Police foil street races, brawls
The Jakarta Post | Jakarta | Wed, August 08 2012, 8:45 AM
Paper Edition | Page: 9
City police said on Tuesday that they had foiled eight street races and 10 brawls in the first half of this year’s Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan.
“Most of the brawls were caused by trivial matters. In one case, two groups of residents met on the street and taunted each other; some of them got angry over it and they began to attack one another,” police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said.
He cited areas on the borders between Jakarta and its surrounding cities of Bekasi, Depok and Tangerang as the places most prone to brawls.
Several major thoroughfares in the city have also been identified by police as popular drag-racing spots including Jl. Asia Afrika and Jl. Benyamin Sueb in Central Jakarta; Jl. Pemuda in East Jakarta; and Jl. TB Simatupang in South Jakarta.
Rikwanto said the police had deployed two platoons, equal to some 75 to 100 officers, to patrol Greater Jakarta and curb brawls and drag races.
Two police precincts in South Jakarta have separately arrested perpetrators from two separate brawls over the last few days.
Tebet Police arrested vocational school student OL, 17, on Tuesday, for allegedly brandishing a sword during a brawl between residents of Jl. Sawo and Jl. Manggis on Sunday, while Pesanggrahan Police arrested on Monday a high school student, AM, for allegedly killing another student, JH, during a fight between students from two high schools on Jl. Taman Barat, Bintaro.
