning behind words like 'harassing'- when the police here harass the homeless it's shining a light on them and telling them to get moving, not usually a kick or a poke in the ribs.

Of course there are other issues in the US, mostly centered around race, where we don't look that good...

Oh, I agree it's not exactly the same situation. Though I believe the power difference between someone in uniform wielding a stick and a gun and a homeless/poor person is more universal and tends to lead to abuse. (In some cases, not even a poor person, just an unarmed one, can lead to police excessive use of force. We have seen this many times, even in the US).