Democracy basically minimizes violent conflict in the political process. In the practice of democracy in post-New Order Indonesia, there are still cases of violent behavior in resolving differences. This tendency can be seen in the case of violence against Novel Baswedan, a member of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators in 2017 and violence against members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) in 2020. The main aim of this article is to contribute to the study of democracy and violence in Indonesia. The specific objective is what motivated the perpetrators of the two cases. Why do state elites, in this case the President and judicial bodies, have different responses to the two cases? This article uses a qualitative approach, data sourced from websites and interviews with sources. The important finding of the discussion is that the violence in both cases has a relationship with the motivation of the perpetrator in the form of a special message to the victim. The difference in the state's response to the two cases of violence is related to the environmental situation and mass media coverage.