As Security Crisis Deepens in Egypt After Verdict, Calls for a Military Coup

“Military rule was bad, but they would be better,” Ahmed Abdel Fattah, 50, said. “Where is the state? Where is the interior ministry, the government? Where are the decisions to protect the interests of the people?” He added: “The military should take over until the police are ready.”

Although such calls are hardly universal and there is no threat of an imminent coup, murmurs that military intervention may be the only solution to the collapse of public security can be heard across the country, in circles opposed to the Islamists who have dominated post-Mubarak elections. The talk reflects the dire state of the security crisis, which threatens not only Egypt’s transition to democracy but also its hopes to stave off economic collapse. And here in Port Said, a focal point of the widening crisis since the police lost control more than a month ago, a form of local military takeover has already taken place.