<h1 class="entry-title">The Army and the Police are one</h1>
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<span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author">Posted on</span> <a href="http://www.occupiedlondon.org/cairo/?p=355" title="11:28 am" rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">February 26, 2011</span></a> <span class="byline"><span class="meta-sep">by</span> <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="http://www.occupiedlondon.org/cairo/?author=1" title="View all posts by admin">admin</a></span></span><span class="comments-link"><span class="meta-sep">|</span> <a href="http://www.occupiedlondon.org/cairo/?p=355#comments" title="Comment on The Army and the Police are one">1 Comment</a></span>
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<p>The sad events of tonight will hopefully bury that relatively
misguided phrase ÇáÌíÔ æ ÇáÔÚÈ ÃíÏ æÇÍÏÉ, “the people and the army are
one hand” and reveal that the true nature of the situation in Egypt is
better described as ÇáÎíÔ æ ÇáÔÑØÉ ÃíÏ æÇÍÏÉ “the army and the police
are one hand.” A group of several hundred peaceful protestors,
attempting to stay the night in Tahrir square and in front of the
People’s Assembly to protest continued military rule and the persistence
of the old regime’s illegitimate presence in government, were violently
attacked and driven away by Military Police, Army officers and
commandos wearing balaclavas and wielding sub-machine guns. One
protestor, taken inside of the People’s Assembly building by army
officers and beaten, was told bluntly “don’t fuck with the army.”</p>
<p>The victims of this assault were the committed remnants of an earlier
protest of thousands in front of the square, whose numbers were perhaps
artificially low since the army had kettled those already camped out
and prevented others from joining them. These would-be demonstrators
were quickly and unflinchingly attacked by military police and army
soldiers using nightsticks and cattle prods, beating and shocking them
until they were forced to scatter. Many people were abducted, including
Shady al Ghazali Harb and one ‘foreign’ journalist who was taken away
early (whereabouts currently unkown). Many more people were injured to
varying degrees, some quite seriously, including several people passing
out from the voltage of the stun batons; some of the injured required
treatment at hospital.</p>
<p>The putative excuse for this assault was that protestors were in
violation of curfew; aside from a curfew violation not justifying
extreme physical violence without warning, this is effectively the same
curfew that was flaunted without consequence throughout the entire
initial sequence of this revoultion. The army, since taking control over
the executive, has been increasingly strict (read: arbitrary, violent)
in its enforcement of the curfew, seemingly in order to prevent sit-ins
and other nighttime demonstrations. We saw no property damage or other
violence during curfew hours in previous weeks (except that perpetrated
by government-hired thugs), and so the presumption that this is “for our
own protection” is a farce that hardly warrants discussion. Collective
punishment, an air of anxiety, and the disruption of continued control
and presence of key protest sites are the only observable motives of
this curfew.</p>
<p><span>The greater point, however, which comes as no surprise to most
involved in this revolution, is that the army is no friend of the
people. This institution is as much a part of the regime as any other,
representing not just the same entrenched military-political elite that
have ruled Egypt for 60 years but also enormous and substantial business
interests that benefit from preferential treatment and systemic
corruption. There has been little doubt in anyone’s mind that the army’s
preference would be to maintain most of the<span id="dtx-highlighting-item"> cou</span>ntry’s
infrastructure (police and political) just as it was before, while
placating the people telling them that it was their ally and guardian.
And yet, and yet, we see the same violence directed at citizens here
that we have seen in the hands of police (and only a day after a police
officer shot a microbus driver during a verbal argument in the street).
The army has shown its bloody hand, and the only hope is that the news
of this will spread fast enough that people can realize their complicity
and duplicity before any more blood need be spilled.</span></p>
<p>This remains a regime and a system which has been trained and taught
to regard people as a threat to their continued privilege and
prosperity, who in the name of stability create chaos, pain and anxiety
for anyone who would seek to be present in public, to voice an opinion
or seek after their long-lost rights. Whatever expectations the Egyptian
people may have had from the army, and whatever the army may have done
by way of protecting civilians during the early weeks of protest (as
they did somewhat, but not enough) should be meaningless now. Now in the
seat of power, they display the same callous paternalism and heavy hand
that the old figureheads of the regime did, and whether this is their
desire or this is simply the machine controlling its operator, serious
structural and institutional change is the only possible acceptable
outcome.</p>
<p>Out with the army, out with the police, out with the old regime. All
one hand, all working together to drive the Egyptian people into
despair, subjection and quiescence. We, however, have had a taste of the
immediacy of freedom and will neither be placated by the gifts of the
state nor cowed by its criminal, unacceptable violence</p><a href="http://www.occupiedlondon.org/cairo/?p=355">http://www.occupiedlondon.org/cairo/?p=355</a>