Ten years after New York City’s notorious Abner Louima case, police in Egypt appear to be emulating the brutal techniques of Rudolph Giuliani’s NYPD. Two Cairo police officers were convicted this week of torturing a man in their custody—after a cellphone video of the man being sodomized with a stick appeared on the Internet. As the man, a 22-year-old bus driver who had been detained after trying to break up a fight between the police and a cousin last year, screamed in pain, onlookers taunted him and threatened to spread the video among his co-workers to humiliate him. The video made its way to Egyptian blog sites and YouTube, and widespread outrage followed. The officers were sentenced to three years in prison. Rights groups say torture is routinely used in Egypt’s police stations. (NYT, Nov. 6)
See our last post on Egypt.
I really don’t like Rudy but …
1) Louima later recanted his testimony about the phrase ‘Giulliani time’. The cops didn’t actually say that though it was the title of the later documentary. That said: Here’s hoping the FDNY swift boat Rudy during the election as he’s a genuinely creepy scumbag. If Ron Paul starts coming in 3rd it’ll make the election worth watching.
2) Wouldn’t you say that extremely brutal torture by Egyptian police could be filed under ‘dog bites man’. This stuff is awful, but it’s not new or unusual.