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View all search resultsAnalysis: Death of mirror seller: Investigation puts state on trial
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![A police tape reads “Crime scene [...]“ in this undated illustration of a crime scene.](https://img.jakpost.net/c/2026/09/14/2026_09_14_179717_1789368331._large.jpg)
A police tape reads “Crime scene [...]“ in this undated illustration of a crime scene. (Shutterstock/Prath)
T
he death of Bambang Setiawan, a 60-year-old mirror seller from Pejompongan in Central Jakarta, should have been a straightforward homicide case. He left his house at 10 p.m. to switch off the lights in his shop 500 meters away, during unrest following the Aug. 27 demonstrations near the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta. He was found unconscious, removed by police and pronounced dead at Mintohardjo Hospital. Ten days later, the case has become a mirror for everything wrong with how Indonesia polices protest.
The Jakarta Police investigation is curiously hollow. Police say they are analyzing amateur social media videos, have questioned 14 witnesses, and released facial sketches of two men aged 30–40. Yet for a death in a dense urban area, under heavy police deployment, on a night when hundreds were arrested, there is still no named perpetrator, no timeline, no forensic anchor.
The family, traumatized by the body's condition, refused an autopsy. Police accepted the refusal, understandable on humanitarian grounds, but it left the state without the one piece of evidence that could establish cause of death.
The investigation now rests entirely on chaotic witness testimony and videos police themselves admit are partly AI-manipulated. As of Sept. 2, 49 people remain suspects, but charged with damaging public property and assaulting other victims, not with Bambang's death. Many arrested, none accountable for the death that matters.
Into that vacuum enters the Jakarta chapter of the United Indonesian People’s Movement (GRIB). Secretary-general Zulfikar confirmed GRIB members were present that night as civilian security volunteers assisting police (Pam Swakarsa) insisting: "It was not GRIB that beat him. It was the protesters."
That defense creates a bigger problem. If GRIB was there as Pam Swakarsa, who requested it? Police deny any formal request, no operational order, no written request, no coordination record. But GRIB's own narrative depends on being invited. Either GRIB self-mobilized into a security operation illegally, or it was invited by someone who now denies it. Either way, the state has outsourced its monopoly on violence.
Using militias to help police manage protests is an open secret in Jakarta.
![A police tape reads “Crime scene [...]“ in this undated illustration of a crime scene.](https://img.jakpost.net/c/2026/09/14/2026_09_14_179717_1789368331._medium.jpg)
