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Police brutality persistent this year, study finds
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Riot police stand guard on Aug. 22, 2024, during a protest outside the House of Representatives building in Jakarta against controversial planned revisions to the Regional Elections Law. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
T
here have been at least 116 recorded cases of police brutality in the country this year, including 29 extrajudicial killings, a study by Amnesty International Indonesia has found, citing a lack of evaluation, normalized violence and a permissive government attitude toward police misconduct as the primary contributing factors to the "worrying" pattern.
Launching the report on Monday, Amnesty Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said the police frequently used excessive force and often with impunity.
“Police violence continues to take place systemically. This is typically followed by lack of accountability and a weak commitment from policymakers to ensure that officers adhere to the principles of human rights,” Usman said.
Citing reports from various rights organizations, such as the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) and Imparsial, Usman said there was an indication that the excessive use of force went beyond individual conduct.
A culture of normalized violence within the police force, Usman said, had contributed significantly to the tendency of officers to "hastily resort to the use of force" in their work, particularly when dispersing protests.
Read also: Police in hot water over excessive use of force in recent protests
He cited several instances of the police allegedly using excessive force during a series of major protests against lawmakers’ interference with regional election rules in August. Amnesty found that 579 people across 14 cities and 10 provinces were either injured or arbitrarily detained.
