LIVE FROM CAIRO: Things Are Much Worse Than We Realized
The camp was rebuilt and burned to the ground again 16 hours later, three hours after that the streets really became ugly.
No one here seemed to know what exactly happened over the last 24 hours, but dozens of people I spoke with had pieces of a story. One high ranking government court worker in the takeout restaurant he inherited from his father asked my translator if he knew who was in charge of the area now.
What he told him, we'd learned from the 22-year-old pizza shop worker, Walid (not his real name), at the spot a few doors down. Walid moved to Cairo from the country three-and-a-half years ago, to find work. The shop is open 24 hours, and what he told us pulled together more elements of what I'd seen over the past 24 hours than anything else.
On Wednesday evening a man was attacked in the square, injured baldy and rushed to the hospital (we posted pictures of that Wednesday morning). Walid knew the man from the shop and told us he was from Abdeen, a few blocks away.
At 4 a.m. Wednesday, about 13 hours after the attack, Walid said he saw a group of Abdeen men guys ride in on motorbikes and attack the square. They beat its occupants, and burned the flags and tents to the ground. I'm told that, aside from one elderly man called "the father of the revolution," the square was largely filled with criminals, former prison inmates freed during 2011 prison breaks, and drug dealers.
I could not get near Tahrir Square without being confronted, and was told repeatedly not to go at all after dark. I went with the translator. It was hostile, even before the attacks.
Throughout the day, the people living in the square brought in more tents, put up new flags and settled back in. At 4 p.m. a mob formed at the mall a couple of blocks away, and marched past my hotel calling for shopkeepers to join them in clearing the square.
Walid thought that group began with more people from Abdeen. My translator believed there was a significant Muslim Brotherhood presence after 4 p.m. when we were in the square. The Muslim Brotherhood is Egyptian president Morsi's party, and my translator believed these men were in a group, carrying large slabs of wood or metal pipe. Many of them confronted me, one with hostile intent, and they did not look like the people staying in the square. No one I spoke with can say for sure who they were.
At 7 p.m. the people who'd now twice been attacked at the park took action. All they'd heard was the call for shopkeepers to join the mob that formed at the mall. A mall employee who'd been punched in the face trying to stop the crowd from tearing down "the father of the revolution's" tent confirmed that's where he joined the group.
By 7:10 p.m., the Tahrir Square residents had looted and shattered glass windows and doors in as many stores and restaurants as they could on the street my hotel is on, before employees hauled the sliding steel doors down for protection. The only spot nearby without a safety door is the pizza place where Walid works.
Walid was returning to the shop with supplies from a store when he saw the crowd smash through his employer's doors and windows. He saw the thick glass smash onto the sidewalk as the chef ran through the broken door.
When he spoke with us at 10:00 p.m. on Thursday night, shards of glass filled two garbage cans and still covered the sidewalk. He'd spoken to the 55-year-old owner's wife. Her husband is in the hospital and she said she had no idea what to do.
The only remaining employee besides the chef, Walid plans on staying in the restaurant protecting what he can. That's his only plan for now.
When he called the emergency military number at 7:30 p.m., no one answered. The local police station is just several blocks away and no one has seen them anywhere near the square. Neither my translator, who lived in the park during the 2011 revolution, nor Walid have seen violence like this in the past two years.
Walid's nervous, and told us there is a "million-man" gathering of the revolutionaries who were in the park during 2011 on Friday. He thinks he'll be fine, but has no idea what's going to happen.
He just can't lose that job.