CAIRO — A man stands in Tahrir square selling black masks. Several hundred meters behind him, youth and police exchange rocks and Molotov cocktails in what has become a regular occurrence. The full-face masks could be used as protection from the police’s teargas, and on that day late January more people were buying them instead of the cheaper and more common surgical masks.

A group calling itself the Black Bloc had released a video earlier announcing the launch of its activities. It’s difficult to verify who made the video or who is an actual member of the group. Still, there was instant interest in it. On that day and the weeks that followed, many bought different variations of that black ski mask, hoping to affiliate themselves with the group and its proclaimed attempt to use more organized violence, whether in defense or offense, under a banner of anarchism. 

The instant popularity and state-led demonization of the Black bloc is a strong indication of how more people have come to accept the notion of violence in political protests. In conversations with usually conservative citizens who have consistently shunned and condemned protests over the past two years, some admit that they see violence as the only way to unseat President Mohammed Morsi.

First-hand participants of street protests attribute it to continuous police brutality in the face of former peaceful protests and lack of state accountability. The deadly clashes between Morsi supporters and opponents in Cairo in December is often cited as a reason for the recent surge in violence, including setting Muslim Brotherhood offices on fire.