WHAT is going on at the Ministry of the Interior? Why has the security agency failed to restore order and security to society even after naming the first elected president? Since taking office, President Mohammed Morsi has made some good gestures towards the security agency by meeting with its senior officers, expressing his full trust in them and in their loyalty to the national interest. Information leaked over the formation of the new government stated that the Minister of the Interior Mohamed Ibrahim would remain in new cabinet. All this should have prompted the security enforcers to enhance their efforts to restore security to the street. However, what are being seen are more riots and assaults by thugs not only on private property with thefts of personal possessions, but also on public institutions. Hospitals have been the main victims to such an extent as to force many governmental hospitals to close their emergency sections, because of the repeated attacks on doctors if they failed to resuscitate a patient. The barbaric assault on a young police officer by a group of thugs in Al-Arbaeen suburb in Suez, when he attempted to enforce a court ruling of closure of a shop that was violating the law, is a stark example of the spread of thuggery in the street. The young officer was stabbed by the thugs more than 20 times at different parts of his body and when the public tried to save him the criminals shot at them, causing the death of one and injury of another. They were about to set fire in his bleeding body when one of his colleagues rushed to rescue him from their hands. The silent reaction from the Interior Ministry for this atrocity against one of its men, who intended to fulfill his duty of forcing the rule of law, is unacceptable as it serves nothing but the spread of thuggery and violence in the society. Apparently the identities of these thugs are known to inhabitants of the area who would co-operate with the security agency to get rid of them. The least it should do is to direct a huge police force to the suburb and arrest those thugs to bring them to the court for trial and fitting punishment – the maximum sentence for this murderous crime.. This would not only be just, but would also deter others, who are continuing to bring chaos, disorder and brutality.
