PORT SAID, Egypt — Just months ago, demonstrators here and around Egypt were chanting for the end of military rule. But on Saturday, as a court ruling about a soccer riot set off angry mobs, many in the crowd here declared they now believed that a military coup might be the best hope to restore order.

“Military rule was bad, but they would be better,” Ahmed Abdel Fattah, 50, said. “Where is the state? Where is the Interior Ministry, the government? Where are the decisions to protect the interests of the people?” He added, “The military should take over until the police are ready.”

Although such calls are hardly universal and there is no threat of an imminent coup, the growing murmurs that military intervention may be the only solution to the collapse of public security can be heard across the country, especially in circles opposed to the Islamists who have dominated post-Mubarak elections. Others plead for reform to forestall such an outcome. Either way, the talk reflects the dire state of the security crisis, which threatens not only Egypt’s transition to democracy but also its hopes to stave off economic collapse.

And here in Port Said, a focal point of the widening crisis since the police lost control more than a month ago, a form of local military takeover has already taken place.