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Some also say that police are back to forcefully collecting bribes. For example, a Cairo-based food shop owner, who prefers to remain anonymous, describes their situation. “Before the revolution the police working at the station and undercover agents used to take bribes in the form of free breakfasts. When I refused they used to detain my employees on their way home, claiming it was for investigation purposes, as allowed under the emergency law. The detention can go on for up to several days. Right after the revolution they stopped asking for such bribes - but now such demands are back.”

One of the main demands of the revolution was to lift the state of emergency, but such a demand, four months after the start of the revolution, has yet to be granted by the current interim government.

they do not seem to be taking serious steps to change the policy orientation. For example; no one is working on cases of torture and police violations before 25 January, the violations which took place during the 18-day uprising are the only ones discussed, while the previous 30 years are ignored. Violations are also still ongoing

“We were listening to the gun shots and we were asking the police officers to interfere but they had no clue. We are not secure in Sidi Bouzid, the police officers and the army are not accomplishing their duties here,”

“I know someone who was attacked by a salafist and when he went to the police office to complain, he was told to pray to God and ask for revenge,”

“We are living in ‘Bouzid-Stan!’ While I Am a practicing Muslim, what is happening here is not consistent with Islam at all. I know these salafist people, some of them were drunkards a week ago and now they are pretending to be the voice of God in Sidi Bouzid. Every mosque is preaching according to different extremist strands of Islam that in the past were foreign to here, we have a Wahabi mosque, a Salafi mosque, etc.”

In a remarkable shift, the police, previously the enforcers of Mr. Ben Ali’s rule, organized a protest of their own on the city’s central artery, Bourguiba Boulevard. They wore red armbands in solidarity with the revolution, complained that Mr. Ben Ali and his family had put cronies in charge of the security forces and demanded a trade union that could negotiate for higher wages. Tunisians were stunned to see police officers, once silent and terrifying, complaining about their working conditions in interviews with Al Jazeera.

“The most rapid revolution in history,” he wrote. “Because we are connected. Synchronized.”

Sunday's violence will likely prompt the military to further tighten its grip on power.

"The army incites sedition to remain in power," said Mariam Ayoub, a relative of a slain Christian protester, Michael Mosaad, as she stood outside the Coptic hospital. "They tell all of us that this is what happens without emergency laws."

State TV, which has been growing increasingly loyal to the military, appealed on "honorable" Egyptians to protect the army against attacks as news spread of clashes between the Christian protesters and the troops outside the TV building. Soon afterward, bands of young men armed with sticks, rocks, swords and firebombs began to roam central Cairo, attacking Christians. Troops and riot police did not intervene to stop the attacks on Christians.

The activation of such Salafist neighborhood patrols after Belaid’s assassination has sparked debate among Tunisians. Due to a perceived lack of security, patrols sprang up in areas such as Tunis’ suburbs, Sousse, Hammamet, Sfax, and Bizerte. Some media reports have claimed these groups conducted their patrols in coordination with Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia and the Leagues for the Protection of the Revolution

Salah Edhaoui, a deputy chief of police in the Omrane Supérieure suburb of Tunis, called such efforts “parallel security” and claimed that they tarnished the image of official security institutions in Tunisia. “If such behavior is repeated, people will think that Salafist groups will take the place of policemen, which is harmful to the public image of security institutions as well as to the image of the state’s institutions,”

Minister of Interior Ali Laarayedh denied the existence of a coordinated Salafist security system and said an investigation into the patrols would be opened

Since Sunday, police forces have raided flats in the area to search for cameras and activists.

A police officer is reported to have fired a shot that hit the woman’s neck, as she watched the protest from her second floor balcony.