Egyptian riot police clash with protestors in Cairo Khalil Hamra/AP
The Most Worrying Thing About Egypt's Coup: the Police
After a return of Mubarak-era elements and strong-arm tactics, revolutionaries have yet to articulate a clear vision of a functional, pluralistic government.
CAIRO - History doesn't operate in perfect analogies, but I couldn't help comparing the celebration that marked President Morsi's overthrow to the more exuberant outbreak when Hosni Mubarak fell.
Last week as I pushed past families, men blowing vuvuzelas, and candy peddlers, a policeman swaggered past in his white uniform, his belly and chin thrust forward, smiling ever so slightly. A man leapt toward him and brushed his forearm. "Congratulations, ya basha," he said, in an almost feudal show of respect. The cop nodded in acknowledgement without breaking stride. He walked like a man with authority.
Two and a half years ago, one of the signal triumphs of the revolution was the expulsion not only of Mubarak, but of the detested police. They had strutted all over the rights and dignity of Egyptians. They had tortured with impunity, beaten the innocent and the guilty, detained at a whim, demanded bribes, colluded with common criminals. At the beginning of the uprising, the public had enshrined a magnanimous principle of people power; they won a street war and then declined to lynch the defeated policemen, instead in one instance releasing them to skulk home in their underwear.
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