A few weeks ago a video of an Indonesian teenager whining and begging a police officer to not take his motorcycle went viral, but his desperate attempt to persuade the officer not to take his ride proved unsuccessful. A man in Mamuju, West Sulawesi, took a very different approach when police recently threatened to impound his motorcycle and succeeded in driving away, minus his dignity perhaps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioy_IPtYmpU
The incident took place on the afternoon of September 1 and shows the scene at a police checkpoint where officers were stopping people to check for their registration documents. Trouble begins when one man they stopped explodes in anger after police told him he would be fined and have his vehicle confiscated for not carrying its papers. He slams his helmet to the ground and yells that he had not broken any laws and he has the proper documents, just not on him. He then threatens to take off his clothes if the police take his car.
At first the police seem to take his threats in stride and proceed with confiscating his vehicle. The man yells that he is on the way to buy rice at the market for his ill child and that he is in a hurry. He says that he’ll be stuck if the police take his vehicle because he doesn’t have any money to take public transport as well. The police actually offer to give him IDR50,000 (US$3.35) so that he can continue his journey but the man refuses and says he doesn’t accept them taking his motorcycle. When police still insist that they have to take it, the man finally makes good on his threat to start stripping, taking off his shirt before the building crowd.
And that finally does it. The police reluctantly give the shirtless man’s friend back his keys and let him go. They ask him to put his clothes back on before he leaves but in one last act of defiance he drives off the scene with his helmet on and his bare chest facing the wind.
