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New video raises more questions about police actions
While members of the public are still scrutinizing the violence police used in handling a week-long student protest in Jakarta last month, netizens in Indonesia were witness to a video of an officer kicking and beating an ojek (motorcylce taxi) driver in Bogor, West Java, that went viral on social media over the weekend
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span>While members of the public are still scrutinizing the violence police used in handling a week-long student protest in Jakarta last month, netizens in Indonesia were witness to a video of an officer kicking and beating an ojek (motorcylce taxi) driver in Bogor, West Java, that went viral on social media over the weekend.
The driver reportedly had trespassed into a cleared area near Tugu Kujang, where President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s motorcade was expected to pass that afternoon. The police officer allegedly became furious about the violation, which led to the violence.
The video showed how the officer, later identified only as Second Insp. R, ordered the ojek driver, Holil, to pull over after he entered the emptied-out Jl. Pajajaran and headed toward Jl. Otista.
The officer was shown shouting loudly as he walked toward the stationary Holil. When R was close enough to the ojek driver, the officer appeared to kick Holil on the shin and hit his head, which was covered with a helmet.
The video, which was posted by Twitter user @HananAnarki, had by Sunday afternoon been watched more than 779,000 times. It was also retweeted by about 36,000 Twitter users and provoked thousands to comment.
“An online ojek driver unintentionally entered a cleared area where the President was about to pass,” he wrote in his tweet.
Bogor Police chief Sr. Adj. Comr. Hendri Fiuser confirmed the incident had taken place on Saturday at about 11:30 a.m. The area had been cleared because the President’s motorcade was about to make its way to Bogor Palace from Jakarta.
Hendri said R had been questioned by the Bogor Police’s internal affairs division (Propam). The force then decided to reassign him to a desk job in the Bogor Police headquarters.
“We have decided to rotate him from the service [division in the field] to become a staff member,” Hendri said as quoted by kompas.com on Saturday.
He said the measure was taken because R could not control his anger toward traffic violators.
The police had also ticketed Holil for violating a traffic rule applied on Jl. Pajajaran that afternoon.
An online ojek driver in Jakarta, Nuri Soliawan, gritted his teeth as he was watching the video for the first time on Sunday morning. He admitted that he himself and many other ojek drivers sometimes violate certain traffic regulations when they are in a rush.
“Well, we all know that ojek drivers are not the best road users in the world. We violate traffic rules many times,” the 24-year-old said.
“But most of us will not run away if we are caught doing so; we will accept the ticket or the sanction. The officer’s act toward this man could not be justified in any way,” he added.
Commenting on the force’s tendency to use violence, the director of the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) Jakarta, Arif Maulana, said the police force lacks a monitoring system and that triggers the growth of arrogance and arbitrariness.
“Over-repressive acts that have been proven, they can’t take action in certain cases but pretend to not see the other cases. Otherwise, the public will believe them less and less. This is dangerous,” he said.
Despite repeatedly claiming that they did not use violence in the recent rally, a local and some students reportedly died and sustained serious injuries during the protest.
Hundreds are reportedly still under arrest at the Jakarta Police’s headquarters. Musician Ananda Badudu even said that they were being processed without legal assistance and treated unethically — the police refuted this statement.
Separately, Yati Andriyani, coordinator at the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said that the police must investigate the excessive use of force against student protesters.
He lamented that all state institutions like the National Police Commission (Kompolnas), the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the legislators at the House of Representatives and even the President seemed to ignore the cases so there was no control and accountability for the police.
The same happened in the postelection protest in May when video of police brutality was widely distributed, but none of the police involved were held accountable. On the other hand, dozens of locals and common workers stood trial for various allegations, including using violence against the authorities and disobeying the orders of authorities on duty to disperse.
“I think the police should not impose a double standard in terms of law enforcement. They should be fair and impartial in taking care of all cases and at all times. The police should demonstrate transparency and accountability, proving that they can work independently and that every citizen is equal before the law.” Arif said.
“Some wrongdoings [of the police] that were supposed to be punished and considered as crime, ended up with a light or ethical sanction. We call for evaluation of their monitoring system,” he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
