"I want the police to take control of the country again"

“It’s not just lawlessness. It’s a complete lack of security,” said Fadia Abu Shahba, a criminal researcher at the National Center for Social and Criminal Studies. “There was such anger towards the police from the people because the people were attacked. People would curse them and hit them. But they are our children and we need security. Security is one of our most precious rights.”

In her research on carjackings Abu Shahba found that criminals who once used more benign weapons such as small knives and sticks had graduated to machine guns and rifles. She said in 2011 there were more than 40,000 carjackings in Egypt compared with about 4,000 in 2010. Part of this she blames on the “counterrevolution,” trying to sully the name of revolutionaries and force people to wish for an oppressive but safe police state of the past…

“Theft has become normal, rape has become normal, there is no safety at all and the police, with all due respect, are afraid,” Hashem said. “I want the police to take control of the country again.’’

“Honestly, Mubarak robbed us and plundered our country and our people,’’ she added, “but we never saw crime like this.”