Associated Press Indonesian activists gather sandals at the office of Indonesian Commission for Child Protection in Jakarta to protest the prosecution of a 15-year-old boy for stealing an old pair of sandals from a police officer. More In Indonesia Amobee Focuses on the Rest of Asia Indonesians Praise Ghost-Buster Guard Indonesian Police Shave Punks’ Heads Provocative Ad Links Women’s Success to the Bedroom BlackBerry Maker Faces Questions on Stampede Flinging footwear at people in power is so last decade; the new trend in Indonesia is to donate it. Indonesians have dropped thousands of old flip-flops and other footwear at police stations and a child protection group to protest the heavy-handed treatment of a 15-year-old boy accused of stealing a policeman’s sandals in the northern state of Central Sulawesi. After allegedly stealing the $3 slippers in 2010, the boy was beaten by three police officers and now faces up to five years in prison.
The policemen were punished for their brutality after the boy filed a complaint—which may be why the police decided to force the case to court, according to local reports .
The trial of the boy, referred to by only his initials, AAL, in local media, has been going on since last month and continues Wednesday. It has sparked the anger of Indonesians frustrated with a justice system that sometimes seems too tough on citizens even as government officials accused of extorting millions escape heavy sentences.
The National Commission for Child Protection announced last week that it would take donations to buy the police officer new sandals, but people started showing up with used footwear instead .
The government-financed child protection organization, which is urging the boy’s timely acquittal , now plans to collect and deliver thousands of pairs of shoes to the officer. “The flip-flop collection is a spontaneous movement, which has sprung up since the news broke last week. It shows how people are concerned about injustice in the system,” said Sofyan Farid Lembah, the Central Sulawesi-based commissioner of the Commission for Child Protection, which has so far collected 3,000 pairs of sandals across the country. “How can an underage child be facing a five-year sentence for a petty crime?” This isn’t the first high-profile case of what seems like police harassment for small crimes. Last year two men were caught in a police sting operation for trying to sell their iPads online without local-language user manuals.
They were acquitted in October but prosecutors plan to appeal. Also last year, pop star Nazril “Ariel” Irham was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail for making two blurry, homemade sex videos that leaked on the Internet.
The court rejected Mr. Irham’s argument that the videos had been stolen and released without his permission, saying he hadn’t done enough to stop their distribution. Meanwhile just last month, police in the conservative state of Aceh raided a punk rock concert and detained more than 50 fans, shaving mohawks , removing piercings and forcing detainees into a 10-day rehabilitation program. –With contributions from Yayu Yuniar
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Indonesians Protest With Flip-Flops
