R

ecent reports of pickpocketing, muggings and murders on Trans-Jakarta pedestrian walkways have busway passengers concerned that they now have far more to worry about than tripping over beggars and DVD and bric-a-brac vendors while riding the city’s only credible public bus network.

Street vendors operating on busway walkways had plenty of stories to tell about criminal gangs and hoodlums targeting commuters.

Thirty-year-old street vendor Joko, not his real name, who sells inexpensive merchandise on a pedestrian walkway near a Jakarta Police headquarters and a shopping mall, said he often witnessed pickpockets targeting commuters, but was reluctant to try to stop them.

“We just don’t want to take the risk,” Joko told The Jakarta Post.

Regular patrols by police officers from the nearby headquarters in the area seem not to have deterred the criminals from operating on the walkway, which is one of the busiest busway stops in the city.

Last week, Indra Lesmana, an 18-year-old waiter, was stabbed to death on the Tosari busway stop walkway on Jl. Thamrin early in the morning. There is a police post very near to the busway stop.

Jaja, 40, a street vendor on the Bendungan Hilir busway walkway, said many pickpockets operated on the walkway during rush hour.

“They usually work in groups,” he said.

Another street vendor operating on the same walkway shared similar information. “They work in groups of between three and six. They work during rush hour, when people
flood the walkway, at around 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.,” said the street vendor, who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

“In one day, there might be three different groups operating. They are all ‘old players’, who have been picking pockets since long before I was here,” he said.

“We know them and they know us. But we are afraid. They can harm us easily, they look tough and seem to have no reservations stabbing people. My conscience says they do wrong, but I can’t do anything,” he said, adding that the pickpockets often intimidated him and the other vendors on the walkway.

The Police have said that the Bendungan Hilir walkway is one of the most dangerous in the city.

“Don’t flaunt your cell phone when crossing the bridge, even if you have to answer a call,” Menteng Precinct chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Djuwito Purnomo said recently.

TransJakarta Busway passengers shared stories about being targeted by pickpockets.

Nineteen-year-old Debbie Kartika said that she was almost mugged recently while on a TransJakarta walkway.

“I was walking on the bridge when suddenly a man tried to block my way and another followed me from behind. I got away by following a middle-aged man who later told me that those guys were pickpockets,” said Debbie, while waiting for a bus at the Senayan TransJakarta Busway shelter. (aaa)