Two people in a car are being hailed as heroes in Indonesia for taking the begal (violent muggers) problem in their ‘hood into their own hands, even though they may face legal consequences for their actions.
A video taken inside a car in Magelang, Central Java has been making the rounds online. It shows the car chasing after two begals – known as klitih in the region – on a motorcycle, one of whom was carrying a long sickle, who repeatedly swung the sharp weapon at the car in an attempt to fend off the vehicle.
The car eventually caught up to the robbers and proceeded to run them down. The video then cuts to showing the begals bloodied and injured as they writhed on the road.
Police in Magelang confirmed that the incident occurred at 4am on Monday.
“[The begals] were going after two ladies on a motorcycle,” Central Java Police spokesman Iqbal Alqudusy said yesterday.
The two people in the car thankfully noticed the begals and prevented any harm from coming to the two ladies.
Police arrived at the scene after the begals had been run down and arrested the pair. They were said to be 16-year-old students of a vocational school and were under the influence of alcohol as they sought to hurt and steal from innocents.
Comments in the post above are full of praise for the men in the car, calling them heroes who dared to tackle the begal nuisance head-on.
“I’m slightly disappointed. Why didn’t they run over the begals while they were at it?” one user commented.
Of course, had they killed the begals, the two men could have faced severe penalties for vehicular manslaughter. As of this article’s publication, they are coming out of this incident with not even a negligent driving charge, albeit with cosmetic damages to their car from the sickle and the collision.
Begals have been known to indiscriminately hurt and even kill other motorists in Indonesia. Any violent retribution against them — be it by police or civilians — are often met with applause by the general public.
