Egyptian protesters march on the Interior Ministry building; bloodily repulsed by police - Polidicks

[QUOTE]Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Agitated Egyptians carried the wounded -- bleeding and in shock -- to a make-shift clinic on the doorstep of a mosque. A young man's face turned green as a doctor in a blood-stained lab coat pulled up his shirt and began swabbing the puncture wounds in his stomach. "Rubber bullet," one by-stander explained. The man was among thousands of demonstrators who converged Saturday on Egypt's Interior Ministry, one of the most visible signs of state authority in Egypt. They pressed against police lines despite shotgun pellets and tear gas in a chaotic scene that left people spitting up blood and stumbling down crowded streets. Chanting men carried one man's body, wrapped in an Egyptian flag, away from the turmoil. He had been shot at the Interior Ministry, a weeping man said. The clashes killed at least one person and injured 60 others in three hours Saturday afternoon, said to Dr. Radab Ali, who was treating the wounded at the mosque. Another doctor at the mosque said five people had died. "We tried to go to the Interior Ministry building," said Emad Hamdi, a young man with a white bandage on his left cheek. "They started shooting us." The bloodshed around the Interior Ministry contrasted sharply with the festive scene not far away in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where crowds climbed cheering on board Egyptian military tanks and men and women lay smiling and chatting on the grass. Even though police had disappeared from much of the rest of Cairo after days of protests, they had surrounded the Interior Ministry and were firing on protesters, according to journalist Ian Lee, who witnessed the clash. He described the situation as something of a last stand for the authorities. "That is their headquarters," he said. "If that falls then, as many protesters here would say, that would be like a check mate." Lee described a back-and-forth scene as a sea of protesters would surge towards the ministry building, only to have police set up on rooftops and adjacent alleys open fire and push them back. "It's so loud and it's so frequent," Lee said of the gunshots. "You're hearing it continuously in the background, the thud of gunshots and of tear gas." Still, before long, protesters would reassemble and resume their push, chanting anti-government slogans, Lee said. The violence took its toll. One man spat up blood as others dragged him away with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Another stumbled down crowded streets, also spitting blood. Ambulances couldn't get through the thick crowds to evacuate the wounded. "Egypt has been under emergency rule for the last almost 30 years now and the police have been able to do almost whatever they would like without consequence, and the people are now responding to that." Lee said. "This is a huge symbol for people." [img]http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/WORLD/africa/01/29/egypt.interior.ministry.scene/t1larg.cairo.mosque.gi.jpg[/img] [I]Medics in a mosque attend to a man injured Saturday during clashes with police in Cairo, Egypt.[/I][/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/29/egypt.interior.ministry.scene/index.html?hpt=C1[/url]

Crazy situation.

Hopefully the millitary will take the side of the protestors on this one, this is just sick.

[QUOTE=Ragamuffin..;27733760]Hopefully the millitary will take the side of the protestors on this one, this is just sick.[/QUOTE] Hopefully soon, too. All this stuff is good for Egypt, but the faster it finishes with the least amount of deaths, the better.

Well at least this time the protesters grew some balls and DID something other than writing angry messages on signs and yelling about insignificant crap. Wish it hadn't come to this, though.

[QUOTE=Murkat;27733863]Well at least this time the protesters grew some balls and DID something other than writing angry messages on signs and yelling about insignificant crap. Wish it hadn't come to this, though.[/QUOTE] There's ups and downs to that. An angry violent mob can easily go from having a unified goal to a chaotic assembly attacking anything and everything. But I think it's clear though in Egypt that peaceful protests won't get anywhere far. At least not in the short term.

I just hope these are the right kinds of protesters. A corrupt secular government is better than a vigilant theocracy.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;27733911]There's ups and downs to that. An angry violent mob can easily go from having a unified goal to a chaotic assembly attacking anything and everything. But I think it's clear though in Egypt that peaceful protests won't get anywhere far. At least not in the short term.[/QUOTE] It was a peaceful protest until the government decided to make it violent.

[QUOTE=Explosions;27734207]It was a peaceful protest until the government decided to make it violent.[/QUOTE] I know. I'm wasn't saying how it began, only that I hope it ends in the right way.

The government is the only fucking one responsible for this whole mess...

[QUOTE=sharzu;27748782]The government is the only fucking one responsible for this whole mess...[/QUOTE] Thank you Captian Obvious. Major Sarcasm awaaayyyy...

[QUOTE=Mingebox;27734123]I just hope these are the right kinds of protesters. A corrupt secular government is better than a vigilant theocracy.[/QUOTE] I'd say a benevolent theocratic dictatorship is better than a corrupt secular one, but that's a matter of opinion.

[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;27749092]I'd say a benevolent theocratic dictatorship is better than a corrupt secular one, but that's a matter of opinion.[/QUOTE] This is facepunch, they hate religion so much that a democracy with religious people in it is bad in their opinion. I'm atheist but I don't think religion does as much harm as the hardcore atheists say it does.

[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;27749092]I'd say a benevolent theocratic dictatorship is better than a corrupt secular one, but that's a matter of opinion.[/QUOTE] Benevolent anything tops corrupt, what he implied though was the theocracies that stone women for not covering up and the like. Still secular wins out for me.

[QUOTE=bravehat;27749148]Benevolent anything tops corrupt, what he implied though was the theocracies that stone women for not covering up and the like. Still secular wins out for me.[/QUOTE] A democracy with religious people in it is better than anything but benevolent X (but not in the long term) and a democracy that doesn't care about religion.

Why? A government that doesn't favour any religion over another and defends peoples rights to exercise their religion would be better than one that favours one religion over another.

I've been watching Al Jazeera the last few days. I am saddened over the lives lost, but also excited on behalf of the Northern African people. [editline]30th January 2011[/editline] Posting this again [url]http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/[/url]

[QUOTE=bravehat;27749273]Why? A government that doesn't favour any religion over another and defends peoples rights to exercise their religion would be better than one that favours one religion over another.[/QUOTE] Why to what?

[quote]The bloodshed around the Interior Ministry contrasted sharply with the festive scene not far away in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where crowds climbed cheering on board Egyptian military tanks and men and women lay smiling and chatting on the grass. [/quote]What's this all about? Has part of their army sided with the protestors or something?

[QUOTE=DarkWolf2;27749619]What's this all about? Has part of their army sided with the protestors or something?[/QUOTE] That's the thing. The military hasn't sided with EITHER yet. Which is making both nervous, but a lot of military units set out to patrol Cairo have been friendly to the protesters.

[QUOTE=Ragamuffin..;27733760]Hopefully the millitary will take the side of the protestors on this one, this is just sick.[/QUOTE] Its going to happened. Didn't you see the pictures I posted of a military guy tearing the president's picture?

[QUOTE=Mingebox;27734123]I just hope these are the right kinds of protesters. A corrupt secular government is better than a vigilant theocracy.[/QUOTE] Egypt's government isn't very corrupt though. These people are up in arms because of economic issues (which, hey, everyone faces).

[QUOTE=marlkarxv2;27752115]Egypt's government isn't very corrupt though. These people are up in arms because of economic issues (which, hey, everyone faces).[/QUOTE] Their president has been in indefinite power and you consider this "not" corrupt?

Okay I have a hard time feeling sorry for them here. You are descending on a government building as part of wide spread riots. They are going to shoot at you. I'm totally fine with the riots and rebellion and generally encourage such actions, but you can't be all "THEY SHOT ME HOW DARE THEY" when you have plunged the entire nation into chaos. You either continue throwing bodies at them in general riot fashion, or pick up weapons and go full blown rebellion. Just don't be surprised when they shoot you for trying to roll over their facilities.

[QUOTE=Ragamuffin..;27733760]Hopefully the millitary will take the side of the protestors on this one, this is just sick.[/QUOTE] Not defending the leadership of the country on this one. But I'll defend the police and say: They used rubber bullets and tear gas. How is that sick? It'd be sick if they lobbed frag grenades into the crowd and mowed them down with machine guns.

[QUOTE=Ragamuffin..;27733760]Hopefully the millitary will take the side of the protestors on this one, this is just sick.[/QUOTE] It could be much, much worse.

I hope to fuck the Muslim Brotherhood take control of Egypt, but only for long enough for them to decide to try to fuck over Israel, or have much less restrictive border access to Gaza.

I hope the people win, what the government is doing is just wrong.

[QUOTE=Morbo!!!;27761541]I hope to fuck the Muslim Brotherhood take control of Egypt, but only for long enough for them to decide to try to fuck over Israel, or have much less restrictive border access to Gaza.[/QUOTE] Egypt would be slaughtered wholesale. The United States has much closer ties with Israel than anywhere in the region and would likely provide direct support if Israel wound up in a conflict in which they were not the aggressor. Things would not end well for Egypt. Which would really defeat the entire purpose of the current unrest. I hope that the unrest brings about real, beneficial, change for them.

[QUOTE=CodeMonkey3;27755455]Not defending the leadership of the country on this one. But I'll defend the police and say: They used rubber bullets and tear gas. How is that sick? It'd be sick if they lobbed frag grenades into the crowd and mowed them down with machine guns.[/QUOTE] I was referring to the overall situation in the region.