CAIRO - The recent revolution has got rid of a corrupt, totalitarian regime. Egyptians who suffered from injustice are now enjoying freedom and looking forward to a better future. However, the public were terrified when the police ran off and criminals escaped from prison in the early days of the revolution. These two factors have caused an alarming increase in the crime rate. According to statistics from the Public Security Department, tens of murders are being occurred every day, while there are also many incidents of aggravated robbery and armed burglary. We're still waiting for many policemen to return to work, while the Armed Forces are doing their best to maintain security in the streets. In the absence of police officers, many commercial enterprises, like pharmacies and jewellers', have been robbed by armed thugs, even in the broad light of day. Even police stations have been attacked by thugs, allowing the prisoners inside to escape. Meanwhile, Minister of Interior Mansour el-Essawi has been trying to support the revolution by pressurising officers to work at locations they're reluctant to work at. These days, it's not unusual to find the corpses of murder victims dumped beside the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road. The largest number of murders are committed in Cairo, Giza, el-Qaliubia and Helwan governorates, and 6th of October, specifically in the districts of Shubra el-Kheima, el-Khanka, Qaliub, el-Darb el-Ahmar, el-Matariya, Ain Shams, Old Cairo, el-Moqattam, el-Khalifa, Imbaba, el-Omrania, Boulaq el-Dakrour, Kerdasa and Manshiyet el-Qanater. In these populated districts, thugs with guns thrive. Retired security expert Mohamed Ibrahim told Al-Ahram semi-official newspaper that the murder statistics are alarming. “If 40 people are murdered daily, that's 1,200 per month. We normally associate that kind of number with a war. The problem is the absence of police officers. “High crimes are something alien to Egypt. This normally happens when there's a revolution,“ said Ibrahim. “But you can't blame the revolutionaries, as criminals, most of them escaped convicts, are to blame. “There are still tens of thousands of escaped convicts at large. I used to work for the Ministry of Interior in the prisons' sector and I know how dangerous they are. They're armed with guns stolen from police stations, making them even more dangerous.”
