FarangCravings

BTW --- I am curious. What did you mean "such as yourself?" I doubt I'll get a straight answer, but hey, ....

Well I am trying to keep this civil and nice if I elaborated on your question above it would not be civil and nice would it

so your right no straight answer but I am sure you can work it out.

You're doing it again. Where did I say I was sitting down?

What's all this with the capitalization? It's not a good indicator of maturity you know.

LOL ok you was not sitting down but still associating with the Pol Lt Col and your happy to direct people to links accusing him of being part of an organized crime syndicate

im sure he was happy to meet you knowing what you think of him

As many people realize that the police are a criminal organization, farang that wear the uniform are seen as connected to them.

This is called prejudice profiling it sounds as though you have a very big ax to grind !

"According to the United Nations, the Royal Thai Police are organized criminals.

That, at least, is the inference to be drawn from looking at its Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which was adopted in 2001 and which defines an organized crime group as involving at least three people acting in concert over a period of time "with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offences… in order to obtain… a financial or other material benefit."

http://www.upiasia.com/Human_Rights/2008/0...criminals/2369/

And you were sitting with one of the big guys and fraternizing by joining conversations

SHAME ON YOU LOADED

i wonder if the Pol Lt col would look kindly on you reffering to him as an organized crime member

Having seen foreign Tourist Police Volunteers wandering around now in 3 cities in Thailand I can honestly say that IMHO the program should be completely eliminated. It seems to attract volunteers that just should not be in uniform (anywhere -- again imho) in Thailand. Two that I have personally spoken to could not speak Thai at even a marginally conversational level and both seemed to be "all about the image".

I willingly grant that I have not spoken to a great many TPV's and that it may not be a representative sample. There have been plenty of reports about the behavior of others that I have never met that seem to back up my opinion.

I certainly wouldn't be willing to accept ANY help from a TPV given the biases I have seen them openly hold.

TPV are not required to speak Thai and why would they since they are supposed to be focusing on Tourists, TPV are from many countries and many of them speak 3-5 languages and some speak Thai like a native so while not everyone speak Thai there are a few but its not needed anyway as we really dont deal with thais with the exception of those at the station.

Excellent post by the way CMdream

Not required to speak Thai ----

Making them useless in ANYTHING that requires interaction with the police and/or locals and the tourists they are supposed to be there to help? But hey, why would you need to be able to speak Thai in Thailand (at the station or out in the tourist areas where Tourists will be dealing with Thais and police)?

Then again they might have made you wear a pink shirt ......

BTW --- CMdrream's post wasn't excellent in that it didn't represent what had been said at all it was a strawman post.

Its pretty obvious mr Jdinasia that you have no time for TPV and that ok you really dont understand and im not one to educate someone such as yourself

I had a casual friend with one TPV, years ago. Never seen a TPV in uniform. Don't have a dog in this fight exactly. Calling posters 'full of <deleted>' is insulting.

In this thread posters have referred to other people's posts with:

"full of <deleted>"

"idiots"

"absolute BS"

There's one thing they all have in common (drum roll)

They are all Tourist Police Volunteers (albeit one who was sacked)

Is this really the way to communicate with people?

Let's look at your opening lines, you are in a conversation with 2 Thai guys and do not understand passa Thai. One of them translates to you what is being said. You then run home and put up your message calling people that you do not know " garbage" based on third hand hearsay. you do not check the facts, I did , nobody was "sacked" at TPDV. A number of them resigned. That is why they are in a panic to recruit new suckers. Remember Thais will say anything to "save face". Your post reflects your character. You are the type of expat I never hope to meet !

This is what I said:

"I heard from the Lt. Col. in charge of the Chiang Mai Tourist Police that all the farang volunteer police officers had been sacked for misusing their uniforms, id cards and authority. I may have misunderstood some of what he said but I think I got the main points"

Do you notice how it doesn't match your description of what I said?

You have invented the part about "in conversation with 2 Thai guys"

You have invented the part about "do not understand passa Thai"

You have invented the part about "one of them translates to you"

You have invented the part about "nobody was sacked" - FC has already admitted he was sacked

Are you representative of the Farang Volunteer Police?

Have you noticed Loaded there has been no posts about misusing uniforms (except rumored fight) no miuse of id cards nor authority

With regards to your conversation with the Pol lt Col whom I know, it is implied by you that you do not speak thai but your friend was translating for you and you dont know if what he translated was exactly correct

Knowing the Pol Lt Col it is not in my eyes something that he would say especially in that tone or language. Not saying it did not happen I think it might of got lost in translation.

regards

Having seen foreign Tourist Police Volunteers wandering around now in 3 cities in Thailand I can honestly say that IMHO the program should be completely eliminated. It seems to attract volunteers that just should not be in uniform (anywhere -- again imho) in Thailand. Two that I have personally spoken to could not speak Thai at even a marginally conversational level and both seemed to be "all about the image".

I willingly grant that I have not spoken to a great many TPV's and that it may not be a representative sample. There have been plenty of reports about the behavior of others that I have never met that seem to back up my opinion.

I certainly wouldn't be willing to accept ANY help from a TPV given the biases I have seen them openly hold.

TPV are not required to speak Thai and why would they since they are supposed to be focusing on Tourists, TPV are from many countries and many of them speak 3-5 languages and some speak Thai like a native so while not everyone speak Thai there are a few but its not needed anyway as we really dont deal with thais with the exception of those at the station.

Excellent post by the way CMdream

OK lets see how this goes. The TVTP idea was a good idea at the time. The Local Thai authorities thought they needed a better liaison between themselves and the tourist so enter the foreigner/volunteer. Most volunteers give their time as a way of returning their thanks to the community that in itself is appreciated. Unfortunately not all the volunteers have honorable intentions and that is where things go adrift. The police amongst the expat community let along the Thai community has very little respect so anything or anybody associated with the police is looked down on. When it is said business owners one well assume that we are talking about bar owners. It strikes me as interesting that the BIB are normally only seen in these business when they are on official business they normally do not stop by for a friendly talk but yet the TVTP are seen now and then in uniform in these business chatting away. Now this is Thailand but where I'm from NO POLICE/VOLUNTEER in uniform would be allowed in a bar unless they were called upon. That in its self shows the lack of training and supervision from the Thai authorities. Uniforms I don't go to the police stations so I cant say if they are wearing any clothes at all but the uniform that is seen on the street kind of strikes me as being out of the Hitler era. It is not user friendly. As far as seeing abuse of authority yes I have in spades. One of the subjects left town and you can see him in Prasat in his uniform strutting around town while all the locals laugh their arse off at him. Another individual lets just say he is from a country across the English channel from England. Those of you that are trying to do good cheers. Those of you that resent any thing negative, what can I say?

I keep seeing it mentioned TPV in bars but I am sorry I just dont see it and while when I was on patrol i would pass by and say hi to the owners in passing and might go in and say hi there is nothing wrong with that as long as i dont drink beer or whatever but we can certainly are not hanging out in bars as it is being implied its a mere passing by with a quick hello to owners on occasion we might be struck up in conversation as with one bar owner asking about being gangstered with his music and Ipod player that they tried to confiscate and asking advice on how to handle that, another occasion struck up with another Bar ownerr who had been severly bottled by another farang along with a thai girl he also asking for advice, thats what we are there for.

Most of our patrol was on the night market anusarn and walking street and would pass thru the bar areas also

Hmmm I have my personal opinions about those that choose to "volunteer" with the police but those are my personal opinions and have no bearing on this thread.

If the title of the thread is accurate, then I heartily approve.

You will be unhappy to know the title is not true

Are you a business owner in Chiang Mai ? I can only say what I felt when I went round all the farang business's 99% were all extremely friendly and happy to have a conversation with us, quickly tell us about any problem they are having I even had business's call me when I was not working asking for advice so I felt we were not only accepted by the farang business community but also useful to them or why would they call me first when they were having a problem.

A lot of talk of dealing with business owners. Presumably these guys aren't tourists. But the 'T' in TPDV is 'tourist' right? Is there a desire to help tourists - who might be gone tomorrow without a kind word - or a desire to be 'connected' in the community?

If you read my previous posts I implied we had helped loads of tourists and farang business owners obviously have tourists in there business's so its all part of the same thing. We patroled night market every sunday Anusarn market Night Market all places where there is a large amount of tourists.

Well certainly a good reason for a reprimand but sacking the lot? Anyway, my impression is that they weren't well regarded by the regulars probably for much the same reasons that the part time civilian police support staff in the UK have a tough time - possibly not very fair but they're seen as not paying their dues by going through the full training I guess.

I've never had cause to use their services but I'm sure that many have helped tourists in lots of situations.

Greenside Just reread your post and your comment about not being well regarded by the regulars is so wrong.

Many times we went and had a tour of the main police station and met the big head honcho and all the top cops and the regualrs always were extremely friendly to us and waying us, when on patrol when we saw regular cops they were always friendly and would say hi or aknowledge us nothing but respect and at no time did I feel they thought less of us more that they really respected us for working for free.

The only disdain and disrespect I have ever seen with regards to the TPV is the farangs on the message boards outside of that the reality is that they are appreciated and respected for vountering there time for free and trying to be part of and helping the community.

On another note, both my brothers are real Policemen in the UK one is a Inspector and the other a regular PC the PC one just visited me and we had a chat about the community officers in the uk and he implied that they are becoming more and more an integral part of the Police force and I said oh they are just pretend and he said they serve a real purpose and that mentality is changing as they do a lot of the work that they dont want to do which leaves them more time for more important policing.

I wonder how you assume that 99% respect. Though I am not a "basher" I did not respect or disrespect, I just walked by, wondering why they were there, was there really such a security risk? Do the real police really lack the skills to handle farang? If they are there to provide info, why the police uniform? Why even a police connection? Observing the body language and expressions of some of the guys it did seem as if they were needing to feel some "power".

Are you a business owner in Chiang Mai ? I can only say what I felt when I went round all the farang business's 99% were all extremely friendly and happy to have a conversation with us, quickly tell us about any problem they are having I even had business's call me when I was not working asking for advice so I felt we were not only accepted by the farang business community but also useful to them or why would they call me first when they were having a problem.

As for body language its your perception I really had no power trip cause I knew we had none however if there was a problem such as a bar problem they could do something in reality and when the real cops came whos side do you think they would be on if they got there and a TPV was in the middle of handling a bar dispute.

look at the Pattaya TPV they get into it when they in reality should not but they do and have the real police backing in any situation. so you can say they can do nothing but in the real world if you had a problem with one you would surely lose when the real cops showed up whether you like it or not

Went to Bo Sang. Got there at 10am which was obviously a bad time - nobody else there. It was very sunny so I didn't have much patience for exploring and I didn't find much. The sellers vastly outnumber the makers from what I saw. Was hoping for more of a concentration of colour. Very concrete - not exactly a 'village'. I shall try again in the cool season - late afternoon/early evening.

I used to live out that way and the best time to visit if you want a bit more colour is when the "Umbrella Festival" is held. Can't remember the time of the year but Google would probably help out there.

Also, yes, if you have your own transport, continue out to Roong Aroon hotsprings and when done there, rather than retracing your steps, sling a left at the junction and head back via the 118/Doi Saket Rd. Nice little loop there.

Cheers,

Pikey.

Good fishing too at Bosang MASSIVE Mekong Catfish 5-6ft long

What about the TPDV that is in a bar/pub in uniform drinking a beer and chatting up a BG. I have seen this more than once. Bingo

i presume that was a looong while ago I very much doubt you have seen any TPV in a bar drinking beer I would certainly pass by and patrol the bar areas as a lot are owned by farang and we got on very well with the owners who appreciated us coming by as far as drinking beer in public view sorry you wont see that but a diet coke wont be refused.

Actually almost all the farang volunteers at police station were wearing polo shirts with patches, not regular police uniforms. They all seemed very helpful and polite and not at all like power hungry types. They were only talking to trekkers and giving directions to people at station. What is wrong with that? I think the people I met there were giving a good image of farangs. They were polite and well dressed. When I go to immigration I cannot believe at how most of my fellow farangs appear. They wear dirty clothes and are often unwashed and smell terrible. Truthfully I think many of them could not even qualify to work for police and perhaps this is why they are so hostile. In business I have I often have farang customers who are totally rude and obnoxious to the Thai workers and somehow feel superior to the Thais even though they look and smell like pigs. Yesterrday I talked to customer on phone who has been in Thailand only 1 week and was very irate because Thai girl at shop did not speak English well enough, even though this guy seemed basically illiterate. I do not have time to really devote to police volunteer and already am involved in other volunteer activites besides. However I was in law enforcement for 25 years and would not mind volunteering for TPD volunteer job as it is not a law enforcement job, just a way to do something useful. If someone chooses to spen all their time getting drunk and chasing prostitutes that is their business. But I cannot understand why these same people criticize someone who does something productive for soiciety.

BINGO !

The TPV has both the regular uniform and also we have Polo Shirts that can be used ONLY at the Police station when I was in we were not allowed to wear them when on patrol and were specifically ordered to wear the full uniform.

I actually like the Black polo with a few minor changes it might look ok but they also have a pink one which I absolutely refuse to wear as I am not that ok with my sexuality to wear PINK LOL

A bit off topic, I think he volunteers should be "tourist information volunteers" in a non police type uni., something like a special t-shirt or polo shirt wjth distinctive logo. They would be able to interface with police but that would be only one part of the job. I think if that were the case everybody would respect them and that would also attract a different sort of person to the "job".

People did respect us with the exception of the usual TPV bashers in general 99% of people respected us and i hardly ever had any problem with the likes of people that bash the TPV online probably because they are spineless and smile and chat niceley when they see us but online they get all rambo.

I did have one guy making faces behind my associate taking the mic but when I called him on it he shrunk and apologised profusely and laughed it off as just joking.

Send forth the FOTP to protect those in need of protection.

Since they were all fired by the Chief according to Loaded, it will be hard to find a FOTP in Chiang Mai.

Im willing to hobble down there right now and make sure everyone is safe

Quite a few members of this Forum were real cops in their previous lives (yours truly was too but a long time ago).

I can't understand why anyone would want to be a pretend police person, particularly in a country where they have absolutely no authority.

Some folks just like to wear uniforms and think they are a little more important than what they really are. There will always be some individuals who will abuse what little rank they have over others.

Maybe the RTPD will one day permit these FOTP to carry weapons so they can all get pissed and have a shoot out with each other.

I have seen your post before BB regarding the TPV and you have nothing postive to say so sometimes its best to keep your mouth shut when theres nothing positive coming out of it

Why?

This is an open forum, FC. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I have stated mine. Obviously you don't like my opinion and that's your perogative, but I will continue to say what I want whether you like it or not.

Make sure you iron some nice creases on your little blue overalls when/if they let you back in.

Took you that long to think something up confirms your not that bright

but I knew that already

I live on Nimmanhamin. I saw a small, peaceful yellowshirt parade Tuesday afternoon, other than that nothing. I intend to stay clear of political demonstrations, especially if I see redshirts and yellowshirts converging, but I'm far from panicking.

If its a yellow shirt area they might be implying that it might be a target for the reds to hit

Quite a few members of this Forum were real cops in their previous lives (yours truly was too but a long time ago).

I can't understand why anyone would want to be a pretend police person, particularly in a country where they have absolutely no authority.

Some folks just like to wear uniforms and think they are a little more important than what they really are. There will always be some individuals who will abuse what little rank they have over others.

Maybe the RTPD will one day permit these FOTP to carry weapons so they can all get pissed and have a shoot out with each other.

I have seen your post before BB regarding the TPV and you have nothing postive to say so sometimes its best to keep your mouth shut when theres nothing positive coming out of it

During my 10 year stay in Chiang Mai, I crossed paths 3 times with those volunteers. Not one time I was happy with it. On the contrary; every time a very sad and bad feeling. Especially from a 35/40 year old French volunteer; he is no less than a cr***. Twice I was with a friend, the other time with my wife. Every time a real shock for all of us.

The Tourists police does not, as far as I know, have any police authority. They have no right to tell you where to go or what to do. If you took this person seriously, why did you not report him to his superior? Why would you take crap from a clown just because he is wearing some sort of uniform?

In my 2 years in the TPV i never met anyone that i though was up to no good in the TPV if I did I would of done something about it not sure who invex is reffering but its not illegal to be a creep does not sound like he actually did anything to them just made them feel uneasy and he metions he was french which just happens to be the nationality of the guy that kicked me out.

Tanaka

Let me tell you something dude over the 2 years i was in i helped so many farang out of trouble you would not beleive it young guys trying to buy coke guys about to get a kicking by loads of thais, Bars being hussled for music money etc the list really goes on and on the fact that many people diss the TPV thats ok there are many many out there that have been helped by (i have to say them now LOL) and you just might need them one day.

You hear a lot of people slaggin them off but the business community actual accepted us very well and if they had a problem they called on us to help them out for advice

I guess each is different but I simply put guys in the right direction

Here is my Personal experinence of what happening with the TPV I was a TPV for close to 2 years and I guess you could say i was fired if you want but this was 5 months ago.

When we got a new Pol lt Col to run the TPD he suggested putting together a commitee of current TPD farang volunteers to oversee interviews for new volunteers, diciplinary hearings and the like.

prior to this we were pretty much left to sign in and sign out and do our patrols and things were running fine but not really being overseen too much.

Once the commitee was formed in my opinion by power hungry farangs things started to turn bad in our eyes (i speak for another TPD V that left of his own accord) all of a sudden we started to be disrespected by the new commitee both myself and another stayed away and decided just to do our patrols and lay low.

I then got into a bad motorbike accident and was hospitalized and received an email from one of the committee members chastizing me for not doing the required 20 hours voluntered time per month, I explained that I did not really count the hours each month but I must be close to the required number and other months I did more, i also explained i had had a bad accident and was in hospital and would not be able to work for at least 12 weeks but would be sure to make sure my hours were up there when I get back.

I received a reply back again very condecending and even implying that i was lying about being in the hospital I bit my tongue (not like me) and sent a nice reply back saying I would be a good boy and ensure I would, when i get back do the 20 hours each month.

I received another reply saying that he had talked with the commitee and that was ok then and when I was better they look forward to seeing me then and to get better soon.

About a week goes by I am still in the hospital and I get another email from another commitee member (the one who thinks he is the boss) asking me again why I did not do the required 20 hours a month and also why i did not do the social activities with the other volunteers.

i amswered that the last social meeting was mountain biking through the mountains and that was not my cup of tea being 250 pound plus at the time, I also explained about the hours and I had already emailed with the other comitee member.

I then get a very blunt rude email from the same guy that i was no longer a member of the TPD due to not doing the required monthly hours.

I sent him copies of all the mails with the previous commitee member about it all being cleared up and he just blew me off

in a very rude manner

So I was no longer in the TPV and obviously a bit shocked over the whole thing as we had been the more active ones in the past 2 years

and there was absolutely no reason for him to of treated me that way.

So at that point i am out of the loop however just before Songkran I got another email from another Volunteer saying all X volunteers please come back let bygones be bygones seems like a lot of volunteers had walked out due to, based on the emails problems between the commitee and the TPD co ordinators

I then get another email from the same clan that tossed me out for no reason that the other guy was not authorized to send the previous mail even though it was on behalf of the Pol lt col

So basically it sounds like a total cluster fk thay should of left it like it was without a commitee trying to act all high and mighty treating us like children and talking down to us. We were volunteering our time were not there to be chastized and that why my buddy told them where to stick it.

So nobody was misusing ID cards or taking tea money although I could beleive that one of them kicked off with one of those commitee members as i would of too based on the way i was treated.

I might even go back once I am healed and meet with the Lt Col and explain everything and show him the emails as it just dont make sense.

Like, the real Thai police never misused their ID (to extract tea money)

'like'

I didn't know the farang VP were also extracting tea money but thanks for the update.

Your obviously a bit of an idiot Loaded your post was to incite and nothing more as your subsequent postings show.

Your information is absolutely WRONG

FYI a tourist police sticker on a car gets you no slack i know multiple peole who have been clamped with stickers on cars both thai and farang. As for misusing ID again your just trying to incite.

I will post what I know if an new reply which will be true and not LOADEDS B.S

A TROLL post if ever I saw one

Come on MODs issue him a warning for spreading absolute B.S

I wonder if they will let the consulates know this time

Ok, finally got to hear all of this BBC interview. I am from the US and no doubt we have some idiot reporters but this women takes the cake. At points I wondered if the program should be called Ignorant Talk as opposed to Hard Talk.

At points she asked some tough questions but she really just came off as a nasty person who doesn't listen, talks over her guests as well as twisting their words. Beyond watching some non-news shows on BBC, this is the first time I can remember listening to anything so odd in terms of an interview. Even when the opposition President goes onto Fox, this kind of nasty and hostile treatment of a leader of a country would be embarrassing. What was even more sad is she is not believable at all. It is clearly some image she is trying to keep and couldn't believe the PM would answer a question very clearly and she would turn around and then say he said something else. Very bizarre.

I do think the PM did very well and again thought some of her questions were tough and good but she seemed to go way off track with the BS she was injecting and then getting upset when the PM felt he needed longer explinations to counter what were simply ignorance (dishonest) in terms of her recapping what he said. There must have been at least 3 or 4 times where the PM said, "No, that is not what I said"

Edit: Also it was clear she really didn't do much background work on the history of what is going on here and seemed to get irritated when the PM made clear she was wrong on certain matters.

Thats the whole idea is HARDTALK tough questions that they will push you on and ask tough questions unlike most other interviews and when you get the normal diversion answers they will interupt and try to get abck on the question.

She is ok but Stepehen Sakur is better but still its Hardtalk