Police absence blamed for rising crime rate in Egypt

Crimes committed in Egypt have increased several-fold in February and March compared to the same period last year, residents and a top security official said.

Armed robberies in the capital have also risen in Cairo’s poorer neighborhoods, remote areas and on highways, residents said.

Suhair Al-Bokl, a 60-year-old housewife, was robbed of her handbag at knife-point in front of her apartment block in the Cairo suburb of Al-Mokattam. “I still don't believe that this has actually occurred in front of my own house,” she told Al Arabiya.

“I thank God that they only stole my handbag and did not stab me.”

The uptick in crime is part of a broader environment of anxiety and uncertainty gripping Egypt since the forced resignation of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Mrs. Al-Bokl’s daughter Manal Atteya–a dentist who lives on the same block–said that she worries about her own two young daughters.

“It is not safe anymore,” she said. “I even stopped taking my daughters to the club for their swimming lessons, fearing we might get harassed by any thugs.”

In recent months, a number of high-profile crimes were highlighted in Egyptian media further adding to anxiety prevailing among residents.

A month ago, a police lieutenant escaped death when people in the street attacked him violently in the Cairo suburb of Maadi.

Masked gunmen kidnapped a grandniece of the late Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat and demanded a ransom last week.

Thousands of football fans invaded the pitch before the end of an African Champions' game between the local club Zamalek and Tunisia's Club Africain. But the hundreds of policemen on duty at Cairo International Stadium could not stop the violent crowd.

“Police morale is very low,” Maj. Gen. Mohsen Murad, director of public security at the Interior Ministry, said at a recent news conference. “The psychological state of many officers is bad, their firearms have been looted and their stations have been torched.”

A security vacuum was partly associated with a chain of events in the 18-day revolution that eventually forced Mr. Mubarak to step down on February 11. Three days into the revolt, the police withdrew from the streets in what are still-unexplained circumstances following deadly clashes with protesters in Cairo and across much of the nation.

On January 28, the gates of several prisons were mysteriously opened and thousands of criminals rejoined society. Simultaneously, dozens of police stations around the country were stormed and set ablaze, with hundreds of detained suspects freed and firearms looted.

Eventually, Egyptian Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawy dissolved the country’s State Security agency, in a nod to a key demand of the youth groups behind the uprising. The agency was blamed for the worst human rights abuses during Mr. Mubarak’s 30-year rule. But the time it will take to replace the agency gives criminals a window of opportunity.

The spike in crime has made some nostalgic for the Mubarak era, when the mostly corrupt and now discredited police force used torture, intimidation and blackmail to keep crime in check. “At least in the past, we didn't have those fears over our children and private property,” said Dr. Atteya, the dentist.

Mohammed Amr, an accountant and activist, told Al Arabiya by phone that “any revolution has its setbacks. Followers of the ousted regime are trying their best to spread fear among the citizens so that people would look back to the Mubarak days as being safer and more stable.”

Mr. Amr added: “Anything that is happening now in Egypt is much better than the past years of Mubarak’s regime. Despite hearing all those accidents, I am still optimistic that tomorrow is much better than yesterday.”

(Abeel Tayel of Al Arabiya can be reached via email at: [email protected])