Fariz Blog — Nothin’ but simplicity..

Yesterday, June 1^st, was the 61^st anniversary of Indonesian Police Corps. Talking about police, I have a recent experience with traffic police officers.. Please enjoy .

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It was Monday, June 18^th. Just like other Mondays, I felt not too good. After getting my motorcycle’s front wheel repaired in a service station at Suropati Street, I left for office in a hurry, coz I had been late for hours (!). In order to reach the office quickly, I took the shortest path, through Merapi Street.

But unlucky me, instead of getting faster, I had to stop at Merbabu Street, because of a traffic operation held by the traffic police officers. Right after being stopped by one of them, I confidently searched my wallet for my riding license and motorcycle registration, coz I was sure that I always put them there.

And then I found my license, but.. Where was my registration?? Oh my God, I couldn’t find it! I searched my wallet over and over again, but it was just not there.. And I sadly admitted to the officer that I forgot to bring it with me..

Giving no tolerance, the officer offered me whether I chose attending the trial or just give him some money of entrustment instead. I had known before, that he would say those kinda things.. You know, Indonesian cops . It even seemed that it had become an usual habit that we gave cops money to avoid the trial. Yes, it did..

I had been sick of giving bribe money to police officers, so I chose attending the trial. Although there was no guarantee that my money would certainly go to the state’s treasury, but at least the money wouldn’t certainly go into the officer’s pocket. It made me feel better. Hehe . Then the officer told me that I must leave my motorcycle for the assurance until the trial day. Gosh! Of course I didn’t wanna leave it to them, regarding their bad reputation.. So I decided to make a little negotiation to exchange the warrant. I asked him to be allowed to give my motorcycle’s registration for exchange, so I could take my motorcycle home.

The officer agreed, so I called home to get somebody bring the motorcycle’s registration to me, coz I thought that there wouldn’t be enough time to get it myself. And during the time of waiting the motorcycle’s registration, the officer kept showing his impatience, saying that they might leave the location soon, to the new target location. I was thinking that he must be just bluffing, and making me just gave him some bribe money and leave. No, thank you! Like I have said before, I’m sick of it! (Of course I didn’t say it right in front of his face.. I wasn’t that stupid.. )

It had been a quite long time of waiting.. And there were some other interesting incidents at the moment. There were at least three females who also didn’t bring their vehicle registrations, but the officer let them go freely. Being complained by someone who was also given traffic ticket, he just said some "she’s-from-around-here" things and other words unclearly. I personally didn’t give a damn about it. Dunno what the true reason is, only he and God knew that.

The other incident was the hitting. There were some boys on their motorcycles. It seemed that they had just been graduated from high school –regarding the uniforms they were wearing, so full-of-colourful-sprayed-paint. One of them was caught breaking the traffic law by an officer, but he struggled, trying to escape. Then the officer yelled to the others, and the boy had being beaten in seconds. One thing that I regretted, why were the officers keep hitting the boy even though he had asked for mercy.. Gosh, police officers..

There was one other thing that had made my respect to those officers vanish. While I was waiting for my motorcycle’s registration, this boy –he’s about my age– asked me to borrow my cell. He said that he would use it to call his uncle. After he finished his call, I heard him negotiating with the officer. The boy said to the officer that his uncle was the owner of a café at Lahor Street. And he asked the officer to settle the problems at his uncle’s café, during the lunchtime. Then I heard that the officer refused that offer, but he demand a bottle of booze –a scotch whisky– for settling the problem instead! What the..

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I waited for about half an hour before my motorcycle’s registration arrived. Then I got my traffic ticket, then I left for office. And I merely waited for the trial day to come.. Mmmh.. I think that’s all the story of that day. I think I would reveal more of our police officers’ awful mentality if I described it more briefly.. Hehehe..

[ To be continued.. ]

Picture taken from www.trafficticketsecrets.com