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he body of a battered 40-year-old man remained at Bekasi General Hospital in West Java on Monday evening. He died after being beaten to death by a mob after he was caught allegedly attempting to steal a motorcycle in the morning.

'€œNo relatives have claimed the body. He had no identity card on him at all. The man was brought to the hospital wearing jeans and a short-sleeved shirt, with major injuries to his face and head,'€ a hospital attendant said on Monday.

The unidentified man met a tragic end as he died on the spot after being punched, kicked and beaten with wooden planks.

'€œMany people chased him. He was caught when more people started to chase after him. He was immediately attacked once he was caught. Even though he begged for mercy, the people didn'€™t care. They kept hitting him. By the time the police arrived, he had stopped moving,'€ a merchant who works near the scene of the crime, Ahmad, said.

When the victim allegedly attempted to steal the motorcycle at a car repair shop, the owner shouted. Locals heard the owner'€™s cry for help and chased down the thief. They caught him 100 meters from the shop and beat him to death. Several other residents tried to stop the attack but to no avail.

When questioned by The Jakarta Post about the Bekasi Police'€™s next steps in the case, spokesman First Insp. Makmur said that they would not look into the beating unless a relative of the thief objected to his death. So far, no one had claimed the body.

'€œWe are not going to do anything about the assault because there were too many perpetrators,'€ he said, adding that the police had reprimanded people around the crime scene.

University of Indonesia criminologist Erlangga Masdiana said there had been many cases in which the police were reluctant to act against the masses. '€œBy law, the police must investigate the assault. However, it is difficult for the police to look into a crime in which there is collective responsibility. The police in general do not want to go against the masses,'€ he said.

Erlangga added that groups of people who assault criminals usually underestimated their own strength as they beat them without the intention to kill. However, people are often comforted by the fact that criminals are punished immediately instead of after a long legal process, he said.

On Sunday in Jayapura, Papua, residents also took the law into their own hands. After a rumor about a child being run over, village residents in South Manokwari regency stopped passing vehicles. Muslim Ridwan, a university student, who was driving by in his minivan, was shot dead. Later, Muslim relatives set fire to 23 homes in the village. The police did not investigate the arson.

A member of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), Neng Dara Affiah, said that such a case was not isolated.

Neng, who has studied mass violence, especially violence against women during the 1998 riots, said the mass brutality in Bekasi was just a small part of a larger problem reflected in society.

'€œWe had many such problems in the past '€” including the violence during the 1998 riots '€” that were never resolved. Communities, therefore, are still angry and distrustful of their leaders, and think that it is better to take the law into their own hands,'€ she told the Post on Tuesday.

Neng explained that the attempted theft probably ignited locals'€™ subconscious anger, and their assault of the thief was to release their pent-up anger.

She added that there were currently no leaders at any level that encouraged dialogue among members of the community in order to settle differences and dispel the distrust among them that was rooted in past acts of violence.

'€œIt is even worse because we do have laws about how to deal with such criminals. However, the laws apparently don'€™t work and the people know this, so they assume they must follow the law of the jungle. This is bad because violence will continue if people see it this way,'€ she said. (fss)