As I think Selena Zito pointed out, this is a sign that local police are refusing to beat, arrest, or kill protesters themselves. Thus Iran has to call in their Murder Gangs.
Let us hope cops and regular soldiers join the uprising.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have deployed forces to three provinces to put down an eruption of anti-government unrest after six days of protests that have rattled the clerical leadership and left 21 people dead.
The protests, which began last week out of frustration over economic hardships suffered by the youth and working class, have evolved into a rising against the powers and privileges of a remote elite especially Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Defying threats from the judiciary of execution if convicted of rioting, protests resumed after nightfall with hundreds hitting the streets of Malayer in Hamadan province chanting: “People are begging, the supreme leader is acting like God!”
Videos carried by social media showed protesters in the northern town of Nowshahr shouted “death to the dictator” — an apparent reference to Khamenei.
In a sign of official concern about the resilience of the protests, the Revolutionary Guards commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said he had dispatched forces to Hamadan, Isfahan and Lorestan provinces to tackle “the new sedition”.
And read this interesting post from sci-fi author John Ringo, who notes that while 2009’s Green Revolution was mostly supported by women and soft-handed urbanites — and opposed by stronger rural young men, who of course won out — this current uprising is taking places in what you’d call rural or blue-collar areas of Iran, meaning the young, strong men they relied upon to crush the opposition last time might now be ranged against the mullahs.
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