JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesians have found a new symbol for their growing frustration at uneven justice in this young, democratic nation: cheap, worn-out flip-flops.

They have been dropping them off at police stations throughout the country to express outrage over the arrest and trial of a 15-year-old boy for lifting an old pair of white sandals outside a boarding house used by police in northern Indonesia.

The teen — who was later interrogated and badly beaten by three of the officers in the Central Sulawesi provincial capial of Palu — faces up to five years in prison.

Thousands of people have dropped off their old shoes at police stations in recent days as a form of protest.