Egypt’s Police: What happened to reform? - The Economist

Recently the situation has descended into anarchy with kidnappings and the death or beating of activists. Police are said to have taken revenge for their humiliation by brutality or even shooting demonstrators dead. When cases are brought against the police they are acquitted or suffer only a light sentence.

The political crisis with President Morsi and the brotherhood battling opposition groups have caught the police in the middle and they have gone on strike refusing to protect Muslim Brotherhood offices. The police do not want to be dragged into politics having being blamed for supporting the Mubarak regime. The government is trying to improve conditions for the police but the opposition sees this as trying to make them Muslim Brotherood loyalists. Muhammad Ibrahim the interior minister seen as close to the Bortherhood denies police brutality ignoring the reality on the streets recorded on Youtube.

Alarm at the effects of the police strike effective in 10 provinces out of 27 has prompted the Islamist dominated parliament to call for an old law on citizens' arrests to be revived. The opposition says that this will enable the deployment of Islamist militias, The Economist reports. There have already been two incidents where villagers have lynched alleged robbers taking the law into their own hands.