Negative sentiment against the police has been re-energized only weeks after the force was hit by its worst scandal in decades, in which scores of police officers were suspected of trying to cover up the brutal murder of a junior police officer by the head of the force’s very own internal affairs division.

The institution is once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

“No one would say that this was a simple incident. We assert the need for police reform, as the Kanjuruhan tragedy only shows the security apparatus’ tendency for violence”, said Daniel Siagian of the Malang Legal Aid Institute (LBH), which is conducting its own investigation into the tragedy.

Read also: Tear gas, locked gates led to Kanjuruhan soccer stampede

 Normalized violence

Malang LBH’s investigation found that most of the fatalities occurred in the southern end of the stadium, where police fired tear gas directly into the stands. A witness to the events, identified only as U, gave an account of what he had seen during a press conference.

“The first few shots landed short of the fences, so they didn’t reach the stands. [...] But shots aiming for the southern end of the field were different, they were aimed directly into the stands”, said U. The situation was made worse by the fact that out of the four gates at the southern end, only gate 11 was open, as corroborated by Daniel’s team later.

The tear gas, which world soccer’s governing body FIFA has banned from being used inside stadiums, remains the central point of contention in the case. Ahmad Riyadh of the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) claimed on Tuesday that it had actually communicated the issue to the police, but as the police had their own standard operating procedures, the PSSI could not enforce the issue.

Speaking to Kompas TV on Tuesday, Albertus Wahyurudhanto from the National Police Commission confirmed that the Malang Police chief never ordered the use of tear gas during the match. But drawing on past incidents, Hussein Ahmad of Imparsial said that tear gas use had been the norm for some time now.

Read also: PSSI dodges blame for Kanjuruhan tragedy

Trigger happy

“Instances of brutality by the police and other security forces on soccer fans has been well-documented. [...] We’ve often been on the receiving end of this and for us, tear gas is just business as usual”, said Hussein. He further heralded the victims of the Kanjuruhan tragedy as martyrs as without them, the public probably would not have woken up to the issue.

Hussein pointed to the death of Persija fan Fahreza in 2016 as an example. The 16-year-old died after a match between Persija and Semen Padang, allegedly because of police abuse, but to this day, there has been no follow-up to the case, according to Hussein.

While activists take issue with the police and military’s excessive use of force, Julius Ibrani of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) questioned their presence in the stadium in the first place given the non-threatening nature of the crowd.

“The crowd weren’t allowed to bring blunt or sharp objects, flares, firearms or even compact powders that had mirrors in them. We don’t see this type of crowd as life-threatening in any way, especially not to the security forces”, said Julius.

He applauded the organizer’s decision to bar supporters of the opposing Persebaya team from attending the match to minimize risk. However, given that they had gone to such lengths, it was confusing why they had felt the need to bring in state security forces in full riot gear to help secure the proceedings.

In Europe, police are usually stationed outside of stadiums with civilian stewards maintaining control inside, an approach that the PSSI said is not possible here. “Sadly, we in Indonesia aren’t really familiar with the concept of stewards, so we have to rely on the police for security”, said Ahmad Riyadh.

Julius further implored the independent government fact-finding investigative team to get to the bottom of this issue. The technicalities of the incident, such as who invaded the field first, who fired the tear gas and who committed excessive use of force should not be their priority, he added, as the investigative team should take a more holistic approach to the case.

Read also: PSSI shifts blame for Kanjuruhan tragedy, fines Arema Rp 250 million

Disappearing evidence

In his visit to Malang on Wednesday, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo pushed for the investigative team to get to the bottom of the case. Emphasizing their independence, Jokowi asked them to “work as quickly as possible, as there’s already plenty of evidence” and has set a deadline of November.

Since Saturday, videos showing how the tragedy went down have been proliferating on social media. One viral video on TikTok and shared through Twitter, which has since been deleted, showed how the crowd began to pile up at one of the locked exits.

However, reports then began to emerge on Tuesday that the person that captured and uploaded the video had gone missing. Daniel and his team from LBH Malang are currently investigating the disappearance of uploader of the video, identified only as Kelpin.

East Java Police chief, Insp. Gen. Nico Afinta however, told Tempo on Tuesday that Kelpin had since been sent home. Narasi editor Zen RS confirmed via Twitter on Wednesday that he had been in contact with Kelpin and he was picked up by the police at Malang Station where he works daily. (ahw)