Jakarta crimes becoming more violent: Hamami

JAKARTA (JP): City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata says that although city crime rates have fallen in recent years, the crimes themselves are becoming more violent.

He said the recent spate of bank customer and taxi driver robberies was serious.

"We are concerned about the ever increasing number of armed robberies in the city," Hamami said Saturday after assigning some 300 more officers to the city's mobile police brigade.

The officers will help the city police precincts combat armed robberies, city police spokesman Maj. Nyoman Suriasta said yesterday.

Nyoman said city police would also post undercover officers in public places, including banks, bus shelters and markets.

There have been at least five major robberies in the last two months of people who had just withdrawn money from their banks.

During the robberies, the tires of customers' cars were usually deflated, the customers threatened with machetes or knives, and the robbers often shot into the air to scare away any would-be Good Samaritans. Some of the robbers rode motorcycles.

On Oct. 11, a private firm employee was shot to death by one of three robbers who made off with Rp 350 million (around US$148,000) on the Jagorawi toll road in Bogor.

The victim, Zaenuddin, had just withdrawn Rp 650 million from the Bank BRI's Bogor branch.

On Sept. 17, two unidentified men, one with a gun, robbed a man of Rp 33 million in Cilandak, South Jakarta.

The victim, Fransiscus Theodorus, was intercepted by two men on a motorcycle when his driver stopped their Kijang van because of a puncture. Theodorus, the manager of a language institute in South Jakarta, had just withdrawn money from Bank BRI's Lebak Bulus branch.

Hamami has again called on people to request police escorts when withdrawing money from banks, Nyoman said.

On Oct. 17, taxi drivers were robbed in Bekasi, South Jakarta and West Jakarta. The robbers threatened their victims with knives and one of the drivers was stabbed to death.

President taxi driver Sjamsul Bahri, 40, was found dead in his car with 16 stab wounds in his chest. He was found in the remote village of Setia Mulya, Taruma Jaya, Bekasi. The murderer is still at large.

Hamami said earlier that at least 10 taxi drivers were robbed and killed by passengers every year. (jun)