Video: American tourist in custody for criminal damage to cars in Chiang Mai

[Ctkong]

Just to clear the air about cost of windshields... front windshields. I have friend dealing in these for insurance claims so I know roughly the cost. Depending upon the vehicle model, the windshield can be from local made( made in Thailand), imported ( made in China, Malaysia, ) or genuine. Price can stretch from tbaht 7000 for Japanese model  to as much as tb 30,000 for German makes. Tinted film cost extra. So is workmanship, loss of usage,... so tbaht 50,000 for 3 windshields is not excessive. 

[donnacha]

30 minutes ago, ericthai said:

guess you've never seen a Thai interrogation!

 

Anyone who has ever dated a Thai woman is familiar with Thai interrogation and, yes, intimidation certainly plays a key role.

[Peasandmash]

11 minutes ago, donnacha said:

From my memory of over the past few years, it is rare to read about an African American getting into newsworthy trouble here in Thailand. That may be because a far lower proportion choose to travel to Thailand, but my personal experience has been that the African Americans I have met here have been particularly friendly and well-mannered. Perhaps those who travel are more educated and have better jobs than those who do not - that would certainly be true of the white population in my home country - but it may also be that they are aware that they stick out more, it makes less sense to cause a ruckus when you can so easily be identified.

I have found Americans in general be good, fun, decent people and, among those here, I have seen no significant difference between the ethnicities, they are all more characterized by being "American" than they are by their race. Perhaps that is changing as Americans become more intersectional and bitter, but I have not yet noticed that among the ones I meet here.

I agree.. In fact, some of my best friends were black. I say they, were black, because they're all dead now having become victims of black on black crime. One fellow was killed when he sat in his car and some drugged up or drunk (who knows) black boy hit him in the head with a stone. Sad indeed, and you're right, all of their families are bitter. 

[johnmcc6]

A few weeks in a Thai slammer will sort this idiot out for life. He will have time to  be sheeit scared and organize a go fund me from anyone silly enough to donate.

[brianthainess]

Go fund me i need some dosh for a few new windscreens.

[Peasandmash]

3 minutes ago, johnmcc6 said:

A few weeks in a Thai slammer will sort this idiot out for life.

this would be the case for most people... however, nearly 65% of black Americans have spent time in jail. and of the 65% when surveyed, the majority of them have admitted to having sexual relations with other (male) inmates. So this boy is having the ultimate holiday in Thailand with room, board and sex all being paid for by someone else. 

[rumak]

I believe the accused was heard singing this song last night:

 

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR90gQ-SIaY

[shy coconut]

10 hours ago, bluesofa said:

I'm sure there will be some who say: But they taught me everything I know about racism - citing double pricing and restrictive practices.

 

those are not examples of racism, so they would be completely wrong.

[richard_smith237]

2 hours ago, Ctkong said:

Just to clear the air about cost of windshields... front windshields. I have friend dealing in these for insurance claims so I know roughly the cost. Depending upon the vehicle model, the windshield can be from local made( made in Thailand), imported ( made in China, Malaysia, ) or genuine. Price can stretch from tbaht 7000 for Japanese model  to as much as tb 30,000 for German makes. Tinted film cost extra. So is workmanship, loss of usage,... so tbaht 50,000 for 3 windshields is not excessive. 

 

Agreed... on one of my older cars the Insurance claim for a new windscreen due to a stone chip was 54,000 baht (the screen had to be imported from the UK and took about 4 week). 

 

In this case I wonder how much more damage there was. Not just the stone smashing the windscreen, but bouncing back onto the bonnet (hood) and causing damage of varying extent to that.

 

I may be mistaken, but I thought the claim was for 50,000 baht per car which IMO seems perfectly reasonable. 

 

I'm wondering if the vandal can't be locked up and released on bail fitting the amount claimed by the aggrieved parties (plus a little for the BiB of course for skipping bail as he will surely do once he is released !).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[richard_smith237]

Additional comment: How this turned into a thread on racism is beyond me... some people just love to see stuff which simply isn't there....

[Damrongsak]

2 hours ago, brianthainess said:

Go fund me i need some dosh for a few new windscreens.

I need more rocks. 

[Jaggg88]

'He was question in the "Blackhawk Detective Unit" with tourist police present to explain matters in English.'

Man! Blackhawk Down.

[GoodieAfterDark]

Hmmm, I thought there was a black buy that posts in this site and looks like him by his profile picture. Maybe brothers? If you don't have self control and can not handle the Thai way, better get out of Thailand.

[oslooskar]

12 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Negro?

Have you been in a coma since 1950?

Glad you brought that up! So what are those folks calling themselves these days?

[oslooskar]

16 hours ago, Cyndee said:

There is way more crime and worse by you Caucasians.  

Absolute rubbish! Blacks commit more than fifty percent of the homicides in the United States and they are only about 13% of the population.

[Gecko123]

11 hours ago, donnacha said:

This may surprise you, but I don't sit around waiting for people who demand I immediately answer their questions. I actually have a life beyond ThaiVisa.

It cracks me up that you spent time googling this.

As anyone not completely lacking a sense of humor could tell you, my post was joke referring to the video accompanying the article, which features a big sign announcing the name of the police unit investigating this particular crime: Blackhawk Detective Unit.

Yes, of course, this just happens to be the name of the police unit, it has nothing to do with focusing on a particular nationality or ethnicity. I would have thought that was blindingly obvious to everyone.

The joke, and I am stunned I need to explain this, was to posit a ridiculous reality in which such a unit would exist. It is funny partly because it is not all that far from reality: under Big Joke, a police operation was launched to focus on arresting African criminals in Thailand called Black something, I cannot remember its exact name but the lack of awareness was amusing at the time. That was a national operation, the joke is pretending that the small Chiang Mai force has such a unit too. It does not. You really should not have needed to spend an hour on Google to realize that.

Humor is subjective, some jokes fall flat, but I still want the people around me to keep making them. I enjoy jokes. Jokes are good.

As for anyone complaining that comments in this thread have referenced the criminal's race, well, that is what always happens when a crime is discussed on this forum: we make fun of the perpetrator. It does not matter if he is Russian, Australian, American, British, or any other nationality. We mock him, and we pretend that this particular scumbag is typical of his compatriots, because we are taking the opportunity to make fun of our Russian, Australian or British friends on this forum. It is good sport, and, at some point, we all get the same treatment, because Thailand attracts rum characters from all over the world.

Taking the piss is male bonding behavior common to all cultures, including African American. Men of all races and creeds spend time in Thailand partly because of the amiable and accessible bar culture. You can literally be having a good conversation in a bar, with someone you never met before, within an hour or two of landing. Expat culture, including forums such as this, are an extension of that. If some guy in a bar suddenly became angry because a bar girl jokingly referred to him as being "pom pui", or a fellow barfly made a joke about his country, well, that would be a flag. The rest of us would quietly take note that he was a bit odd, that he seemed to be lacking a sense of proportion or humor, and we would politely avoid interaction with him. We would wonder why he bothered to go to bars at all.

There is a deep racism inherent in the suggestion that any group should be excluded from this informal international fraternity simply because their skin is a different color. It is a travesty that most humor-deficient among us appoint themselves moral guardians and police forum threads under the guise of "fighting racism" when it is actually they who advocate treating people differently based on skin.

If you get caught doing something dumb in Thailand, you will receive an equal opportunities slagging from your fellow farangs. Then, if you have accepted your drubbing in good grace, we will probably buy you a beer. That is how this works, because we all do dumb things from time to time, but nothing could be dumber than letting the friendless, emotionally empty, continually triggered, self-appointed moral guardians dictate how men can and cannot interact with one another.

Nice try, Donnacha. I have a copy of the post in question, which appears to have been removed since it was posted. Here are some excerpts from your post:

 

"Many criticized the formation of a special unit dedicated to dealing with crime by African Americans in Chiang Mai, it seemed far too narrow a niche, but, to be fair, the Black Hawk Detective Unit does appear to be justifying it's existence. This is now the tenth offender in just one month who has caused damage but does not have the 50K necessary to buy their way out of incarceration.

 

You want to call that having a dry sense of humor? I call that spreading racist propaganda that African Americans are committing crimes at such a high rate that the Chiang Mai police department had to form a special unit to address the problem. I don't recall anybody reacting to your post with a "laugh" emoji. It was all "likes" or "sad" faces. If you meant this to be humorous social satire why didn't you clarify this right away when you saw other posters accepting your statements that the Black Hawk Detective Unit and African-American crime rates in Chiang Mai as factually correct?

 

Here's another excerpt from your since deleted post:

 

"Just to be clear, I respect that black culture is different, I understand that the perpetrator is not responsible for what he has done and that this is squarely the fault of white privilege."

 

More dry humor, huh, Donnacha? I'm sure your standup routine would have attendees rolling in the aisles at a Klan or Aryan Nations rally, but your 'so-called' humor relies so heavily on racist stereotypes and white supremacist ideology, no one else would find this brand of humor funny in the least. Please spare us from your future attempts at comedy, Adolf.

 

 

[metisdead]

Some music video posts have been removed. 

[donnacha]

29 minutes ago, Gecko123 said:

You want to call that having a dry sense of humor?

Yes. Yes, I do.
 

29 minutes ago, Gecko123 said:

I call that spreading racist propaganda that African Americans are committing crimes at such a high rate that the Chiang Mai police department had to form a special unit to address the problem.

You can certainly choose to interpret it that way and, gosh, it is certainly easier to be a crusader for justice when you see Nazis everywhere. On the other hand, you could note that my mythical Chiang Mai police department caught just ten culprits in the course of one month, or that I literally wrote that they could buy their way out of trouble for 50K, which does rather call into question the ethics and practices of my mythical policemen.

Is my joke about the black culprits, as your narrative needs it to be, or is it about the strange motivations behind policing in this country?

There is no amount of brain surgery that could give a sense of humor to a man who does not have one. I feel genuinely sorry that you are consumed by this need to signal your virtue to the world, this need to piss away your precious, precious hours censoring the thoughts, in an online forum, of men you will never meet in real life and who, if you did, you would not know how to make smalltalk with.

I know your type all too well. It makes me very, very sad that so many people, lacking a real cause to fight for, have managed to invent problems where there not actually any real problems, just many different ways of seeing the world. You probably think of yourself as a champion of diversity, but you cannot tolerate people thinking thoughts that differ from those you have been trained to think.

You probably think you represent respect, but you cannot respect the fact that people come from different cultures, different decades, different perspectives. Men here have experienced realities that you, in your right think bubble world, could not even imagine and, yet, you rush to dissect what we write in search of something - anything - that will allow you to present yourself as morally superior and momentarily pump up your fragile ego.

Again, I know your type, I absolutely know why you are compelled to act in this parasitical manner, why you are so desperate to find evil in the actions of other men, and it makes me deeply sad that any human soul has fallen so low.

 

[Rookiescot]

C'mon. 500 baht and a wai.

These cars will all be insured anyway wont they?

[Gecko123]

@donnacha I know more about the fine line between humor and bad taste than you'll ever know. I understand that space very well and understand how difficult it is to go up to the line but not cross it. I've crossed the line many a time myself.

 

But what I'm trying to get across to you is that your post was way, way, way over the line. It did reputational damage to the African-American expat and tourist community, it spread false information, and displayed more than a small amount of racial condescension and insensitivity. You want to act all aggrieved like you're being unfairly attacked, go ahead. But in my opinion instead of licking your wounds, you should be apologizing for the harm your post caused.

[rumak]

6 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Additional comment: How this turned into a thread on racism is beyond me... some people just love to see stuff which simply isn't there....

Hint:  there is a guy south of BKK who lives to alter the posts to meet his agenda

and then a few others as well  .

Just call someone or two an idiot or racist or whatever and the train rapidly heads off the rails.

 

[overherebc]

21 hours ago, ravip said:

 

Then what about the 'in-betweens'?

Which unit would they be take to?

That's a bit of a grey zone at the moment.

[Dcheech]

21 hours ago, soalbundy said:

"dressed in white wearing a cap...." it didn't have the slogan 'Make America great again' on it I presume. 

 Looks more like he is from Baltimore.

 

 

 

 

[donnacha]

45 minutes ago, Gecko123 said:

your post was way, way, way over the line. It did reputational damage to the African-American expat and tourist community, it spread false information, and displayed more than a small amount of racial condescension and insensitivity. You want to act all aggrieved like you're being unfairly attacked, go ahead. But in my opinion instead of licking your wounds, you should be apologizing for the harm your post caused.

No, it did none of those things. It was a silly little post in a thread full of silly little posts, on a forum full of silly little threads.

I will word this carefully because I do not want to break this forum's rules about insulting another member: I am not saying that you are delusional, but the claims you are making here and in your previous posts are delusional.

My comment inflicted no reputational damage upon the African American expat and tourist community. I am not saying that you are an idiot but, stand back for a minute, take a breath, and consider whether that grandiose claim might not be idiotic.

In your previous post you faulted me for not correcting "other posters accepting your statements that the Black Hawk Detective Unit and African-American crime rates in Chiang Mai as factually correct". Well, to start, unlike you, I had better things to do than sit around watching the thread unfold. As I mentioned before, I have life.

I have, however, just now, searched back over the thread and I note that there were no such bewildered comments. The only person who appears to have been befuddled and confused about my joke was you. Some people referred to the real Black Hawk Detective unit mentioned in the actual news story, but you were to only person acting like a deranged Wikipedia editor and screaming for clarification of my joke. Some people replied to my post but not one of them indicated that they did not understand it was a joke.

It was possibly not a funny joke, not everything said in jest lands, but, apart from you, no one was under the impression that I was filing a news report. You completely made that up, and you should be embarrassed. You are doing the same thing Trump does when he says "People are saying how great it is" and "Everyone agrees" to bolster whatever he happens to be claiming in that moment. You are fueling your fake outrage with made-up people, all of whom were misled into RACISM by my devious words.

 

45 minutes ago, Gecko123 said:

I know more about the fine line between humor and bad taste than you'll ever know. I understand that space very well and understand how difficult it is to go up to the line but not cross it. I've crossed the line many a time myself.

No, no, no. That is yet under "mistruth". You may not realize it, but I can categorically assert that you have never made a joke. You might have occasionally experimented with saying things in a funny voice, but actually formulating and expressing a joke? No.

You have certainly never said anything funny here, or had the courage to even try to be funny. You are not a funny man, you have far too bloated a sense of self-regard for that. Your strategy is to stalk the sidelines and pounce upon those who do take risks. At least be honest with yourself about what you are.

Here's a wild suggestion: let's drop this. This thread is now old, it can no longer deliver the attention you crave. We surely both have better things to do on this fine summer day then standing around tapping our phones. Let us agree to disagree and spare the few remaining readers here any more of our little squabble.

I have nothing against you, I think you simply have a limited perspective and a malformed ego, but that may well change as you experience more of life, and I sincerely wish that for you. You should try girls, they make your naughty bits go all tingly and they're a way better use of your time than trying to control other people's thoughts online.

 

 

[Gecko123]

@donnacha I will let my earlier comments stand on their own merit.

[PhonThong]

17 hours ago, komments said:

First, not all Americans are rich.  Many can't afford to miss a paycheck.  But he got here so one has to assume he had some money.  From LA, it costs about $500 for a roundtrip ticket to Bangkok on China Southern and that is likely the cheapest ticket available. 

 

From Bangkok, he had to get to Chiang Mai, book a room, pay for food and booze.  So let's assume he started with at least $1,000.

 

There is no way to know what he has left but I would think that Thai authorities could contact the US Consulate to see if he has assets in America that can be seized. 

 

Personally, I think he needs to spend some time locked up and if it turns out he does have the funds, he should have to pay an additional fine to compensate the Thai government for the cost of his incarceration. 

 

All that said, a lot of comments here seem to be pretty racist.  Which is sad.  Take race out of it.  What he did is wrong, regardless of culture.

Under what rule of law or authority would the U.S. Consulate be able to seize assets of this person?

[holy cow cm]

17 hours ago, moutamine said:

Are you serious?  A single windshield is around 800 USD.  50,000 THB is chump change... and that clearly doesn't replace 3 windshield!

About 10 -15 -20k here. Depends on the quality of the glass.

[rumak]

1 hour ago, donnacha said:

Here's a wild suggestion: let's drop this. This thread is now old, it can no longer deliver the attention you crave. We surely both have better things to do on this fine summer day then standing around tapping our phones. Let us agree to disagree and spare the few remaining readers here any more of our little squabble.

somewhere in this thread I was reminded (by pop up) that I had chosen to ignore your posts.  fortunately I do not even remember what "squabble" we had gotten into , but I am pretty sure I did not carry it on as long as is going on here.  to me it is obvious (yes, I know you disagree) that your posts are a lot more than an attempt at humor.  When choosing to defend your viewpoints you say very many nasty things about the person who does not see your viewpoint.  Of course you point that finger at the other poster as being the one who is wrong and then the nasty stuff starts.  I chose to bow out early as I do not take such crap.

I wish Gecko had done the same but I know how people can get caught up in these debates.  

Thanks for the amusing 2000 word diatribe before  asking to agree to disagree.  Now that was funny !

[holy cow cm]

Perhaps the guy has some personal issues, or feels he was being shunned by girls not going with him or in general all people by being belittled in a way as thinking the black racism card is here as the US is totally out of control with this now, or just an obnoxious drunk, or like one OP said he was drugged as he said he did not remember anything except a blurr.

 

Who knows. Many people of all color do idiotic stupid things for some reason or the other. Breaking windshields seems to be anger of some sort.

 

Why is he really here? Vacation?

[Jingthing]

Well, groan alert, no money no honey.

Money number one and all other numbers.

If doesn't have the money for the windshields, maybe he didn't have to money to have an enjoyable vacation here.