Waria Power: Group of transgender women in Jakarta catch and turn in alleged thief to the police (Video)

Photo: Tribun
Photo: Tribun

A group of transgender women in Jakarta — locally referred to as “waria” (a portmanteau of the Indonesian words wanita, meaning woman, and pria, meaning man) — showed they are not to be messed with after a video of them punishing an alleged thief went viral.

In the video above, which was packaged and posted by Liputan 6 today, a group of waria surround a half-naked man who is sobbing profusely and begging for mercy at the beginning. One of the waria can then be heard saying to the man, “Don’t you dare cry! You have to take responsibility. Don’t mess with waria, okay?”

Then comes perhaps the most comical moment in the entire video. One of the waria asks another if she knows the number for the police, to which she replied, “the police’s number can be found on Google.”

The scene then shifts to inside a police car, where one of the waria is taking a video selfie describing that they are headed to a police station in Puri Kembangan, West Jakarta, to turn in the alleged thief. The cop driving them seemed entertained by the situation.

According to Tribun, the waria were apparently sex workers were hanging out at their usual spot in the city when the alleged thief came up to one of them and asked her about the price of her services. That turned out to be a ruse as he allegedly snatched her mobile phone and tried to run away.

“He asked the tariff to play, which was IDR100,000. He then ran and we pulled him back,” one of the waria said, as quoted by Tribun.

The waria then stripped him half-naked and discussed amongst themselves whether they should beat him up, prompting his sobbing pleas for mercy. Thankfully, the ladies decided to go the legal route and turned the alleged thief in to the police.



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