tonypace02

No mention of a spouse, 25 years old, not from an English speaking country, lives in a luxury villa (where does the money come from?), drives a motorcycle, not a car (especially considering the weather)...

What kind of visa does such an expat have?

Why use a knife when you have guns? A knife is more personal.

Why tie his hands when you have twelve people to hold him down? Perhaps he was very strong, an athlete. Muay Thai?Three or four would have been enough for a warning; but twelve had to draw a lot of attention and apparently did. Why risk it?

A gang of that size was looking to encounter opposition. From whom? Police? Body guards? A rival gang? An armed victim? Security guards in a gated community?

Also they could not risk hanging around there long. Somebody was shadowing him and letting them know he was on his way.

Curious that one of them had to steal a motorbike. How did he get there in the first place?

Conclusion: a ritual knifing usually indicates a personal vendetta. But it was based on a recent event because this revenge was spontaneous. It was poorly planned and even more poorly executed.

One thing is certain. They will get caught. Twelve are just too many. Someone will spill.

Yes. I've seen some quite shocking comments, including even to express the hope that the military commits another coup.

And these are allegedly educated foreigners. Good to keep this in mind in future discussions here, the number of loose wing-nuts out there!

And.. they have keyboards!

The trouble with democracy is it is so freakin' democratic.

This is not the military's choice, this is not the elites' choice, this is not the falang's choice. It is the Thai people's choice and that makes it the right choice. Up the Kingdom!

After all, the only thing i am struggling with is why would someone fly to Thailand to commit suicide? can they not do it back home

They fly because walking is out of the question. Clearly the man was trying to commit suicide unless you think he doused himself with gasoline because he had run out of deoderant.

And Charley, you think you might try reading the whole article before commenting and embarrassing yourself? The article said he was in possession of his passport when he was taken into custody. I did not see anything indicating the motorbike renter was taken into custody. Now you can rationalize all kinds of scenarios but the only evidence is what is in the article, unless you know something the rest of us don't.

Who knows what he had in mind. The only thing of any significance is that he poured gasoline on himself. You have to believe that at that moment all rational thinking is gone. There being no evidence of antipathy by the police, there is no reason to doubt the suicide story.

I find it a constant source of amusement that whenever their is a conflict between Thais and Farang, that a hard core group of expats, people who have run away from home in search of a cheap place to plant their next erection, creates some reason to blame the Thais. It boggles the mind that while these falang see jeopardy in every Thai business and public official they continue to remain in Thailand.

Culture Minister Niphit Intharasombat ought to get a life and start worrying about something that actually matters...

This is Thailand. Culturally, nothing actually matters.

This is what happens when the military rules the country, no?

No. This is as much a part of Thai culture as mangoes, rice, cobras and elephants. As anyone who has ever had a contract with a Thai agency knows, they will honor it just so long as it suits them. Fortunately the courts love contracts and do adhere to them when resolving a conflict. I am about to file my second breach of contract suit. I won last time and I was not in so strong a position as now.