Invitation To Reporters

[marks]

A warm welcome is extended to the reporters from The Nation and Farang Magazine to attend the continuing trial of the cab driver who attacked my friend and I on the evening of August 6 of last year. The security guard, the doctors who treated us, and the police will testify June 17. Printing the testimony of the security guard, the only unbiased witness, will give you an opportunity to print the truth, instead of the lies the cab driver told. I hope you will take this opportunity to print an accurate report. The trial is being held in rm. 911 of the criminal court building.

You may also note in your story that Michael Connely has been tried and is currently serving a life sentence. The trial of the cab driver still drags on. How quickly the wheels of Thai justice can turn when there is a farang in the dock.

It would be greatly appreciated if any readers of this post can forward it on the reporters in question.

Sincerely, Marks

[ka12345]

This sounds like an interesting story. Why not post some details here? Who is 'Michael Connely'?

[stroll]

What's this about? How many reporters of 'the Nation' are members of this forum?

[dr_Pat_Pong]

I don't know, but there certainly is a Bangkok Post editor who is a member of the forum.

[george]

Do you have any links to these events, Marks?

[marks]

George, Unfortunately yes. I am one of the two people the cab driver attacked. That's how I can be sure he's lying, and why I would like to set the record straight. Any reporters willing to help out?

[stroll]

I think george meant to asked about a link to where one can read the story, which you know, but most people here don't.

If you make references to an event and ask for help, you should be prepared to tell the story!?

Reading George's post again, maybe he meant it as you understood, but the question still stands, what happened?

Edited June 16, 2004 by stroll

[elsie]

I know how to reach a journalist at The Nation. Not sure if he's a member here or not. Anyway, I'd like to have more information about what happened so that I can at least pass it on to him.

[Savage]

Is this with regard to the American and Canadian who vomited in his taxi then got attacked?

[astral]

Is this another one of the "Stories relating to foreigners"

that the press has been told to suppress?

Seems to be a common occurence these days

[marks]

savage, that's why i want a reporter to attend the trial. they never interviewed either of us or the security guard, only the accused. the evidence presented at the trial has proven that didn't happen, but the press reports - thanks to the accused - stated we did. the reporters never did any investigataion, never even asked us or the security guard. they just took the word of the man who had just been charged with two counts of murder.

as for whether or not it's been "hushed up" i cannot say. i can say the trial has dragged on for nearly a year and still isn't over.

no i don't have a link telling the story. i originally discussed it in this forum under the title "tragic incident of august 6", it may still be accessible under that title, i'm not sure. i could post it in this forum but it's about 2 pages long. perhaps a summarized version would be better.

any help getting a reporter to attend would be appreciated. The Nation published 2 lines of a letter i wrote and that was it. The report in farang was slanderous in the extreme.

[elsie]

Here is marks' original post, Taxi Driver Attack

[marks]

stroll, thanks for your interest. in as few words as possible, a friend and i were attacked by a cab driver. i got about a 15 stitches and a fractured skull and my friend lost his right eye after he tried to kill us with a machete. the nation never interviewed either of us or the security guard who was an eyewitness, only the accused who told a pack of lies, one of which was that one of us had vomitted in his cab. they published 2 lines from a letter i wrote and that was it. so now his story - one of them vomitted in my cab and refused to pay for it, so i taught them a lesson - has become the version of record, in spite of all my attempts to correct it. tomorrow the security guard testifies, so any reporters could hear the truth for themsleves and write a correction.

any help you could give would be sincerely appreciated.

[marks]

wow, not just lovely but efficient!

[Pink Mist]

Here is marks' original post, Taxi Driver Attack

Nice touch with the new av Elsie

[elsie]

See, I haven't been ranting only, after all.

marks, I'll pass the information on to the mentioned journalist. That's all I can do.

[PvtDick]

Not exactly a "hot" story, with the number of assaults that occur in Thailand on a daily basis. Does the fact that the alleged victims were farangs make it any more newsworthy than if Khun Noi got slashed in the face?

[marks]

PvTdick, an excellent point. in a word, yes. one of the news sources that reported it, farang magazine, obviously wouldn't have done so if farangs weren't involved. their report was particularly slanderous, they ran the one-sided story of the accused, but omitted the last, crucial paragraph where the security guard contradicted him. instead, they gave it a "looks like they got what they deserved" spin. additionally, the original report was reprinted in newspapers from vancouver to south africa because there were farangs involved.

now you may feel that that's not right, and i agree with you, but because it involve farangs it has generated a lot more interest.

[Mai Krap]

This is a simple case and easily solved in any other place but Thailand..... Who is the victem or victems,,, why are they the victems,,, who asaulted who and what physical evidence is there,,, what did the assalent use as a weapon if any.....

Two guys exit a cab,,, the cab driver wants more money for whatever reason,,, he doesnt use his phone to call police,,, "most cabies have phones and there was also a security gaurd who could have called if any crime had been commited to this point... Cabbie decides to take the law into his own hands "... The screwdriver was not used in the physical asault according to my information" Upon confrontation cabbie decides to use larger knife which he apparntly had to retrieve from the cab giving him a chance to leave if he was under assault... This time he chooses to go after and physically attack causing serious bodily harm to unarmed persons... If the cabbie places himself at the scene of the crime and admits he used a knife and the knife is in the hands of the prosecuter and these guys wernt trying to rob him with a gun ... he is GUILTY AS HELLL,,, but his lawyer and he knows these guys will leave Thailand and the day they do or soon after even if he is found guilty he will be back driving a cab... Whatever happend about the japenese air stewardess that was shot by a cabbie,,, not a dammd thing... this happens everyday here,,,, Tourist are assaulted and not much if anything is ever done about...........

[PvtDick]

1:45 a.m. at Sutthisan Road...hmmm.

[chonabot]

1:45 a.m. at Sutthisan Road...hmmm.

And....... your point being?

[PvtDick]

A rough area to begin with, and one that is not particularly welcoming to foreigners. And, by that time of night, I'd expect that anyone out there might be extremely inebriated and obnoxious, perhaps aggressively so. Just putting together a whole picture.

[thaihome]

This is a simple case and easily solved in any other place but Thailand..... Who is the victem or victems,,, why are they the victems,,, who asaulted who and what physical evidence is there,,, what did the assalent use as a weapon if any.....

I beg to differ. When a westerner chooses to live in any developing country, unpredictable behaviour and reactions, as well as poor judicial performance, are some of the risks. Thailand is probably better the most.

I don’t condone the attack for any reason, but the going on and on about the unfair treatment is just pissing upwind.

TH

[marks]

MaiKrap, your sources are correct. the cabbie initally threatened us with a screwdriver, then decided on the machete. he could easily have left when he went back into the cab to switch weapons. how did you know this?

i've got a bad feeling you're right about him being on the streets again. we won't be present at the trial, my embassy is sending a rep. what will happen after he's sentenced? how long before he's let out because it's the king's birthday or chulalongkorn day?

PvtDick, are you advocating a curfew? nobody allowed on the streets after midnight for public safety? the japanese stewardess was attacked after she got into a cab at 7:30 pm, so maybe we should make the curfew 7:00? a few months ago a friend got bitten by a soi dog on his way to work. guess that's what he deserves for walking around sober at 8:00 am.

Sutthisan is a dodgy area. that's why we were careful. there were 2 of us, both big guys. neither of us wore a gold necklace or carried a cell phone. we only went to one bar where we had been before and were welcome. we went directly from the bar to the cab. what could happen? some nutter could flip out and try to kill us because i put my feet up in the back of cramped cab, that's what. didn't know that at the time though.

the moral of the story? be careful and keep your wits about you at all times. we were both too drunk to defend ourselves. i let him back me up to the lift instead of running for the stairs, and i didn't even see the machete until after he'd hit me.

[PvtDick]

PvtDick, are you advocating a curfew? nobody allowed on the streets after midnight for public safety? the japanese stewardess was attacked after she got into a cab at 7:30 pm, so maybe we should make the curfew 7:00? a few months ago a friend got bitten by a soi dog on his way to work. guess that's what he deserves for walking around sober at 8:00 am.

Sutthisan is a dodgy area. that's why we were careful. there were 2 of us, both big guys. neither of us wore a gold necklace or carried a cell phone. we only went to one bar where we had been before and were welcome. we went directly from the bar to the cab. what could happen? some nutter could flip out and try to kill us because i put my feet up in the back of cramped cab, that's what. didn't know that at the time though.

Of course I do not advocate a curfew, nor do I in any way condone this type of vicious attack for any reason. There are things one can do, however, to be smart. One of them is not to go into a seedy all-Thai vice area, full of drunk Thais and drunk yourself, and then act in an un-Thai manner (putting your feet up).

And I think it's a bit of a stretch linking that Japanese stewardess case (which was how many years ago now?) with your own. The only things in common were a cab driver, and a foreigner. Shit happens every day to Thai people, and sometimes it happens to foreingers, too.

[PvtDick]

PS: you say that the guard was the only non-biased witness to the attack. But was he witness to what led up to it? I.e., what happened in the taxi before you go out? Was there absolutely nothing that could have provoked this attack, besides your putting your feet on the guy's seat? No words spoken? Curses or threats exchanged?

[marks]

PvtDick, you're right of course. in hindsight we should never have been there, certainly not in the state we were in. but couldn't the same be said of sukhumvit or anywhere else in thailand? is sutthisan an official "no go" area and we weren't told?

and you're right about the feet on the seat, although i didn't know it at the time. i knew it was very rude to point your feet at a thai or a bhudda image, so i didn't. i made sure that i sat directly behind the driver with my feet pointing away from him. i only did that because he is tall for a thai (180 cm) and had his seat back. as i'm 195 cm, there was no way i could sit behind him. he could easily have said something if he didn't like it. he could also have told us to get out and take another cab. but he never said a word. he waited until he had dropped us off, and then he let his machete do the talking.

i only mentioned the japanese stewardess because that case was referred to in another post.

both sean and i have stated under oath that nothing untoward happened in the cab. there were no curses or provactions of any kind. the whole thing went down in about 30 seconds after we got out of the cab, and the security guard witnessed it. unfortunately there's no way to proove that now.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Who spewed in the cab ? ( that is in the police report )

[marks]

dr pp, you've missed the point. nobody spewed in the cab. there's no way it's in the police report. he claimed one of us vomitted, but he was lying. that's why i started this thread in the first place, i want a reporter to go to the court, hear the security state under oath that nobody vomitted, and set the record straight.

[12call]

machoman maybe your signature says it all.

Above you mention that you should not have gone to the bar "" in hindsight we should never have been there, certainly not in the state we were in "".

Earlier on your posting ""I mention that we left a pub at 1:45. We had been drinking moderately"".

Why the change in story???