I learned something yesterday, and I need to make a correction to things I said before.
The policemen who were beating demonstrators in the streets during the first four days of the Egyptian Revolution were not defending Mubarak. They were following orders. Perhaps they were not as malicious as I took them to be. My initial assessment was right: they were pawns, following orders under threat of God-knows from their officers.
I should clarify that the "policemen" in Egypt are really just conscripts, like Marines in the US, and they're referred to as 'soldiers' just like those in the army. The actual trained policemen are the officers who were abusing their power, and who were defending Mubarak during the demonstrations.
Dad told me that he watched, on CNN, demonstrators and soldiers of the riot police throwing rocks and tear gas canisters at each other. Finally one man approached the soldiers with his hands raised in the air. Everyone stopped throwing things. The man reached the soldiers... and hugged one of them. They realized that they were all Egyptians, and they didn't want to fight each other. This is why the system of the riot police dissolved after just four days.
The real villains were the officers who were intimidating the soldiers into following orders. When it became clear that the protesters could not be suppressed, the officers were the first to flee. And it was they who released all the prisoners on the city. Some even took part in the looting themselves. And it is these people, starting with the Minister of Interior who gave the orders, who are now being tried for their crimes.
The policemen who were beating demonstrators in the streets during the first four days of the Egyptian Revolution were not defending Mubarak. They were following orders. Perhaps they were not as malicious as I took them to be. My initial assessment was right: they were pawns, following orders under threat of God-knows from their officers.
I should clarify that the "policemen" in Egypt are really just conscripts, like Marines in the US, and they're referred to as 'soldiers' just like those in the army. The actual trained policemen are the officers who were abusing their power, and who were defending Mubarak during the demonstrations.
Dad told me that he watched, on CNN, demonstrators and soldiers of the riot police throwing rocks and tear gas canisters at each other. Finally one man approached the soldiers with his hands raised in the air. Everyone stopped throwing things. The man reached the soldiers... and hugged one of them. They realized that they were all Egyptians, and they didn't want to fight each other. This is why the system of the riot police dissolved after just four days.
The real villains were the officers who were intimidating the soldiers into following orders. When it became clear that the protesters could not be suppressed, the officers were the first to flee. And it was they who released all the prisoners on the city. Some even took part in the looting themselves. And it is these people, starting with the Minister of Interior who gave the orders, who are now being tried for their crimes.
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