Potential for crime explosion in Bali amidst economic crisis?

JackStraw

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Mar 14, 2017
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The Bali Bombing and Mt. Agung events were no doubt a thorn in Bali's economic side but that was relatively short-lived. If this pandemic continues for the next few months to a year, which I personally believe it will, how will it affect Bali's crime rate?

Even if the pandemic stopped tomorrow, I don't think people will magically return to traveling overnight. It will take some time to get back to the norm if we even go back at all. As a island almost completely reliant on tourism, this will cause a huge issue.

Are any expats in Bali concerned about the potential crime explosion in Bali? When backed into a corner with no money or food, humans resort to instinctual behavior and for many of us Bule, we'll be some of the first targets.

I've already ramped up my home defense and I hope you are all doing the same. Things could get ugly here/
 
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SamD

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Sep 7, 2006
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I have thought about it but short of arming myself with a gun I don't know how I could possibly defend myself against a determined attacker. My only defense strategy is to hand over all my cash and hope they leave my phone and laptop.
If I could buy a firearm I would. But it is not an option here. I used to own one in South Africa and only drew it once.... on my nightwatchman when I found him fast asleep when I came home late one night. You should have seen him run.
 

tel522

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Oct 30, 2015
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Im sure personal security should be our focus these days unfortunately ,as people will become desperate after another month or so .
 

JackStraw

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You can get some high powered BB guns in Kuta. I know it's nothing compared to a real gun but they are loued and if it hits skin, it'll scare the shit out of someone. Also got pepper spray and a few golf clubs as Plan B.


I have thought about it but short of arming myself with a gun I don't know how I could possibly defend myself against a determined attacker. My only defense strategy is to hand over all my cash and hope they leave my phone and laptop.
If I could buy a firearm I would. But it is not an option here. I used to own one in South Africa and only drew it once.... on my nightwatchman when I found him fast asleep when I came home late one night. You should have seen him run.
 

JackStraw

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Im sure personal security should be our focus these days unfortunately ,as people will become desperate after another month or so .


For sure. Robberies are already on the rise in Sanur. In broad daylight also
 

PERtoDPS

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Dec 31, 2018
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Jackstraw I'd be interested to see some links about these robberies in Sanur, not saying they not happen but I feel 1000x safer in Sanur than in Perth CBD. It is also where I stay. Lock the door enough for me at this stage, although I love in a hotel when I'm there wouldn't be the wisest target. I have read of some crazy murder robberies from people drunk on arak and tuak, but never in my 2 years of going to Bali seen anything like that.
 

SamD

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You can get some high powered BB guns in Kuta. I know it's nothing compared to a real gun but they are loued and if it hits skin, it'll scare the shit out of someone. Also got pepper spray and a few golf clubs as Plan B.
I would never escalate a confrontation with an intruder unless I was 110% sure I would come out on top. A nine iron isn't going to do the job. A Glock or Walther will. So I will stay with my strategy of placating my adversary with cash and hope for the best. I am actually quite vulnerable because my lounge is open air. Any reasonably fit bloke could hop onto my verandah and be in my face. I can lock my bedrooms but all you have to do is break a window and you are in. Not ideal but what can you do? But I don't feel like I am in any imminent danger. .... famous last words!.
 
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harryopal

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May 5, 2016
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I would never escalate a confrontation with an intruder unless I was 110% sure I would come out on top. A nine iron isn't going to do the job. A Glock or Walther will. So I will stay with my strategy of placating my adversary with cash and hope for the best. I am actually quite vulnerable because my lounge is open air. Any reasonably fit bloke could hop onto my verandah and be in my face. I can lock my bedrooms but all you have to do is break a window and you are in. Not ideal but what can you do? But I don't feel like I am in any imminent danger. .... famous last words!.

A big dog might be worthwhile. At least you don't, for the time being, have to wonder what you do with the dog if you go away. It seems we won't be going anywhere for a while.
 

JackStraw

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Jackstraw I'd be interested to see some links about these robberies in Sanur, not saying they not happen but I feel 1000x safer in Sanur than in Perth CBD. It is also where I stay. Lock the door enough for me at this stage, although I love in a hotel when I'm there wouldn't be the wisest target. I have read of some crazy murder robberies from people drunk on arak and tuak, but never in my 2 years of going to Bali seen anything like that.

Check out the Sanur Facebook group. About 2 weeks back there was a Balinese woman who got her necklace taken in day light and another couple who got robbed by motorbike thief right in front of the German Consulate.

Of course, this is just Facebook banter and not an official police report so who knows if it's true but I see no reason why someone would lie about that unless they are psychotic
 

tel522

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A big dog might be worthwhile. At least you don't, for the time being, have to wonder what you do with the dog if you go away. It seems we won't be going anywhere for a while.
We have 2 , make a lot of noise if someone is around ,finally some use for my muts
 
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JackStraw

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I would never escalate a confrontation with an intruder unless I was 110% sure I would come out on top. A nine iron isn't going to do the job. A Glock or Walther will. So I will stay with my strategy of placating my adversary with cash and hope for the best. I am actually quite vulnerable because my lounge is open air. Any reasonably fit bloke could hop onto my verandah and be in my face. I can lock my bedrooms but all you have to do is break a window and you are in. Not ideal but what can you do? But I don't feel like I am in any imminent danger. .... famous last words!.


I see your point but I think between myself and my friends screaming, wielding BB guns, pepper spray and some other objects, that should at least give us a fighting shot. I'm not gonna take my chances with some starving Indo guy who's probably cranked up on Shabu2
 

JackStraw

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We have 2 , make a lot of noise if someone is around ,finally some use for my muts


A dog is good. But if things get real bad, definitely gonna pony up for security guard. Also, thinking about putting up a sign saying "AWAS! ADA ORANG POSITIF CORONA DISINI. JANGAN MASUK!!"

That last bit is half a joke but I reckon it would scare a few petty thiefs off haha
 
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mugwump

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seattle pekutatan
These conversations remind me of what happened when the Bali bombs occurred years ago, and people were freaking out. I even went on a trip to Surabaya specifically to buy a handgun which I found was only a pellet pistol priced at a totally outrageous price, and declined.
Here is what I did learn then. There was crime in Bali apparently in large committed by mostly out of work people originally from other islands.
For the most part crimes were in areas with integrated populations rather than traditional small village enclaves where people were well acquainted, and questioned those that were outsiders. The banjars in these areas were tight about anyone that didn't belong which held down the likelihood of crime.
In instances where crimes occurred even in these areas the perpetrators were usually with inside information when from outside the banjar. An example might be where outsiders had done work and knew there would likely be money in the home. Obviously the ease of access to the house from outside in these instances was of critical importance.
What is different today is that people from other islands will be more likely to go to their native home, and in doing so are prohibited from returning during the ban. In summation from what has happened before that we can learn from now is that crime will most likely occur where there is the most integrated kinds of neighborhoods where strangers are common and not suspect.
 

JackStraw

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2017
431
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63
These conversations remind me of what happened when the Bali bombs occurred years ago, and people were freaking out. I even went on a trip to Surabaya specifically to buy a handgun which I found was only a pellet pistol priced at a totally outrageous price, and declined.
Here is what I did learn then. There was crime in Bali apparently in large committed by mostly out of work people originally from other islands.
For the most part crimes were in areas with integrated populations rather than traditional small village enclaves where people were well acquainted, and questioned those that were outsiders. The banjars in these areas were tight about anyone that didn't belong which held down the likelihood of crime.
In instances where crimes occurred even in these areas the perpetrators were usually with inside information when from outside the banjar. An example might be where outsiders had done work and knew there would likely be money in the home. Obviously the ease of access to the house from outside in these instances was of critical importance.
What is different today is that people from other islands will be more likely to go to their native home, and in doing so are prohibited from returning during the ban. In summation from what has happened before that we can learn from now is that crime will most likely occur where there is the most integrated kinds of neighborhoods where strangers are common and not suspect.


Thank you for this. Very valuable info
 

JohnnyCool

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Jan 10, 2009
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“Crime”, (Rising, Accelerating, Exploding)?
I lived in and worked in Australia for many decades.
I got robbed a total of three times there.
I’ve been living in Bali now for ~25 years. Been robbed three times (twice in Sanur, once in Kuta).
Got “home invaded” in Sanur about 12 years ago. Fortunately asleep but lost $3,000 in stolen goods (laptop, camera, hard drives, smartphone, acoustic guitar, a pair of sandals). When we woke up, my wife asked me where the laptop was. Gone!

What to do? Go to the police. A police guy at reception asked me why I was bare footed. Yeah – it’s like this. Just been robbed and the thieves took my footwear. Twenty minutes later, “action”. Three or four cops and a “top detective” had to follow me to the scene of the crime. (Didn’t know where my place was even though I’d been reporting my presence to them for years.)

Arrive at the “scene”.
Aha, says one. That window down there has been prised open. Case closed. Not quite. Detective Colombo’s been standing out the front shaking his head in wonderment/disinterest. He’s told by his staff they can’t get fingerprints off the prised window. Case closed? Nope. My wife and I have to go back to the police station to make “a report”. Two of them. One section first and the really serious one next. Took hours and packets of cigarettes to try and push things along

This house has two floors. None of the “investigators” went upstairs.
We did, when we finally got back hours later.
There was some blood on the upstairs balcony. The thieves had climbed over a wall from a property behind us, jumped from there to the nearest roof (ours), probably injured by some spiky plants along the way (blood?), gave up, went back down (on our side of the wall), and prised “the ground floor window”. Something like that. The thieves left one of my sandals on the front gate. (Should I wear one or no sandals to the police station to report the crime? I don’t drive an automatic car so one would be OK. Or maybe a long bamboo back scratcher.)

Do I have a point?

You can have all the signs you like to deter invaders. “We’re all COV-19 in here, stay away”. “You’re being watched from our CCTV cameras”. “Come in here and you’ll go away cursed forever.” “Let’s talk about this first.” “Beware of live cobras”. “Be careful where you step here: Land mines” “Hukum karma zone”. “We’ll tell your wife/wives.” “The devil’s thinking of leaving. Send him an SMS”..
Dogs and security guards are OK, up to a point.
Dogs might be drugged over your wall/entrance, and security guards could be asleep before “the action” they’re supposed to be watching out for.
And what about “invisible enemies”, like COV-19, and hopefully not COV-20?
So far, the 19 version won’t steal your smart TV from under you. (Could it infect it somehow?).

Some Background:
I was born in postwar Europe (1946). Five years later we were sent to Australia as “displaced persons”). I was dragged up there and 1950s Australia wasn’t exactly some kind of instant Nirvana.
Many people were wonderful, but many weren’t (the morons, idiots, “yobbos”, etc).

Many of the latter believed we were all either Nazis or Communists. And nottrue blue Ozzies”.
Red neck unfriendly types would throw rocks at me on my way to school, because I talked funny, and they couldn’t pronounce my name properly. Going back “home”, (after we were no longer stuck in holding camps), wasn’t easier.

Years later, junior high school was much better, but, there would still be times when boof-heads would wait for me after school to get me. By then, I had some street fighting ability and standing up without backing down to them, yelling some alien warning worked because they left me alone. Maybe they were only 98% stupid after all. Had no problems in a selective senior high school later (we were “selected” supposedly on the basis of our intelligence).
 
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JohnnyCool

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Jan 10, 2009
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Cant really see who they would rob as there is virtually nobody around....
There are always people to rob someone somewhere. If you think nobody is around, maybe you're right or not.
Hard to see the invisible but perhaps we can feel it. Balinese believe in the 'Seen' and 'Unseen' (Sikala/Niskala).

I hope that we don't "see" some kind of backlash against expats and non-Balinese because they're assumed to be the source of the strife Bali (and the rest of Indonesia) is going through. Call it what you want. Some kind of xenophobia, "racism", educational deficit, ignorance, stupidity...
Or big national "captains" sending "ships" to destinations they don't know the location of. More "well-heeled" national "captains" are throwing money at the "ships", and letting loose "lifeboats" (Referring to COV-19 here.)
Many still don't understand that any virus doesn't give a bat's fart about "borders", or how much money you pay them to go away.