'No to hoghra!': Morocco's protest movement and its prospects

...On 28 October 2016, a gruesome incident in the small Moroccan port of al-Hoceima made global headlines. Muhsen Fikri, a 31-year-old fish wholesaler, was crushed to death by a garbage truck as he sought to recover his confiscated catch of swordfish, reportedly worth $11,000, after local police officers had impounded it for violating a seasonal ban on fishing for it. The details are still unclear, but there have been widespread allegations on social media that one of the officers had demanded a bribe and, when Fkiri refused, he had impounded the fish. Muhsen Fikri's subsequent death and funeral brought local activity to a standstill - thousands of people poured into the streets of al-Hoceima to demand the end to hoghra, the term now used for such arbitrary abuses routinely committed by the authorities, including violence and bribe-taking. Protests continued for several days and nights, quickly spreading to nearby towns before eventually reaching major cities and even the capital, Rabat....