Reply #172: Police in Libya rebel capital pivot from oppressor to protector [View All]

[tabatha]

Reporting from Benghazi, Libya—
Officer Sharif Ganasi was working the 4 p.m.-to-midnight shift, cruising the trash-strewn streets of Benghazi, alert for drunks and carjackers.

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For all the shortcomings, though, Benghazi's police seem to be slowly earning something that did not exist under Kadafi: trust.

"Before, people were terrified of the police; they hated us," Ganasi, 35, said as pedestrians waved to him on his rounds. "Now they see us as someone who can protect them, not someone to protect the people in power."

Ashour Showil, 52, the city's new police chief, served as Benghazi's top traffic officer under Kadafi. He now commands both forces. Before, he acknowledges, police were "a threat to civilians, rather than their protectors."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-benghazi-cops-20110723,0,2753677.story?page=1