Supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsy attend a rally before breaking the daily fast on the second day of Ramadan, the sacred holy month for Muslims, on Thursday, July 11, in Cairo. The military said it would address the issues of this week's deadly violence, making it unclear whether the religious observance would calm or inflame tensions a week after the military coup. See photos of protests that have engulfed the country. 
Supporters of the deposed Morsy rally in Nasr City, Egypt, a suburb of Cairo, on Monday, July 8. 
A man reacts after seeing the body of a family member at the Liltaqmeen al-Sahy Hospital in Cairo, allegedly killed during a sit-in supporting Morsy in front of the Republican Guard headquarters on July 8. 
Injured men receive medical attention after clashes between supporters of Morsy and security forces in Cairo on July 8. 
Opponents of Mohamed Morsy gather at Tahrir Square during a protest in Cairo on Sunday, July 7. 
Supporters of Morsy pray next to the headquarters of the Republican Guards in Cairo on Saturday, July 6, during the funeral of seven people killed during clashes. 
People carry coffins on July 6 of two Morsy opponents who were killed during clashes in Cairo. 
A Morsy supporter joins protests near the University of Cairo in Giza on July 6. 
Supporters and opponents of Morsy clash in Cairo on Friday, July 5. 
A protester is attended to in Cairo's Tahrir Square during fighting between the pro- and anti-Morsy crowds on July 5. 
An Egyptian military helicopter hovers over supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and deposed President Mohamed Morsy in Cairo on July 5. 
Morsy supporters hold up their bloodstained hands after Egypt's armed forces opened fire on rally in front of the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo on July 5. 
Morsy supporters carry a man who was shot during clashes next to the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo on July 5. State broadcaster Nile TV said a number of those backing the deposed leader were wounded as they tried to storm the headquarters, where Morsy reportedly was being held. 
A wounded man is helped following the gun battle outside the headquarters of the Republican Guard on July 5. 
Egyptians hold portraits of Gen. Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi reading "Come down, Sisi" as they gather in Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square on July 5. 
Morsy supporters react to an explosion during clashes with police officers on July 5 outside Cairo University in Giza. 
Egyptian Army soldiers stand guard at the Cairo headquarters of the Republican Guard on July 5 as an Apache attack helicopter flies overhead. 
Morsy supporters pray near the University of Cairo in Giza on July 5. 
A man prays on July 5 before the protest near the University of Cairo. 
Protesters take cover from tear gas during clashes outside the headquarters of the Republican Guard in Cairo on July 5. 
A military helicopter flies by Egypt's Presidential Palace in Cairo on July 5. 
Egyptians watch fireworks in Tahrir Square on Thursday, July 4, the day after Morsy's ouster. 
People dance and cheer in the streets of Cairo on July 4. 
A Morsy supporter holds a poster of the deposed president during a July 4 rally in Nasr City. 
A massive crowd gathers in Tahrir Square on July 4. 
Egyptians cheer and wave national flags as airplanes fly above Tahrir Square on July 4, leaving a trail of smoke in the colors of the national flag. 
A woman uses a mobile phone to record the July 4 celebrations in Tahrir Square. 
An opposition protester chants slogans against Morsy near Cairo University, where Muslim Brotherhood supporters gathered on July 4 to show support for the ousted president. 
A man holds a newspaper near Mesaha Square in Cairo on July 4. 
Dejected Morsy supporters attend a rally in Nasr City on July 4. 
A Morsy supporter shows his bloodied shirt during a July 4 rally near the University of Cairo. 
A young Egyptian boy shoots off fireworks during celebrations in Tahrir Square on July 4. 
People walk by a pile of Egyptian flags for sale in Tahrir Square on July 4. 
Crowds throng Tahrir Square on July 4. 
Egyptian soldiers deploy near Cairo University on July 4. 
People dance and cheer at Tahrir Square in Cairo on July 4. 
Adly Mansour, center, stands after delivering a speech during his swearing-in ceremony as Egypt's interim president in the Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo on July 4. Mansour has served as the head of the country's Supreme Constitutional Court. 
Armored vehicles with the Egyptian army sit at a checkpoint in the Cairo district of Nasr City on July 4. 
A Morsy supporter reacts as a military helicopter flies over during a July 4 rally in Nasr City. 
A boy with face paint the color of the Egyptian flag pauses on July 4 in Tahrir Square. 
A pedestrian shakes hands with a member of the military at a roadblock in Giza. 
Security personnel rest on July 4 in Tahrir Square. 
A man walks to Tahrir Square on July 4. 
A family sleeps on a bridge near Tahrir Square on July 4. 
A member of the Egyptian military redirects traffic on July 4 at a roadblock in Giza. 
Bread is sold near Tahrir Square on July 4. 
An Egyptian military member guards a roadblock in Giza on July 4. 
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- Priyanka Motaparthy saw ebullient Egyptians, in solidarity with police, in streets June 30
- She says police have not reformed brutal ways of pre-2011 protests; they remain
- She says police aim violence at Brotherhood backers, don't intervene in protest conflicts
- Motaparthy: People dying in Egypt's streets; world must hold attackers accountable
Editor's note: Priyanka Motaparthy is a Human Rights Watch researcher in Cairo. Follow her on Twitter at @priyanica.
(CNN) -- On June 30, in the streets of Alexandria, I watched crowds stream down Abu Qir street, one of the city's main roads, chanting: "The Police! The People! Are One Hand!" Officers posed for photos, waved Egyptian flags from pickup trucks jammed with anti-Morsy protesters and roared up Alexandria's wide boulevards on their motorcycles to cheers and waves.
Some in the crowd refused to join in, but this was, just the same, a sight I never imagined I would see, after over two years of sit-ins in which the police had been the protesters' clear enemy.
From the beginnins of Egypt's uprising, in January 2011, the overhaul of Egypt's police forces, known for torturing detainees and brutally dispersing peaceful demonstrations, was a key demand of protesters. But not even the most rudimentary reforms have taken place since then. Neither the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, which governed Egypt during the transitional period, nor Mohamed Morsy during his year as president made any attempt whatsoever to take on police brutality and torture. The army itself was responsible for similar abuses during the transitional period.
Police officers have yet to be held accountable for excessive use of force over the past two and a half years. Police killed at least 846 protestors in January 2011. But of 38 officers sent to trial for the killings, only two have been sentenced and jailed.
Now Egypt has once again descended into spasms of violence. Over the last two weeks in Alexandria and Cairo, armed Muslim Brotherhood supporters have fired automatic weapons on anti-Morsy protesters who are armed with rocks and Molotov cocktails while police and army have stood and watched.
Neighborhood protection groups in both cities have engaged in hours-long combat with armed Morsy supporters who marched through their communities damaging property and harassing passersby.
In the grim corridors of Cairo's public hospitals and the dusty courtyard of the city's morgue, grieving relatives and friends described watching army and police officers use deadly force against demonstrators in front of the Republican Guard headquarters, where the deposed president was allegedly being held. Fifty-one people were killed on the morning of July 8.
Videos show who is under attack in Egypt 
Egypt after the coup 
Youths' killing ignites outrage in Egypt 
Morsy's son to his dad: 'Remain defiant' The pattern that emerges is this: In every instance, police and sometimes army troops have acted in a partisan fashion, using what appears to be largely unwarranted force against mostly unarmed Brotherhood supporters at sit-ins, yet doing little to intervene when opposing camps clash violently.
A group of outraged women in Manial, a leafy island in the Nile, told me how during a 10-hour street battle they repeatedly called police, the army -- anyone who could possibly offer protection -- while their sons and husbands fought Brotherhood supporters with paving stones and Molotovs.
Ahmed, a 27-year-old wearing jeans still spattered with blood from the night before, told me: "The Brotherhood came in aggressively, hitting people, cars and shops so that no one would get in their way." They entered the neighborhood around 8 p.m., he said, but police only arrived at midnight, stayed for about half an hour, then retreated, though the fighting continued until 6 a.m.
From his Alexandria hospital bed, Salah Haggag, an independent video journalist, showed me footage in which he followed a high-ranking police general around the Sidi Gaber train station as machine gun fire from Brotherhood supporters echoed outside, asking the commander to do his job, to call in reinforcements. The general waved him aside while talking frantically on his mobile phone. The police appeared to arrive, then left a few minutes later. Haggag's video footage ends when Brotherhood supporters shoot him in the leg.
On the morning of July 8 I passed through Tahrir Square where the organizers of Tamarod, who mobilized the initial protests on June 30 that brought millions into the streets, had called for a sit-in. I saw police officers handing out juice boxes and snacks to passersby alongside a vehicle emblazoned with the slogan, "The People's Police."
I arrived at the Republican Guard Headquarters a short while later to find the sting of tear gas still in the air and the sound of sporadic gunfire. Witnesses said that the army and Central Security Force (riot police) officers had opened fire on the crowd after trying to break up their sit-in. While some of the protesters had guns, witnesses said, and three security officers died, the protesters for the most part responded with rocks and Molotov cocktails. With 51 protesters dead and more than 400 injured, it was among the deadliest days of security force violence since Hosni Mubarak stepped down.
Calls to hold the Brotherhood to account are at a fever pitch, and the military-installed government has issued arrest warrants for more than 300 Brotherhood members. But there is little appetite among Egypt's transitional authorities for the essential task of investigating the police or the military for deaths they have caused, or for the badly needed reforms in the security sector.
As foreign governments wring their hands, private citizens across the political spectrum are arming up, to dangerous effect, and people are dying again in Egypt's streets and squares. Those governments need to use what leverage they have to push urgently for credible impartial investigations and accountability for crimes by all parties, police and army as well as protesters.
Such steps are the only way to pull Egypt back from the brink, and to rebuild trust in its battered and discredited state institutions.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Priyanka Motaparthy.
