mikeymike100

"In their headline and picture caption they made light of the issue intimating that the reason for the overstay and illegality was that the sea there was so beautiful." As I thought the Immigration police just do not have a sense of humor?????

Love the sarcasm...great stuff!????

From the article: "Police decided not to charge the man with any crime as they believed he was suffering from a mental illness and needed assistance instead." So they helped the unfortunate guy with some food, water , clothes, not much else the could do really?

Same her, no problem, just hit the X and it disappears.

Yes indeed, looks like they don't want to go home, I wonder why?????

"Police Region Two and Immigration Police arrested a 34-year-old Chinese man and five foreign employees for running an illegal hairdresser’s shop in Pattaya." Well at least it wasn't an illegal casino?????

Agreed! But in the UK they are called colloquially a JCB?

In the picture, yes its an excavator I agree, not backhoe? But in the OP they call it ,mistakenly, a backhoe? "A backhoe was used to crush the weapons behind the police station. "

Yes in the picture in the OP it is an excavator as you say, but a Backhoe,or backhoe loader is known colloquially as a JCB, in the UK. https://www.jcb.com/en-us/products/backhoe-loaders

Thailand and especially the TAT only care about one thing, Money!

Its an 'Americanism', in the UK its called a JCB!

Depends what time people arrive? If its early to mid morning, its not so bad, but after lunch on into the afternoon expect big crowds?

If it gets re criminalized Anutin will have egg on his face, which is good? But what is bad is many Thais have spent lots of money on businesses selling the stuff, what will happen to them?

Should that include opiates/opioids? Heroin, Fentanyl, Demerol etc

Correct. Same as UK!

Both the USA and UK and Germany have portable fingerprint scanners. They are reasonably cheap and very accurate, of course the database they are linked to must be accurate. https://www.police1.com/police-products/police-technology/biometrics-identification/articles/atlanta-police-get-new-mobile-fingerprint-scanners-Wk2lWyC7szd0W6QL/ The article was from 2011, so you can imagine how many police have them now? This is not fiction from watching the TV? Biometric technology has come a long way and it would make sense for immigration in Thailand to have portable fingerprint scanners, I mean they take your fingerprints every time you enter and leave the country?

Right, but surely making all drugs legal or illegal wouldn't work? Can you imagine if they banned nicotine, I'm pretty sure the cigarette manufacturers would have something to say, never mind how much tax the government would lose?

Yes, when I was last working there, there would be a regular test. You would get a phone call or email to report to HR in say one hour and you are required to give the nurse a urine sample, while she waits. You go into the toilet of course to actually fill the specimen vial. Then it gets sent to a lab for analysis.

Where does it state that?

So can you quote the law, with reference, which says you are required to carry your original passport? The reason i ask is, as you can see there is much confusion of the matter, maybe you can clear it up?

It doesn't say they extorted money! But its not going to is it? However common sense and having been in Thailand 25 years, tells me its certainly a possibility? Some countries, as you say, you are required to carry ID. Have you been to the UK, or USA where you are not required by law to carry ID. In those countries, if you are a foreigner they can check your fingerprints with a portable scanner. Having said that most folks in the USA carry ID as they drive cars. Certainly agree with your comment about the quality of reporting.

I take your point. Tourist police usually will help if you have a problem with say being overcharged in a bar, or something like that. However I think its very unlikely the tourist police will intervene with the immigration police. They are all police and generally will stick together?

Good luck with that?????

What happened ? Were you detained? Were you just walking along the street?

Whilst I agree when going to a foreign country you should follow their laws etc, however the problem in Thailand is the laws that the police follow are inconsistent. Some say you need your original document, some say a photo copy is OK, some say a picture on your phone is fine? If the police were serious about this they would have portable fingerprint scanners, like other counties, instead of taking people to the police station to extort money?