Police Shouldn't Face Demonstrations By Arresting Protesters

JAKARTA - The Ombudsman Representative of Jakarta Raya regrets that there are still repressive actions by the police who have arrested a number of participants in the demonstration against the Job Creation Law which led to the clash yesterday.

The Head of the Ombudsman Representative for Greater Jakarta, Teguh Nugroho, stated that the principle of handling demonstrations should be emphasized more on driving away the masses, not chasing and arresting them.

"It is hoped that the handling of demonstrations will be more deterrent in nature and prevent pursuit and / or arrest," Teguh said in his statement, Friday, October 9.

During the demonstration, at around 15.00 WIB yesterday, police officers fired tear gas at a number of points to repel the demonstrators.

Teguh said the intelligence team should have been able to pay attention to the balance between the number of participants and the threat weight of officers. As well, it can reduce the number of personnel sufficiently, before using its power tools.

"The intelligence function should be able to have initial information to determine the number of masses and the ratio of the number of personnel that need to be deployed will be more adequate, including personnel rotation to avoid fatigue that triggers the emotions of the personnel," Teguh said.

Therefore, Teguh urged the police, especially Polda Metro Jaya to put forward a preventive approach through intelligence data collection in determining actions and persuasive efforts such as dialogue to maintain security during demonstrations.

"So, as a guardian of security and order, as much as possible do not use a legal or repressive approach, except for those who commit violations or are suspected of criminal acts," he said.

For information, the police have arrested 1,192 rioters who are suspected of being members of an anarcho group. They were arrested when they rioted at a demonstration against the Job Creation Act.

Head of Public Relations of Polda Metro Jaya Kombes Yusri Yunus said that the thousands of people were arrested on 7 and 8 October. They were secured before the riot broke out.

"Up to this moment, we have secured 1,192 (people). Before the rioting, we did raids," said Yusri.

Based on data collection, many of them come from outside Jakarta. They deliberately came to the capital to take part in demonstrations and caused chaos.

This is known based on a cellphone examination and information. This is because their cellphones were found inviting them to make trouble at student and labor demonstrations.