Monday, January 02, 2006
Elder of Ziyon
I see stuff like this on "Law and Order" all the time!
About 200 policemen stormed government offices in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Monday to protest at the failure of the Palestinian Authority to fight growing lawlessness, witnesses said.
The incident was the latest sign of chaos in Gaza, which has suffered growing internal unrest since Israel withdrew last September after 38 years of occupation. (What? It is not a "cycle of violence?" - EoZ)
Firing into the air as they ran through the streets, the policemen raided government offices, courthouses, an election office and the municipality building in Rafah.
They smashed windows at the Interior Ministry building and forced the staff to leave.
The number of police taking part in the protest swelled to some 200 officers, most of them armed, who forcibly shut down one government building after the other.
'We are calling on all officers to take off their uniforms because the Palestinian Authority has tied the hands of policemen, preventing us from implementing law and order,' one policeman told Reuters.
The police rampage followed the killing of a police officer in fighting with a Rafah clan on Thursday. After that incident, Palestinian police backed by gunmen imposed an armed blockade on the Rafah border crossing and forcibly ejected travellers.
Witnesses said the police did not wear uniforms -- in protest at what they said was the Palestinian Authority's failure to give them the power to restore law and order in Gaza. Some wore masks.
Masks! What a great idea! I wonder where they got the idea of masks from?
Here is a picture from September of Palestinian policemen wearing masks. Who could have been their inspiration?
