Feisal defends police shooting of criminals
Feisal defends police shooting of criminals
JAKARTA (JP): Armed Forces Commander Gen. Feisal Tanjung
yesterday said that police officers shot criminals during crime
operations to subdue the suspects and not to arbitrarily kill
them.
"In any operation police officers must abide by the law,"
Feisal told a hearing of the Commission I on security and defense
of the House of Representatives.
The four-star general said that police officers have to use
their weapons to conquer crime suspects, especially during
operations against dangerous criminals, because they not only
resist arrest but sometimes also attempt to hurt the arresting
officers.
Feisal was responding to questions from House members who
questioned the recent frequent shootings of crime suspects by
police, which is seen by analysts as concerted efforts aimed at
deterring criminals to operate in the city.
Recent newspaper reports said that police shot at least 60
suspected criminals in the past four months in the greater
Jakarta area. Out of the number, 40 were killed.
Two suspects were gunned down in separate instances on Tuesday
morning, one after he tried to escape from a police patrol car in
the Duren Sawit area, East Jakarta. The other criminal was shot
to death at the Wijaya Kesuma area in Grogol Utara, West Jakarta.
National Police Chief Gen. Banurusman, who accompanied Feisal
during the hearing, said that the police do not intentionally
kill criminal suspects as they are vital in obtaining information
on the whereabouts of other gang members and their modus
operandi.
"If they die we, in fact, get stumped because we cannot
uncover the gang operation," Banurusman said.
When asked about the activity of the debt collection service,
Banurusman said that such an activity is legitimate as long as
the debt collectors abide the law.
"The problem emerges when they use threats and terror in
retrieving the creditors's money from the debtors," the four-star
police general said.
The debt collection service caught headlines in most Jakarta
based newspapers lately after a criminal-turn-debt collector
Johny Sembiring was killed last month.(09)