Greater Jakarta Bike Jackings Underscore Surge in Use of Violence
Jakarta. The death of a mugger in the Jakarta outskirts earlier this week has brought growing concerns among Greater Jakarta residents over reports of escalating street crimes during the past month into the spotlight.
The man was attacked by an angry mob and torched alive after he and three other muggers attacked a man and a woman riding a motorbike, as the gang allegedly attempted to rob the couple of their vehicle.
The incident took place on Jalan Ceger Raya in Pondok Aren, South Tangerang, at around 1 a.m. on Tuesday.
“So these four motorcycle robbers were attempting to rob a motorbike ridden by a man and a woman,” Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul said.
One of the perpetrators drew a sword and threatened the couple with it.
“The woman resisted [the attack] by grabbing hold of the sword, while the motorbike kept running,” Martinus said.
Residents who witnessed the incident began pursuing the assailants. Three of them managed to escape, but one was caught.
“People then played judge on the captured assailant, which led to his death [sic],” Martinus said on Wednesday.
It was not clear if the woman was injured in the attack.
String of attacks
On Thursday, Pondok Aren Police Chief Comr. Bachtiar Alponso said police had questioned the two mugging victims and a resident as witnesses.
Bachtiar said they did not know who had provoked the crowd to attack the mugger, who remained unidentified as of Thursday.
“We’re still awaiting reports of anyone missing a family member,” he said.
Tuesday morning’s street robbery-turned-torching is the latest in a string of mugging attacks reported across Greater Jakarta over the past month.
Prior to the most recent incident, Denis Asmaja, a 25-year-old food delivery man, was mugged when he drove by a gas station in Depok in the early morning of Feb. 13. His motorbike was stolen along with Rp 1 million ($78) in cash he was carrying.
Denis said two men suddenly stopped him on his motorbike, claiming they were police officers who were conducting an anti-narcotics raid.
“They checked [my] belongings, treating me like a criminal and threatening me with a gun,” he said.
The two men left after taking his motorbike, the vehicle’s registration papers and the Rp 1 million from his wallet.
“They left me with only Rp 50,000, which I used to get home,” Denis said after reporting the case to his supervisor at the Depok Police headquarters.
Three days earlier, a security guard working in the House of Representatives complex was attacked as he was driving home from work on his motorbike in the early morning of Feb. 10 in Jagakarsa, South Jakarta.
Hermawan said he was driving along Jalan Akses UI, near the University of Indonesia (UI) main campus, when he was knocked off his motorbike and blacked out. He only awoke after he was found by three UI students, and discovered that his motorbike was missing.
Police said the robbers had used a fishing line, stretched across the road, to snag the motorbike and throw off its rider.
Six gangs
Police said they had identified six gangs operating in Jakarta and its satellite cities that might be responsible for the increase in the number of reports of mugging cases over the past month.
“These six gangs are operating in Jakarta,” Martinus said. “They can be very sadistic ... stabbing their victims and so on.”
The mugger torched in Tangerang bore a tattoo on his left arm that read “GBR,” believed to stand for “Grab on Road,” the name of a motorcycle gang from Bandung.
Martinus said the gangs had likely identified areas that went unchecked by police patrols, most of which are situated on the outskirts of the capital.
“They have mapped their targets. They have also mapped [areas] patrolled by police and must therefore know which locations to avoid and which to focus on,” he said.
The Jakarta Police have formed three teams to address the escalating cases of violent robberies, Martinus added.
Subdistrict police stations across the Greater Jakarta area, meanwhile, have each formed a unit to specifically deal with the issue in their respective jurisdictions.
“Each team is tasked with analyzing and preventing such crimes, as well as tracking down suspects and enforcing the law,” Martinus said.
Police stations have also dispatched additional officers to areas considered prone to street crimes and those previously skipped by regular patrols.
“We’ll also carry out preventive measures, by [enlisting the help] of community and neighborhood [security] units... We will track down the root of the problem and do our best to eradicate such violence,” Martinus said.
However, he denied that street crimes were currently on the rise, arguing the number of cases being reported to the police was actually on a steadily decline in recent years.
Instead, he said, the recent spate of robberies were committed with a higher level of “skill” and strategy, which made them more newsworthy, Martinus said.
“The recent muggings involved a greater deal of violence — the perpetrators caused grievous bodily harm to their victims,” Martinus said.
'Distracted' police force
Legislators at House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, summoned Jakarta Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Unggung Cahyono last week for questioning on the alarming surge in armed robberies across the capital.
“We told [the House] that we’re committed to securing Jakarta from street crimes,” Unggung told reporters after the hearing.
Legislator Mahfudz Siddiq of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) on Thursday blamed the rise in criminal activity on a “distracted” police force, which has in recent months focused most of its time and energy on a headline-grabbing standoff with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
The National Police, long deemed among the most corrupt public institutions in the country, have been accused of criminalizing KPK leaders by launching investigations into antigraft commissioners over various cold cases — following the antigraft body’s move to officially name police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a corruption suspect last month.
“I think the perpetrators, who have actually been committing these crimes for a long time, are using this momentum while police are busy dealing with their own problems,” Mahfudz said.
He dismissed speculation that the muggings were deliberately orchestrated by certain parties to make the police force look bad, but nevertheless urged President Joko Widodo’s administration to pay more attention to the issue.
“People are growing more concerned about the nation’s security,” Mahfudz said.
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