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Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights HQ Jan. 22, 2013
In many cases, the violence would start
when the victim so much as mentioned the revolution.
Often there would be an exchange of words
until the person would say something like
'haven't you learned anything?'
or 'aren't you ever going to change?'
or 'wasn't there a revolution in this country?'
A comment like that would be the secret code
that unleashed the beatings
or the decision to arrest the person in question.
Our reports prove that nothing has changed,
not in ideology, or in actual policing practices [Hosam Bahgat, chief officer, EIPR]
or in the attitude of state prosecutors
whose main role is to shield the police from punishment.
Today we issued a report about the revolution two years on
[Two years on: the injustice continues, state crimes still go unpunished.]
that looks at police crimes and impunity.
[Karim Midhat EIPR researcher]
We've been documenting police behavior for two years now
and we've also made practical recommendations
for restructuring the police and security apparatus
and what we've seen over the past two years
is that there's been no substantive change
So our message is that there has to be a sea-change
in the relationship between the police and the state, and civil society
or these clashes will continue and we'll never solve the problem.