City police unable to detain brutal Persija supporters

JAKARTA: The Jakarta police said Monday it was overwhelmed when handling the after-match brutality of supporters of Persija Jakarta soccer club, popularly known as Jakmania.

City police spokesman Sr. Com. Boy Rafli Amar said that almost all supporters involved in Sunday’s brutality were children, making it hard to detain them.

“We only gathered data about them and confiscated their weapons. They were still allowed to watch the game,” he said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.  

On raids conducted between March 16 and May 30, the police confiscated 12 sharp weapons such as sickles, long swords and machetes, and also modified sharp materials such as big clasps, motorcycle chains, golf sticks, molotov cocktails and darts. —JP