Thread by @SameralAtrush

Crazy times, though this pic wasn't from Jan 25 but later. On January 25, no tents were set up. Several thousand protesters converged on Tahrir square and were dispersed at midnight sharp.

https://twitter.com/AymanM/status/1353723715889065984

I'm sure many in retrospect say they saw it coming, but frankly, if you'd spent time in Egypt before that, the idea of a Facebook event revolution was laughable and many of us were busy writing analysis on how there would be no revolution.

January 25 didn't necessarily change that assessment. Maybe ten thousand people made it to the square. Police let them and were mostly on their best behaviour, barring brief clashes in Qasr al Nil (in which a conscript died) and some brief tear gassing.

At midnight, having warned they'd disperse the protest, birdshot rang out and tear gas was deployed, and the protesters scrambled. That was it--unprecedented in Egypt indeed, but revolution?

January 26 was what was really different. Protests on Ramsis Street were broken up and clashes ensues--tolerance on both sides didn't last past Jan 25. Protesters dispersed in Bulaq Daqrur and eventually stormed the gates of the foreign ministry.

A veteran journalist in Cairo messaged me: "it's a revolution." Come on, I responded. "Just joking" he messaged back. We still couldn't believe it. But there were two incidents that showed things were really different, the charge at the foreign ministry was one.

The other was when plainclothes policemen with clubs gathered around a protester, beat him and started dragging him away. Other protesters stood by. Then a stone flew. Then another. They plainclothes policemen huddled together, terrified maybe for the first time in their lives.

On January 27, no protests in Cairo. Police deployed widely and grabbed people they suspected of being protesters. At the ruling party headquarters, Mubarak's officials announced they were unshakeable. I remember exchanging some astounded words with @bencnn at the presser

And we all know what happened on January 28. The police state many of us predicted was untouchable collapsed in mere hours. The interior minister had to be rescued from his offices by the army. It became a revolution.

Phones were cut off early that morning, and the internet had been down since the night of the 27th, as the Brotherhood announced they'd join. Early morning raids on MB and others on Jan 28. I left to Alexandria to cover the protests there.

While on the highway, I saw truck after truck of riot police pouring into Cairo. In Alexandria, protesters made short work of security forces. Returning the next day to Cairo, as I was crossing the bridge to Giza, a I saw a riot police truck with some officers.

Roughly a dozen people had been made to kneel down, alongside bags filled with stolen belongings (a spotted a plant and a large golden frame among other things). I didn't want to approach the policemen but one beckoned.

"Do you have a camera?" he said. "of course not!" I said. "Oh I wanted you to film this." I asked whether they hadn't all pulled out? He said they stayed in their position since Jan 28.

“We've been left without anything because of the people, but still we have to catch the thieves...Those people want change, but did they think that if they destroyed a police station and used violence the thieves would not come into their midst?” iol.co.za/news/africa/mu…

That question came back to haunt many Egyptians in the months and years after the uprising--one of the lessons that seems to have stuck. The other, drawn by the authorities, was: never give the opposition breathing room.