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)