The police had quotas to fulfill, how many people they had to kill.
And they got lists whom to kill.
Even in small places.
Everybody at the time knew this, Thais being Thais, nobody talked much about it. And nobody is talking about it now.
Yes, Thaksin did more for the poor than all former governments. No doubt about it.
And his inflationary economic policy (made by Morgan Stanley) laid the foundations that changed Thailand from a feudal rural society into a modern country: compulsory schooling for much more than just 5 years, made possible through student loans; raising the minimum wage so people were forced out of unproductive jobs (no more hordes of salesgirls sleeping on their counter); all kinds of grants and loans, e.g. village funds, for big parts of the population.
Retarius maybe knows that a whole generation of Germans excused Hitler because, after all, he built the Autobahns.