Jakarta – Systemic police violence has been highlighted after an assault on the vocalist of a popular band in Bandung, who received at least 20 stitches after allegedly being hit on the forehead with a glass bottle by a plainclothes police officer.
The incident occurred when Satrio Bambang, of indie band Pure Saturday, who is referred to as Iyo by his colleagues, was relaxing at the Camden Bar and Lounge in Bandung's Dago area. A patrol from Bandung Wetang Police station arrived at the lounge at midnight to order customers home in accordance with a curfew of dubious validity established by the provincial police ahead of the general elections.
Iyo, who was inside the cafe, said he was already getting ready to leave when a group of police officers entered the building. "Because they were rather violent when they disbanded [patrons], I was curious and asked, 'What's going on?'," Iyo said in an interview at his home. "Suddenly, somebody hit me in the forehead and I fell. My head bled," Iyo related.
Iyo said he didn't see the face of his attacker but his friends told him it was a police officer in plain clothes. "What I remember was that two people were standing in front of me. They maybe thought I was going to act offensively and they hit me," he said.
Iyo lamented the police's violent behavior in ordering customers out, saying they could have handled it in a better way. "I personally regret the officers' violent behavior. I am a resident of Bandung city, I love Bandung – I also support its government. I am an artist and I am very much against violence. The officers could have taken a better approach with the customers," he said.
Pure Saturday manager Buddy Gunawan said Iyo wasn't the only victim of police violence that night. "Iyo's friends were also assaulted," Buddy said.
He said that before entering the cafe's building, officers had ordered visitors sitting outside the building to go home. "It's true that they gave a warning, but it was outside Camden [cafe]. Iyo didn't hear it," Buddy explained.
The officers then went into the building and began to violently throw visitors out without first warning them. "That's what they should have done [issue a warning], but instead they just struck out," said Buddy.
Extrajudicial killings
Police shot dead 115 people last year, according to data compiled by the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI). Those killed were often suspects of petty crime or even those exercising their right to freedom of speech and protest, according to Hendardi, chairman of PBHI's national membership council.
Hendardi said PBHI recorded 595 cases of illegal police violence against suspects in 27 provinces last year, with most recorded violations involving shootings by officers, both woundings and killings, which totaled 446 incidents, affecting 661 victims.
"Cases that also frequently arise involve hitting and torturing suspects while in police custody, with 61 incidents recorded involving 294 victims," Hendardi said. "Eighteen of those died from their injuries," the public interest lawyer added.
The Bandung curfew that isn't
Bandung City Police often raid entertainment venues in order to enforce what they say is the city's midnight curfew, expected to last until after the general elections. However, it seems the police are acting unilaterally without a valid legal basis.
For his part, Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil denies the existence of a curfew. After his Twitter account was bombarded with criticism in the wake of the assault on Iyo, the mayor tweeted "There is no curfew policy put in place by the Bandung city administration."
Ridwan said he was trying to resolve the problem of violence, and asked the people of Bandung to think positively. Ridwan said it was the West Java Police who had implemented a midnight curfew, and had urged it to be formalized into a city bylaw.
But such a bylaw would not be easy to implement, he said. "I have talked with the DPRD [Provincial Legislative Council] and turning it into a bylaw would require a lengthy time," he said.
Ridwan said the operational hours of entertainment venues were in fact regulated under a 2012 bylaw, which states that entertainment venues can operate until 3 in the morning – and that the city administration will stick to that bylaw.
The police's illegal curfew imposition measures were criticized by sociologist Dudung Durahman, who says that placing a limit on the operational hours of entertainment venues was a poor response to the local administration's failure to provide security for its citizens.
Dudung said authorities should respond to violent incidents in Bandung by increasing security and not by creating a sense of fear of the police among residents.
He said the city administration should identify the cause of violence and that if it indeed stemmed from entertainment venues, the administration should improve security in those areas. After all, he said, Bandung is a metropolitan city where activities can be expected to carry on 24 hours a day.
"This is such a setback if the administration imposes a curfew on the operations of nightlife entertainment venues," Dudung said. Dudung said that the Bandung Regional Revenue Agency claimed nightlife spots didn't contribute significantly to the city's coffers.
But Dudung said that if the businesses didn't make money, then the number of entertainment venues would not have grow to such a degree. Low contributions from entertainment venues was due to poor city administration tax collection measures.
"What's the point of having entertainment venues if the contribution is small or if they only make the city prone to crime?" Dudung called on authorities to take a clear stance to either heighten security to enable Bandung to become a metropolitan city or to close down all entertainment venues if their existence only created a sense of insecurity.