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Indonesia police chief, others removed over soccer disaster

12 Comments
By AGOES BASOEKI and EDNA TARIGAN

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Police fired tear gas into the terraces of football fans with no way to escape.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

The police should be held responsible as firing tear gas created a panic. But the fans are equally responsible for being hooligans and storming the pitch, attacking other fans, and police pressuring them to panic. Hooliganism has long been a problem in Indonesian soccer. Plenty of blame to go around and not just the police. If fans just calmly went home after the game, it wouldn't of happened.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I went to a riot and a soccer match broke out.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

An Indonesian police chief and nine elite officers were removed from their posts Monday and 18 others were being investigated for responsibility in the firing of tear gas inside a soccer stadium that set off a stampede, killing at least 125 people, officials said.

In Britain, where our police force is considered one of the best in the world, it took us 23 years to finally reveal that their incompetence was largely responsible for the similar Hillsborough disaster in 1989 in which 97 fans died. The force responsible for policing that disaster spent two decades amending witness accounts, investigating & smearing the dead, silencing their own officers and covering up their mistakes.

I suppose at least the Indonesian authorities are 23 years quicker to act than the British.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Hooliganism has long been a problem in Indonesian soccer.

It's been a problem globally and needs to be stopped! It starts with fans accepting the outcome of a GAME!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It's been a problem globally and needs to be stopped! It starts with fans accepting the outcome of a GAME!

It's getting worse too. At the end of last season in the UK there were masses of pitch invasions on a weekly basis (admittedly at smaller clubs). We had an absolute disgraceful Euro Final last year involving thousands of drugged & drunk fans. We needn't even try to get a World Cup. France is having huge problems with in-stadium violence.

In South America it is often beyond comprehension. In Argentina fans threw a hand grenade onto the pitch at their own team. Public disorder seems to be becoming worse.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

From the TV footage, not into the terraces but at the fans who were rioting on the pitch and attacking them. It then drifted into the terraces and sparked a panic.

Seems neither bread nor circuses are working to keep the populace quiescent these days.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Despite the video evidence the police chief tried to put the blame on fans in a patent attempt to shift the blame from himself and his men, but the enormity of this tragedy carries an inevitable political dimension that had to be dealt with immediately to calm the rage and shock of the people who know firsthand that Indonesian police are corrupt and badly trained to prioritize the bluntest weapon (violence) for crowd control. I once saw a policeman place a tear gas canister to the head of a helpless demonstrator who had fallen to the ground and fire his gun point-blank.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Cmiiaw, what did those that stormed the pitch after the game want? To atk the police, home or away team? What was the police supposed to do once 4000 fans stormed the pitch, allow them to atk whom ever if that lead to less death?

Obviously preventing them from entering the pitch would have been effective, and perhaps the fans being all home team lead to some slack in this area, but I would put more blame on the fans if 2 police officers had died before they fired the year has.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Indonesia police chief, others removed over soccer disaster:

While moaning/mourning for the tragic loss of 125 lives, Indonesia should not put the entire blame on the police who might have wrongly reacted to the riot.

After all, they could have not been trained to handle such unexpectedly wild situation..

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

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