wadman

6 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

And teaching foreigners a lesson sends messages to people in western countries to attack Thais, which has been happening daily for a long time now. Relations should be good in every country. Prejudice and jealousy makes life hard for people who aren't that way. Asians get attacked all the time because of exactly this. The harder they make life for foreigners here, the harder it will come don on Asians there. If you do wrong here, you get arrested and fined, not kicked while down. Most foreigners here aren't afraid of the smaller men. They're just smart and don't want to make waves because they like it here for one reason or another. Making friends with the Thais is always a better endgame.

Your opinions are way off. They were not "making life harder for foreigners". If it was a Thai or Asian customer who punched/slapped the bouncer unprovoked, I'm sure he would have gotten his come uppance too. 

11 hours ago, roo860 said:

Looks like he used the flat of his hand, not a punch. Not condoning it by the way.

Either way, the security guard struck the marine with a lot of force, enough to knock him out cold. The Brit in Pattaya slapped the Thai bouncer hard too, it was a full swing of the arm. 

41 minutes ago, traveller101 said:

To the many posters which seem to lay the blame entirely onto the Tourists including pointing out that it is 'common knowledge' to never argue with Thais for all the known reasons and retaliation by the bouncers is absolutely justified since the older Brit slapped one across the face.

Consider this: 

The ones at the receiving end of this mayhem were genuine T.OURISTS and possibly first timers to Thailand.

It is certainly not common knowledge to them how to deal with fragile and unhinged Thai Egos.

Furthermore, anybody condoning punches followed by kicks to the head by 2 or more cowards while already on the ground in response to a slap by a 60 year old as justified retaliation, has moved way beyond accepted social norms.

 

 

 

It's not the arguing with the Thais that resulted in the Brit getting a lesson. He took a swing at the head of a Thai. How is smacking someone in the head not "common knowledge"? Is that a "socially accepted norm" too, in Britain maybe? He broke the barrier of respect, decency, socially accepted norm (whatever you want to call it), and then expected to be treated by those norms? 

1 hour ago, Neeranam said:

The son was thrown out the pub and then gave the bouncer £50, why? 

Suggests that there is more to the story. As reported by that fine bastion of journalism, the daily mail:

"The 37-year-old said: 'The bouncer became aggressive with me and I said 'do you want to fight me?'. He started fighting me. I came outside and he pushed me to the ground and my shoe came off.

'I stood up and my shoe came off. I stood up and said 'sorry, sorry' and I gave him 2,000 Baht. Everything was OK.'"

Were father and son trying to walk off without paying their tab? 

42 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Being kicked in the head repeatedly can turn anyone into a vegetable. It's sheer luck nobody died.

I would argue that brain-wise, that has happened already. Father sees son pick a fight, getting thrashed even while down. So what does father do? Picks a fight, and gets thrashed while down.

6 minutes ago, balo said:

Lesson learned, they will not do it again. Unless they are brainless of course. As father as son. 
 

Unfortunately not a sure thing that it's lesson learned for them. They are well into adulthood, they have almost certainly done stuff like this before, and they still haven't learned their lesson. 

16 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

Again, this is not what some consider an overreaction by the bouncers. This is not an opinion. Kicking someone in the head because he slapped you, lightly, AFTER you hit them back and knocked him to the ground, is an assault, and would get you jail time most anywhere else, at least civilized countries. Do you actually think people learn a lesson from being kicked in the head? A normal person would think twice after being hit back and knocked to the ground. If he didn't get up and continue the fight, either he was too drunk, or thought about it and realized his mistake. Some would go back and shoot the assailant, as happens most daily in a lot of countries, including here. Some would sue the bar and might win, especially if the jury saw this video. Maybe not here, but that's besides the point. Getting hit is not an excuse for kicking someone when they are down. What the Brit did was stupid, but didn't deserve the outcome. The answers some have given shows a lot about why this world is so screwed up.

In my estimation, the chances that the Brits have learned their lesson, and will not do something stupid like this in the future, is only 50% at best. I really don't care as to what happened to them, and whether it was a reasonably response by the bouncers. Idiots like that don't deserve any kind of respect. 

9 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

Looks like Olaf had his hands full with that frauline.

Surely you mean frau. Fraulein is the diminutive form of frau. 

4 hours ago, cardinalblue said:

The objective is if he is ready for travel and the family has lined up medical travel, then should go asap….

 

He should not be held hostage for bill payment…that is not medical care…

If the hospital is forced/coerced in letting him go without receiving full payment, then the next foreigner in an emergency will not be treated until payment is received upfront (or sufficient guarantees are provided). I don't see how that is a good thing. 

1 hour ago, bob smith said:

it's always 4 on 1 out here.

 

your average local thai wouldnt stand a chance in a 1 on 1 fight with your average farang.

 

they know this, this is why they always gang up.

It depends on what lead to the fight.  IF (big IF) it is really true that the Canadian was drunk, belligerent, and started the fight, then why would the beach chair vendors want to fight "fair"?  

Not to mention that average falang is significantly larger than a Thai, how is that fair anyway?

Sounds like he really did walk 500 miles, and rolled another 500 more, just to fall down at her door. 

23 minutes ago, Banana7 said:

July 4?? I thought it was in January 2023. Quality Thai reporting of the facts.

The road checkpoint in question was on the night of Jan 4, and early morning of Jan 5. So July 4 should be Jan 4, but you know how it is with the ineptness in Thailand. 

7 minutes ago, Bangel72 said:

This is what is needed for vapes, bike licences etc. Publish the on the spot fines and remove the extortion. 

 

The issue with vapes is that so many Thais use them openly. And they are sold openly. Police sees them and does absolutely nothing, if they are Thai.  But for a foreigner it's a hefty fine. Implementation of a law in such a way doesn't deserve any respect or credibility. 

What next? Fine people for jaywalking? 10k for foreigners, Thais go free? 

5 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

It has been obvious from the beginning that Charlene was telling the truth and the BiB, including the commissioner, were lying. Why would she want to make up such a story anyway?  She has enough popularity and publicity for herself already.

 

Another suspicious part of the BiB story is that they had communication problems with the group of apprehended tourists which apparently included a Singaporean, Mr Sky, who apparently paid the 27k bribe on behalf of the group. They claimed to have problems because they could speak English but the tourists could only speak Chinese.  Obviously Mr Sky, a Singaporean, can speak much better English than most Thai police. If he is a Chinese Singaporean, which seems most likely, he can also speak at least passable Mandarin and may have been talking to the Taiwanese in the group in Mandarin and could have interpreted for them. In addition I find it very unlikely that sophisticated young Taiwanese tourists cannot speak English at least as well or, more likely better than Bangkok's finest.  Apparently Charlene referred to Thailand's "ba5tard police" in English which implies a passable knowledge of English. 

 

So if the cops had communication difficulties, it was because their own poor English but they clearly got their point over to fluent English speaker Mr Sky as he was able to comply with their demand to hand over all their cash to the cops. 

 

The days of social media are clearly making life more difficult for Bangkok's finest extortion racket.

Chuwit had an online call with Mr Sky for 1 hour. Apparently they communicated just fine. 

1 hour ago, mommysboy said:

As regards vapes in the future, it can go one of 2 ways: A. turn a blind eye, or B. arrest, court, fine/jail, and deportation.  If it's the latter, it'll kick up a heck of a sxxxstorm.

It will be both.  Turn a blind eye if it's a Thai.  Arrest/court/fine/jail/deportation for non-Thais.

1 hour ago, marcusb said:

^This, yes.  I'm guessing she will drop it but would love to see her sue.  

She needs to make a skit (a short movie) about it, and post it on YouTube. Bet that would get a lot of views. 

25 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Apparently, yes, so  I wonder how much she's looking forward to her and her friends' being interviewed in Taiwan by the Thai police?

1. for Thai police to travel to Taiwan, and do police work (even if it is just talking to her) requires official permission from Taiwan.  I doubt they will grant it.

2. She won't be afraid of Thai police in Taiwan, she will laugh in their faces.

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

Agreed....   Nothing has been found true or false at the moment, but the legitimacy of the public claims made by the Taiwanese lady matter little in a Thai Defamation case, IF one were to be filed. 

 

The obvious reason for filing such a case is not to win it, but for the publicity - I don’t put the RTP beyond acting with such hubris with the belief that this may sway the optics. 

 

 

If she made her statements while in Thailand, then she did run afoul of Thai laws.  You and I may or may not agree with the Thai defamation law, but it's their country, and they can make their laws as they like it.

But it seems that she made her statements outside of Thailand.  For Thailand to file charges, and claim that that specific law applies in this case is serious judicial overreach IMO.  It's essentially Thailand trying to control her freedom of speech outside of Thailand.  I doubt they will file a case with interpol, it will only get them laughed at.