Hoodlums on the street

On July 27, 1995, my daughter drove her car from downtown Kota in the direction of Harmoni, when at the crossroad of Jl. Hayam Wuruk and Sawah Besar, she had to stop at a red light. Suddenly two hoodlums appeared out of nowhere and deliberately broke the casing of the side mirrors of the car stopped in front of her. The male driver looked helplessly on as he apparently knew that those hoodlums would not hesitate to stab their victims. Oddly enough, no policemen were to be seen in the neighborhood.

The hoodlums were not satisfied with robbing one car, the next victim was my daughter's and she could only look on helplessly. This was the third time she was robbed in the same way. The reason why the robbery took place at Jl. Sawah Besar is due to the fact that not far away there is a market place of used motorcar parts.

When I was told about this happening, my blood pressure shot up. To the average Jakartan, such robbery is a daily occurrence and it seems that there is nothing we can do about it. Lest it became a trauma, I tried to console my daughter by saying that there are other people who have had the same nasty experience.

I know of two acquaintances who were killed by resisting a robbery by hoodlums. It happened a long time ago when cars were not equipped with air conditioning, so car windows were usually opened. Suddenly, the driver felt a knife at his throat and the hoodlum asked for his wallet. As my acquaintance was hot tempered, he tried to wrest the knife from the assailant's hand; alas he was stabbed in the throat and he died instantly.

The other robbery happened at Jl. Kuningan but the modus operandi was more or less the same. In this instance, the man had just bought a brand-new car and he took his wife for a ride. I attended his funeral.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta