Saturday, 19th January 2013
THAI COP SHOOTS THAI COP IN BUNGLED ARREST – Thai cops are often ridiculed, not only in the Thai media, but also in that of the International media. It appears that most times a Thai cop simply cannot do anything right.
Most of the ridicule basically comes down to the simple truth that the Royal Thai Police Force is nothing more than a rite of passage to extort, coerce, bribe and murder people with almost impunity. It is rarely the case that you will find a Thai Police Officer who has any idea of what Policing entails, let alone the intelligence to execute it.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, she is Thai, who had a problem that required the intervention of the police, and like any law abiding citizen she went to file a report. Instead of a professional welcome, an understanding ear and the willingness to assist, that you would expect for a highly trained police officer, she was merely asked; “How much will you pay for us to look into the matter?” Understandable she was enraged but the truth is she didn’t expect any other type of response from her pleas of assistance – the Thai Police will not do anything unless their palms are well lubricated with cash.
How bad is the situation? You might find this almost impossible to believe, but Thailand has the third highest violent gun crime in the world. In fact it sits below Bogota Columbia and only by a miniscule margin. Its violent gun crime is so far out of control it massively outstrips the United States, which is astonishing considering that the U.S has a population nearly six times higher than that of Thailand.
Thailand is also rampant with contract killings, many of which are undertaken by police officers. It is nothing unusual for a police officer in Thailand to draw their firearms and simply start shooting – an incident in Phuket, Thailand highlighted this clearly when a criminal tried to make run for it and the police simply opened fire. This particular sense wouldn’t have been so horrific if it wasn’t for the fact that this took place outside a busy resort where foreign tourist were left hitting the floor as a number of shot entered the resort – it was, considering the lack of police training, a miracle no tourists were harmed – it was also a miracle that the policeman was awarded a medal for his bravery and actions.
Let’s fast forward to a scene in Pattaya, which took place just yesterday evening. According to the news reports a Dutch man, who was allegedly intoxicated while in charge of a pickup truck, hit a motorbike and did not stop. Thai police were alerted and rushed to the scene and then set out to find the perpetrator. After setting up a road block, which failed to stop the Dutch man, the smartest of the Thai Police decided it would be a great idea to shoot out the tires and so set up two police officers, either side of the street. As the pickup truck passed the two police officers, in typical Thai style, opened fire with vigor but as the vehicle passed one police officer shot the other.
I know what you are thinking – I’m making this up, but according to media reports, this is perfectly true and considering my experience with the Thais over the years, I can assure you this perfectly plausible behaviour.
Here’s an intelligence test…
Now before you start bombarding me with hate comments, with connotations of racial discrimination, I would like to state for the record that I have absolutely no ill feelings towards my fellow inhabitants of this wonderful planet – as far as I am concerned the monkey is a highly intelligent species, with an abundance of character that is both admirable and adorable, but unfortunately I can’t say the same for the Thai.
I can tell you this… If you had chosen the monkey, in the picture above, you would be perfectly correct for it is only possible for a monkey to assist the police, similar to a dog, if it is indeed highly trained, and therefore certainly has far more training in the field of police work than his human counterpart.
Again, you are probably thinking I am exaggerating and yet, it wasn’t that long ago that the media broke the news that the largest Police Academy in Thailand was taking bribes to pass new police cadets for as much as US$10, 000 dollars a pop. Now consider that a new police officer will likely earn less than US$150 per month you have to ask the question why anyone would pay such a vast sum of money to get into the police force. The answer is simple… it is merely a rite of passage to extort money from the public that will then pay for the expedient promotion up through the ranks and the higher you go the more corrupt it becomes. It is nothing unusual to see a high ranking Thai Police Officer with several houses, cars and millions in the bank and all from being able to extort and accept corrupt payments.
