Street or court justice

Street or court justice

Is instant street justice, in which police officers shoot
suspected criminals on the spot, justice at all? An increasing
number of people seem to think so. The practice is on the rise in
Jakarta, and most likely in other cities in Indonesia.

In many cases the suspected criminals died on the spot,
meaning the streets replaced the courts in enforcing justice.

The body count is alarming. Jakarta's Cipto Mangunkusumo
General Hospital's morgue has counted 32 people shot dead by the
police since New Year. In comparison, the Jakarta Police said
they shot dead 46 suspected criminals in the entire 1996.
Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, is showing similar
symptoms: 28 killed between January and March.

The issue of street justice became particularly delicate for
the National Police this month when one of the victims, Sofjan
Sani, turned out to be a second sergeant police officer. The two
officers who shot Sofjan are under internal investigation, but
their superiors say that standard procedures were followed: they
fired in self defense, and warning shots were fired into the air.

Sofjan's parents, insisting on his innocence, have said they
will sue the police for the killing. If it ever goes to court,
the ruling will affect any future police practice of shooting
suspected criminals. This is going to be a tough case for the
court to rule on because the evidence is likely to be
circumstantial. In a case where the hard evidence is the word of
two officers, and against that a dead man's silence, could the
court reach a fair verdict?

The National Police deny there is a standing order to shoot
suspected criminals on the spot to suppress the increasing crime
rate. The actions of officers in every shooting have been
justified, they said. The police understandably need to protect
their image. Even if an internal investigation found a procedural
error, it would be unlikely that the result would be made public.

In any event, if the police appear to have taken a tougher
stand it is because of the ever-growing crime rate in this
country. Crimes have also become more violent; armed robberies
certainly are becoming more common.

The National Police have the public behind them, at least
according to an opinion poll published by Republika daily last
week. Of the 500 Jakarta residents surveyed, 82 percent said they
supported the practice of the police shooting suspected
criminals. Only 16 percent said they were opposed to it.

The Republika poll, or any other future survey that comes to
the same conclusion, however, should not be taken as a license to
shoot criminals. The poll is more a reflection of the people's
concern about rising crime rates, and their call for measures to
deal with crimes more effectively.

Shooting suspected criminals is one way, but it has many
shortcomings and negative consequences. And it is not necessarily
effective. An officer in the field would have to act on the spur
of the moment to fire at suspected criminals, with a great risk
of shooting an innocent person.

If police are allowed to take the law onto their hands so
easily, then it won't be long before citizens feel the right to
do the same in the name of defending themselves. Criminals
eventually won't be deterred, and they will resort to even more
violence.

At best, shooting on sight is shock therapy. It can only be
applied once, or for a limited period of time, to send the
message to criminals that police can get tough. If the practice
is applied continually, its deterrent effect will ebb and
eventually disappear. Criminals will learn to deal with the new
situation by getting even more violent. The end result therefore
would be more violence, exactly the opposite of the original
intention.

The problem of rising crime cannot be left to the police
alone. This is a problem that the entire legal system, of which
the police are only a part, must deal with. Laws are intended to
prevent criminal acts and to protect people. If the crime rate is
rising, then the laws and their enforcement should be reviewed.
The laws may be too weak, or the courts may be too lenient in
passing sentences on convicted criminals, or the police force may
need beefing up, or a combination of all these things. Shooting
suspected criminals alone won't stop the rising crime.