Militias ridiculed TNG authority by stealing police uniforms and impersonating officers

Evidence

Meanwhile further south, ‘Abdul-qassim’s attempts to set up an effective police force in Mogadishu, never mind an army, and to levy taxes were not meeting with much success. Attacking police detachments, hijacking individual officers, stealing their uniforms and then masquerading as ‘official’ police seemed for a time to have become a local sport played by rival militias. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 696