Crime begets crime via illegal firearms
Crime begets crime via illegal firearms
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Siregar (not his real name), 40, a drug dealer who operates at
the Blok M market and bus terminal in South Jakarta, always
carries a gun for protection when he delivers drugs to customers.
"You don't know what might happen along the way. The police
can apprehend you or other drug dealers could mess with you.
People like me have no other choice but to fight back -- or be
arrested or even be killed," he told The Jakarta Post, showing
the one kilogram of marijuana he was carrying in a black plastic
bag.
He said he had never had to use the gun to shoot anybody -- he
only showed it to other drug dealers to make it clear that he was
ready to use it if they bothered him.
Rino (not his real name), 31, a thug whose turf is the Senen
market and bus terminal in Central Jakarta, has a different
reason for owning a gun -- he said, "you have to have something
to become a respected thug in Jakarta."
"People are always afraid of guns, so I bought one. I've never
had any trouble with other thugs since, and I can claim my own
territory," he told the Post at a small cafe near the terminal.
Rino said he could now ask for protection money from many shops
in the Senen area.
Once in a while, he said, he joined more experienced
"colleagues" to carry out an "operation" if they received good
information on robbing a bank customer or a house in a luxury
neighborhood.
"But I am very careful about this. If I feel it is too risky,
I turn down the job," Rino said.
Of the 10 members in his loose-knit group, seven had guns that
they used in robberies and other crimes.
In recent years, the public has increasingly become concerned
as armed robberies occur almost every day.
According to data from the Jakarta Police, robberies have
increased by 45.3 percent over the last year, from 14,268 in 2003
to 20,734 in 2004. Of the total robbery cases in 2004, 201
involved firearms, while less than 100 armed robberies were
recorded in 2003.
Article 1 of the Firearms Law No. 12/1951 and its stipulation
of a maximum sentence of death does not appear to have been a
deterrent.
An officer at National Police Headquarters, who asked for
anonymity, said almost all criminals they caught possessed
unlicensed guns.
"We estimate that around 100,000 illegal guns were circulating
in Jakarta in 2004. Most of these guns are used in robberies and
other crimes, and the guns easily change hands among criminals
for only one or two million rupiah," he told the Post.
The number of illegal guns in circulation far outstrips that
of legal firearms -- according to National Police data, only
15,881 guns are owned by licensed civilians.
Robby Chandra, director of PT Kharisma Mas Indoputra, one of
the 10 legal gun traders in the capital, concurred with the
police source, saying that only people with criminal intent
tended to buy illegal guns.
He explained his logic: "(People who buy illegal guns) have to
hide the gun and can't show it in public because the police might
find out. And they have go deep into the mountains or forests for
target practice. So, it's useless for normal citizens to own an
illegal gun."
He acknowledged that the high price of a legal gun -- between
Rp 30 million and Rp 165 million, depending on the caliber -- was
one of the reasons why someone might choose to buy an illegal
gun.