Police name no suspects in street justice killing

JAKARTA (JP): Like many other bloody street justice murders, police are still unable to name suspects in Saturday's fatal mobbing and burning of five alleged thieves near Kampung Rambutan inter-city bus terminal in East Jakarta.

"We have yet to summon suspects. We've had difficulties locating and arresting them since they mixed with the crowd at the time," local police officer Sgt. Maj. Sri Suwarno told The Jakarta Post at the bus terminal on Monday.

As reported earlier, five suspected holdup men were mobbed and burned to death by an angry crowd after being caught demanding money from passengers of a mikrolet public minivan at the intersection of Jl. T.B. Simatupang and Jl. Raya Bogor at 2.15 p.m on Saturday.

It remained unclear whether the five victims -- identified as Evaus Napitupulu, 40, Nurdin, 33, Effendi Napitupulu, 29, Lamsihar Tampubolon, 41 and Henry Togar Silalahi, 30 -- were really criminals or not, particularly since the person who screamed thieves and alerted the crowd has not yet been found by the police.

But locals insisted that the five were repeated offenders in the area.

Nurdin's wife, Siti Linda, who is in her seventh month of pregnancy, sadly said that her husband was a street vendor in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, and was on his way home that evening to accompany her to the hospital for a medical check-up.

"He's not a criminal! Police also told me that he was the victim of a hold-up. But why did the crowd mob my husband to death," she said emotionally.

She was quoted by Pos Kota as saying that Nurdin had called her earlier in the day saying that he would arrive home with Rp 3 million cash.

It wasn't disclosed where the money was from.

Separately, city police commander Maj. Gen. Nurfaizi condemned public brutality, saying that the public have already lost control over themselves.

"It's a bad symptom in society. You must ask the public themselves what the motive is behind all this street justice!" he told reporters emotionally, after launching a new computer system for car and motorcycle licensing at the city police headquarters.

Nurfaizi said evasively that the police were not the main party responsible for bringing an end to public brutality.

"That is the responsibility of the media too, and not only the city police," he said.

But traders at the bus terminal said police there had never appreciated the public's efforts in helping officers to catch crooks operating in the area.

"We often catch robbers and pickpockets in the terminal. But, after we hand them over to the police, the criminals then go back to the terminal a few weeks later freely," said Qodrun, a seller of ketoprak (salad consisting of bean sprout, tofu, noodles and a peanut sauce).

The 24-year old food seller, who has been in the terminal for three years, said he could no longer trust the police.

"The police have proved themselves incapable of proceeding to stop criminals in line with the law," he said.

Therefore, people have preferred to take the law into their own hands.

Another noodle seller, Wahono, shared the opinion, saying that local people in the area have found that the police are unable to bring security to the terminal.

"Robberies and hold-ups often occur here. Since the police can't stop the crimes, the public in the area are forced to take the law into their own hands," he said on Monday.

According to city police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis, the police often found it difficult to find witnesses in such street justice killings, which have been on the rise over the past two years, since witnesses are usually part of the mob.

The Jakarta Police, he said, were desperate to end the trend, since they can't control the masses.

"Public morality has turned bad. Recently, a crowd forced police to release four robbery suspects who were being detained in the police detention house in Cililitan Police Subprecinct, East Jakarta," he said.

Overwhelmed by the mob, the officers then freed the suspects to the crowd.

"After releasing the suspects, the crowd mobbed them. The four police could do nothing at the scene," he said on Sunday. (08/asa)