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strong>Feb. 26, p2

Recent news stories on violent groups that brutally attack victims on the street have unsettled the public. Increasing insecurity has caused some locals to see the lynching of these thugs in a positive light.

For the past few months, media outlets have reported a number of violent attacks against motorcyclists who suffered serious injuries and even death while their motorcycles were being stolen. The gang members usually brandished sharp weapons and did not hesitate to use them.

Your comments:

We all thought President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo was going to be the one to help alleviate this but he'€™s obviously just a lame duck who would rather execute grandmothers than find new solutions to these old problems.

Carson Quinn

The gangs and the lynch mobs point to the absolute failure of law enforcement here.

What does anyone expect when you bribe them just to investigate a burglary at your residence?

Chase armed gangs and enforce a murder charge against a mob?

Nate

This is what happens when your police force is more interested in bribes than law enforcement.

Deddy K

Obviously, this is symptomatic of the distrust in the law enforcement system, typical of third world nations '€” limited policing resources. Thus, citizens feel justified to dispense justice expeditiously and in many cases to the relief of the police treating it as '€œcase solved'€.

Justice in a civilized and democratic system is costly, but the mark of a true civilized society is the rule of law advancing with time.

We apparently are still hanging onto primitive or jungle laws. Much homework is yet to be done, but work we must.

James Waworoendeng

Alleged, alleged, alleged, no bike actually stolen and some guy burned to death.

It'€™s lucky there are no angry mobs in the parliament!

John Elliott

Obviously the Indonesian perception is that the judicial system here does not work; if they had faith in the system they would have held the person, called the police and handed him over. But they know better than to do that and in the end they also know that nothing will happen to them.

Basically they have no respect for the law and why is this? It is because they have no respect or faith in the law. Let'€™s be honest here, catching a thief and burning him alive is what if not barbaric?

Hew

It is another execution of a criminal in Indonesia. Poor guy picked the wrong area to rob people.

He got more than he deserved: no police, no judge, no trial and an instant execution.

Dick Tracy

It would make more sense if the article read '€œdeath through negligence of the police'€.

Yuchan

This happened because, just like many people in this forum say: most people neither respect nor have
any faith in the police and feel that they have to take the law into their own hands.

The last time I heard about something like this was more than 10 years ago, just after the riots in Jakarta when law and order had completely broken down. The exact same thing happened in Menteng to a snatch thief!  

If I was there when the theft was going on I would have helped and done the same! Why wait, let the thief go and raise enough money to bribe the cops and get away with it?

Probably more theft will happen because now the thieves have to make enough money to cover what they had to give the cops!

Pauloh

How many times now already in the last months has there been the same kind of scenario?

Why is it that the public prefers to rely on swift and relentless lynch-justice instead of relying on law enforcement?

I know that we all know the correct answer to that '€” an incapable and incompetent police force which would probably ask for money to even move a finger and then a second time for '€œadministration fees'€ to release evidence in the form of motorbikes '€” and then there is of course an unjust justice system to top that one off.

It actually happened once to me that two thieves stole a compressor from my front yard. Security caught them and called the police, who actually arrived after only about 30 minutes. (Note: the security post is about 200 meters away.)

My wife, who was also alerted, didn'€™t want to press charges. However the police insisted and took the two thieves and the compressor (as evidence!) away.

After six months the compressor was still not returned and, upon inquiry, my wife was told that the two thieves were still not legally processed but if my wife was willing to pay Rp 1 million in '€œadministration fees'€ the compressor could be released.

Since the value of the compressor was only about Rp 2 million in new condition, my wife was not willing and now, more than four years later, the compressor has still not been returned '€” and I assume it never will be.

CE Wood