Police Withdraw From Streets In Cairo

[babylonsister]

Mubarak hangs on to power as protests, looting convulse Egypt
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 30, 2011 -- Updated 0640 GMT (1440 HKT)


Editor's Note: This article is being updated constantly by CNN reporters worldwide. Follow the latest tweets from CNN correspondents and images from the protests. Send your video, images to CNN iReport.

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Relative calm settled on Cairo in the hours before sunrise on Sunday, after tens of thousands of demonstrators defied a curfew on Saturday to demand change and new fears of anarchy spread as President Hosni Mubarak clung to power.

As Mubarak tried to redeem his 30-year rule, the world's attention fell on central Cairo, where the Army was deployed to replace police forces that clashed brutally with demonstrators. But with many Cairo neighborhoods left without any security, Egyptians began to feel the sting of politics cutting into personal safety.

Shops and businesses were looted and abandoned police stations stripped clean of their arsenals.

In one area, residents set up barricades and handed out sticks and kitchen knives as defense measures. Another group of men armed themselves and planned to sit outside all night to guard their houses.

"There have been no police officers on the streets since this morning," Cairo resident Sherief Abdelbaki said. "All the men are trying to protect the ladies, their wives and children."

more...

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/29/egypt.protests/index.html?hpt=T1

[IDemo]

1. Have the cops been withdrawn to avoid today's bloodshed?

Fighters and helicopters overhead, new tanks on the ground. Today is not shaping up well, so far.