Reforms in Jakarta means license to kill
Reforms in Jakarta means license to kill
By Joko E.H. Anwar
JAKARTA (JP): The capital this year witnessed a growing number
of people, including those who call themselves well-educated, who
were willing or even keen to beat, torture and burn other human
beings to death.
They claimed their acts were justified, saying that the
wounded or dead victims lying in front of them were criminals and
therefore deserved this kind of deadly punishment.
Police and hospitals in Jakarta and its surrounding areas,
like Tangerang and Bekasi, have recorded record numbers of people
killed by the mobs.
Amazingly, none of the perpetrators of these vigilante murders
have ever been sent to jail. In some cases, the brutal killings
and burnings took place in front of police officers.
Police say they failed to stop such actions as they were
outnumbered. To arrest these people, the police say, would give
rise to disturbances, such as the burning of police stations as
has happened in some areas in Java.
When asked about their violent acts, most of the mob members
argue that they did no wrong as they could no longer rely on the
law enforcers, particularly the police and the judiciary.
Thus, they believe that by taking the lives of the (suspected)
criminals, crime would drop in their respective neighborhoods, or
at least the surviving crooks would think twice before planning
to commit a crime.
The first such incident of this year happened only five days
after New Year's Eve when a scavenger was mobbed to death by
residents on Jl. Pelita in South Jakarta. He was accused of
stealing clothing and a child's bicycle from a house.
The number of victims of the vigilante killings increased in
April.
During the first week of that month, three men who allegedly
tried to steal motorcycles were killed by mobs at separate
locations in Tangerang.
On April 18, a suspected criminal was mobbed to death after
allegedly stealing five gas tanks from a house in Jatiwaringin,
East Jakarta. On the same day, a group of people forced
themselves into Cililitan police station and lynched a 21-year-
old student, who was detained in a cell for his alleged role in
an auto theft.
By this stage, the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital had
already recorded 65 people as being beaten or burned to death by
mobs in the first four months of the year.
At the end of April, residents from Kedondong village in
Mangun Jaya, Bekasi, fatally beat two men of a gang of four who
attempted to rob a taxi driver.
The street justice continued at the end of May as a teenage
boy was burned alive by angry Cempaka Putih residents in Central
Jakarta after he allegedly wounded a bajaj (pedicab) driver after
refusing to pay for a ride.
June may also be described as a month of mob violence.
Residents of Kukusan subdistrict, Beji, Depok, mobbed an
officer from the Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) to death for
trying to steal a motorcycle.
In Jatiuwung, Tangerang, a similar incident followed shortly
afterwards while in Tambun, Bekasi, a 60-year-old woman was
beaten to death by dozens of neighbors, who suspected she was a
witch and was practicing black magic.
What was maybe the most horrible incident of street justice
occurred on June 10 when five suspected muggers were mobbed and
burned to death by an angry crowd near the Kampung Rambutan bus
station in East Jakarta after an unidentified man yelled "thief!"
The crowd even cheered when they saw the men being
incinerated.
By this time, the Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital had already
listed 103 victims.
In July, the mob violence continued, starting with the burning
to death of two people by residents in Palmeriam, East Jakarta,
for their suspected roles in repeated thefts in the area.
During the second week of the month, six alleged criminals
were brutally killed by mobs at six separate locations in
Jakarta, Tangerang, Bekasi and Bogor.
The mobs severely beat all of the alleged criminals before one
of pouring gasoline on their bodies and setting them alight.
In August, two alleged members of a gang were burned to death
by angry locals after being caught red-handed loading stolen
goods into a van in Kampung Sindang Resmi, Ciasihan village,
Bogor.
September also recorded a man being mobbed to death after
being caught in the act while stealing a motorcycle belonging to
a policeman in Bitung, Cikupa, Tangerang.
In the same month, a 28-year-old man was burned to death by an
angry mob in Cipondoh, Tangerang, for stealing a motorbike.
Similar cases occurred in October in Pasar Rumput in
Manggarai, South Jakarta, and at Sukahati village in Cibinong
with the loss of three lives.
In December, a man was burned to death for allegedly
attempting to steal a bull in Leuwi Batu village, Rumpin
district, Bogor regency, while an alleged 43-year-old pickpocket
was mobbed to death at the Kampung Rambutan bus terminal.
Still in December, two more alleged crooks were killed by mobs
in two separate incidents in West Jakarta.
Many believe that this frightening phenomenon in society will
continue next year.
Such intolerable acts are a clear reflection of the failure of
the country's law enforcers.