With prisons being burnt down in towns including Monastir, Bizerte and Mahdia, criminals have been let loose to ravage the communities; burning down buildings and breaking into houses. One local in Mahdia told me: 'I have made a sword … myself and my cousins are carrying swords at night in our own neighbourhood. Girls have been raped and there is shooting after dark, everything has changed here'. Yet speaking to a resident in the capital about the release of criminals and burning down of prisons, she dismissed the suggestion that it was Tunisian 'voleurs', or criminals, that were committing these, largely nocturnal, crimes. Her view was clear: 'people know that the ones that are killing people are the police and that the police have freed the prisoners to put fear into the people'. She continued, 'those people are with Ben Ali, they are paid to burn, to kill, to scare; they are the real terrorists'.
It seems like Tunisia, with the ceiling torn off, is in the whirl of a masquerade ball. Police are dressing as civilians, gangs are donning police hats, whilst newly released prisoners stroll amongst them all.
When I heard that the troops would be sent in to restore some order, I was concerned how the Tunisians would react to this familiar face of control, now the boundaries had been smashed. Seeing images of protesters greeting the army surprised me. Asking a student in a Tunis suburb what she thought of the military presence leaking into towns across the country, she chirped: 'listen, the army are neutral, not like the police. They don't listen to anyone's orders, they will help us'. With the amount of current shape shifting in the country, it is no wonder that Tunisians are embracing the army: their camouflage is the only uniform that stands out.
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