As Lebanon unravels, Beirut neighborhood takes security into its own hands
Amid Beirut’s unlit streets, men wield torches and batons to ensure security and safety in the neighborhood in an initiative that began in Achrafieh, one of Beirut’s oldest and most charming districts.
BEIRUT — Lebanon's ongoing economic, political and social demise has paralyed much of the state infrastructure and has brought poverty levels to numbers unseen since the country's 1975-90 civil war.
The decline is forcing residents to take security into their own hands, with neighborhood groups emerging to fill in where state security has lapsed.
“Achrafieh2020,” a nongovernmental organization established last year to reinvent the area in central Beirut as a "breathable, welcoming and friendly neighborhood,” launched this month a neighborhood watch with a walking patrol that looks for anything out of the ordinary or suspicious, especially in the streets.
Achrafieh is an area in eastern Beirut that is characterized by residential and commercial buildings along with cafes and major arterial roads.
