People were understandably outraged to hear that a policeman allegedly refused to assist a traffic accident victim in Kelapa Gading and just carried on eating his nasi bungkus (wrapped rice dish). But the police tell a very different version of what happened on Tuesday evening.
North Jakarta Traffic Police Chief Grand Adjunct Commissioner Sudarmanto denied that a member from his force deliberately ignored his duty.
“It’s true that there was an accident there (in Kelapa Gading). At the time, one of my personnel was there (at the police outpost). But there was never an issue from the beginning. It was just the media and their misleading headlines,” Sudarmanto said, as quoted by Merdeka yesterday.
According to Sudarmanto, two of his officers, Sarif and Joni, were already dismissed at 9pm on Tuesday. On their way home, they stopped at the police outpost in Kelapa Gading to eat and pray. They were the only two people at the outpost as the other officers were out directing traffic flow in the area.
And then, an ojek driver named Yudi came to the outpost to tell the officers about an accident nearby. Sarif put down his meal and followed Yudi to the scene, leaving Joni alone in the outpost.
“Then there was a lady named Rina who came to the outpost and met with Joni and told him about the accident. Joni told the lady that an officer, Sarif, was already on his way there. But the lady yelled at Joni instead,” Sudarmanto said.
Rina was quoted by the media that night, saying that the officer at the outpost ignored her plea for help and carried on eating his nasi bungkus.
Meanwhile, Sarif arrived at the scene to find that a fellow citizen had already driven the victim to a nearby hospital.
Later that evening, other members of the North Jakarta Traffic Police located the victim at the Persahabatan Hospital in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, and paid him a visit. There, they also met with Rina and thanked her for assisting the victim.
Depending on which version you believe, either we have lazy cops in Jakarta or the media weren’t totally accurate in their reporting. What do you think?
