IPW: Recent Attacks on Police Driven by Increasing Distrust

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Police (IPW) said that an increasing distrust towards police and authorities is the main cause of the the attack on Jambi's Tabir Sector Police on Saturday, August 27, 2016. "Either that, or there are individuals acting behind the scene who provoked the attack," said the Head of IPW, Neta S. Pane through a press released received by Tempo on August 28, 2016.

According to Neta, Police intelligence and the National Intelligence Agency needs to dig deeper into the the incident - especially considering that a similar incident had recently occurred in Sugapa Sector Police in Intan Jaya Regency in Papua. IPW calls on authorities to conduct a thorough analysis to determine the actual causes behind the recent attacks, which specifically targets the police forces' headquarters.

Based on IPW's figures, in the past eight months there have been attacks made to 14 police stations and other police facilities by local civilians - including the recent attacks in Jambi and Papua - as a result of which 11 policemen perished and 45 other police officers were injured. "Once Gen. Tito Karnavian took the helm of the National Police (Polri), there has been seven attacks in total," said Neta, who explained that the attacks vary to mob attacks to police and/or police officers, as well as attacks that specifically targets a random police officer.

A forensic psychologist, Reza Indragiri, said that the Police needs to get to the bottom of this, as it creates an atmosphere of insecurity. "Failing to do so will weaken the image of the police force, as they will be perceived as to have failed maintain order," said Indragiri.

Indragiri said that the an image of a weakened police force is already evident when the police officers who were under attack could not bring the situation under their control - and as such, Indragiri hopes that no other copy-cat crimes will ensue following the string of incidents.

On Saturday, August 27, 2016, hundreds of civilians stormed the Tabir Sector Police Headquarters after an officer arrested a suspected illegal miner. The civilians were furious as they perceive that police officers are only capable, if not interested, in catching small-scale miners - as opposed to larger companies that operate without the legal mining permits.

Meanwhile in Intan Jaya, residents burned a police headquarters after an officer was suspected to have shot an underage civilian, E.S. - who was 15 years old at the time. The teenager perished from to his injuries, but before he was interned, his body was paraded to the police station as their mean to ask for justice.

AVIT HIDAYAT