I witnessed first-hand what the police are capable of when power, reputation and survival are at stake. I saw them elevate their institutional standing through high-profile counterterrorism operations in the early to mid-2000s. I saw them mobilize civil society organizations and local communities against Newmont Minahasa Raya, a powerful US mining firm, using a pretext that positioned the police as defenders of the national interest. They can do almost anything when they are desperate enough.

That is why it did not shock me to see Laras Faizati, an ordinary young woman who happened to work at the ASEAN Secretariat, chained in a courtroom last Monday, accused not merely of wrongdoing, but of being a threat to the state.

Laras, 26, had never joined a street protest against the government. She is not a political organizer, an activist leader or a public intellectual. Her crime was an Instagram post, written in anger after the police killing of online motorcycle transportation delivery driver Affan Kurniawan, expressing that the police headquarters near her office deserved to be burned down.

It was an emotional, reckless and ill-considered statement, as many social media posts are. But in a functioning democracy, it would have warranted a warning, perhaps an investigation, at most, a proportionate legal process.

The post was in English, obtained only around 20 likes and was incapable of inciting a riot. Instead, Laras was transformed into an unlikely symbol of resistance, paraded through the justice system as a national lesson. Her prosecution was not about law; it was about theater.

Laras is not alone. Last week also saw the trial of other young Indonesians, including Ahmad Faiz Yusuf, Shelfin Bima and Sam Oemar, each of whom was dragged before the courts under similar accusations. Delpedro Marhaen remains detained, along with many others whose names have barely made headlines.