Patdowns in Anarchist Egypt
Most press accounts of Egyptian citizens taking up roles ordinarily reserved for the government have been unsurprising to fans of emergent order, but I definitely was not expecting this one. From the Christian Science Monitor:
For the first time after a week of protests, checkpoints were formed at the entrances to [Cairo's Tahrir Square]. Separate lines formed for men and women, with men patting down the men and veiled women patting down the female protesters and checking IDs.
Asked who organized the checkpoints, those patting down the protesters denied being from any political group and said, "We're just from the people."
Somalia's telecom companies have been doing this for at least a decade, but this is the first I've ever heard of it happening in such a public space.
