Cairo's museum highlights dark history of nation's police force
Egypt's National Police Museum in Cairo's Citadel examines the checkered history of an institution once revered for standing up for Egyptians, but in the years since independence has come to be feared and loathed for repression and torture.
On January 25, 1952, at the height of tensions between Egyptians and their British overseers, who had ruled or administered the country for 70 years, Brig. Kenneth Exham ordered police officers in Ismailia to hand over their weapons and vacate the city’s two police stations. When the officers disobeyed the order, a massacre ensued, leaving 50 dead and 80 wounded. The event became the spark that ignited the revolution bringing an end to the monarchy on July 23 that same year.
