ON THE afternoon of Jan. 24, a young Egyptian poet and political activist joined other members of the secular Socialist Alliance Party in peacefully attempting to lay flowers in Cairo s Tahrir Square in memory of those killed in the 2011 revolution. According to witnesses and videos, masked police fired birdshot into the group from behind at close range; Shaimaa al-Sabbagh , the mother of a 5-year-old, died in the arms of a friend.