Zaky Pawas & Kinanti Pinta Karana, Tangerang – An Indonesian motorcycle thief was captured and beaten to death by an enraged mob in Banten on Sunday night.

Jakarta Police Spokesman Snr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar identified the deceased as Yadi Setiawan, 22. Boy said Yadi had hailed an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driven by Uday at the Binong housing complex in Tangerang and asked to be driven to Kampung Cadas Rancagong in Legok.

After arriving at the agreed destination, Yadi got off the ojek and pretended to make a phone call before attacking Uday with a piece of wood.

Yadi attempted to drive off but was caught by locals, who killed him. Police would not say if they would charge anyone in relation to the murder.

Mohammad Asad, a social psychologist from Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, told the Globe that such instances of mob violence were related to the public's distrust of the police.

"The public has their own logic to take the law into their own hands. It is triggered by many factors, including their distrust of the law enforcement agents," Asad said.

He pointed out that the "public logic" was founded from their own experiences in dealing with the police.

"There is a stigma that if you follow the legal procedure to report crime, you'll end up causing troubles for yourself. There is a social cost, for example, you have to attend the court hearing if the case makes it to court," he said.

He said that in most cases, mob beatings were a not an individual decision. "This is a consensus among members of the public based on their own logic that beating crooks or thieves is legal. Not only thieves but the ritual of stripping couples who are caught having sex outside marriage," Asad said.

He encouraged the police to educate the public about the matter. "There should be a kind of encouragement from the police to educate the public, starting from the smallest neighborhood units and ask people to hand in thieves and crooks to the police and avoid taking matters into their own hands," he said.