1 minute ago, richard_smith237 said:

So while situations may be handled promptly, the broader message lacks the weight needed to prevent repeat behaviour.

Hence the vigilante justice, right?

That may only deter that particular individual from a repeat offence, but most other tourists are not aware of what's going on.

I guess if tourists followed forums like this, they might be more cautious, but they don't.

Thai men, when they perform in groups, are very brave and courageous!
My respect!

Another lesson learnt by a Farang.....

Hopefully he will cut back on the drinking and behave himself.

10 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Not just condoning, but applauding kicks to the head like that while a guy is on the ground suggests a lot about your character.

While the foreigners behavior was disrespectful - we do not know his mental health status, but that would be irrelevant - turning to such a degree of potentially fatal violence is not a solution - this was a situation the police should have dealt with - or at least they restrain the guy until police arrive rather than attack him with such violence.

Those thugs were not protecting or defending themselves - once the guy was on the ground he was subdued - supporting kicks to the head like this is a scummy attitude.

IF this were the other way around and it were 4 foreigners kicking a Thai man in the head for the same reasons your opinion would involve a polarising shift because of your anti-foreigner bias.

None of this condones or supports the foreigners behavior - but highlights the scummy nature of some of the thugs and those who might support them.

Thais do not play by your rules or anyone's rules...this is Thailand....behave or get into intensive care. You think they just do that to us, they beat and kill each other up in Issan and all parts of this country. Wake up. FAFO!

2 hours ago, Usnh said:

Can only fault them for the excessive use of force. Wandering around in the traffic wearing only pyjamas is pretty standard in Vietnam.

If it wasnt for that other farang they could have killed him. They are like dogs; once they get the bloodlust they glaze over and keep going until their prey is finito.

Thais do not like Farangs, especially the men. I am not sure that after 30 years, some Farangs still do not understand that the Thais did not ask us to move here and act stupid. They will give us a nice "Curb stomping" and anything else to remind you and your friends to behave, have fun, but if you act up, they will go ghetto on you. Some folks never learn.

2 hours ago, chuang said:

He deserved it....these lunatics are ruining the once peaceful place..

And folks think this is Just Thais and Thailand...tell them to look at the Internet and see the same beat down in the West....especially in my country - USA, the islands in the Carribean, Mykonos, etc.

13 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

16 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

So while situations may be handled promptly, the broader message lacks the weight needed to prevent repeat behaviour.

Hence the vigilante justice, right?

That may only deter that particular individual from a repeat offence, but most other tourists are not aware of what's going on.

I guess if tourists followed forums like this, they might be more cautious, but they don't.

There is definately element of that - mess about and expect consequences.

But it is still an appalling look for the country’s reputation. Stories like this do not stay confined to niche forums such as this - they travel fast. Social media amplifies them globally.

Anyone who has shown even a passing interest in visiting Thailand will likely have this sort of content pushed to them by the algorithms shaping their feeds. That is the wider damage - not just the individual incident, but the international perception it creates.

10 minutes ago, Taboo2 said:

Thais do not play by your rules or anyone's rules...this is Thailand....behave or get into intensive care. You think they just do that to us, they beat and kill each other up in Issan and all parts of this country. Wake up. FAFO!

That blunt mindset is part of the problem - its a dumbed down attitude.

“This is Thailand - behave or end up in intensive care” may sound like a warning, but it projects unpredictability and violence rather than order and rule of law - and no country benefits from that image.

Every nation has internal conflicts, but normalising serious violence, especially towards visitors, does not strengthen its standing. It weakens it.

Respect for local laws and customs should be expected. The response, however, should be lawful accountability - not chaos presented as an understood consequence. There is a clear difference between maintaining order and glorifying retaliation.

We can expect consequences for bad behaviour. But applauding thuggish pack-dog reactions only drags us down to the same level as the pack-dog thugs rather than distancing ourselves from the foreigners who'll behave like idiots.

As for “Wake up. FAFO.” - there is an element of truth in that.

I’ve been here 30 years and never had an issue I can't easily walk away from. If you behave properly, you generally get treated properly - thats most peoples reality here.

But acknowledging consequences for bad behaviour is not the same as condoning a pack-dog response.

Personal accountability is one thing - mob mentality is another.

The former maintains standards. The latter just lowers them and damages Thailand.

7 minutes ago, Taboo2 said:

Thais do not like Farangs, especially the men. I am not sure that after 30 years, some Farangs still do not understand that the Thais did not ask us to move here and act stupid. They will give us a nice "Curb stomping" and anything else to remind you and your friends to behave, have fun, but if you act up, they will go ghetto on you. Some folks never learn.

And when it's reciprocated, and it eventually will, they'll understand you don't gang up on others like cowards without suffering the consequences. They're quick to attack one man, 5 or more against 1, because yes, a lot do hate foreigners. Someday they will go after a group and see what happens when things are more even. Of course the foreigners will get the blame then.

Thais do like foreigners, at least a large percentage of them, but yes, boys, especially those who never had fathers in their lives, or had abusive ones, never learned respect for others , or for life itself, so this is how they act. They don't like one on one, and when they see one of theirs getting his ass kicked, 5 more will jump in, with the kicks while down a normal tactic.

No matter what this man did, besides going after a woman or child aggressively, he didn't deserve things to go that far, and that far is what happens every week here. A few can subdue a drunk easily, and don't need to take it this far. it is hatred, and cowardice, and there will be a price to pay the more this happens to foreigners. As was mentioned above, there are quite a lot of foreigners on this forum who talk to relatives back home, and this news gets to those home. Tourism will fall when things like this get out.

As for the usual suspect who seems to glorify attacks against "bad" foreigners, your actions here have been noted for quite awhile, and there's something definitely wrong when a foreigner constantly trashes other foreigners for the acts of a few morons. Foreigners who act like dickheads are just a fraction of what crime happens here daily. This does not happen in the US. With gangs yes, but in 62 years on the streets I never saw anyone ganged up on more than 2 against 1.

I've seen mob mentality, where a large group of people lose it and break windows, start fires and loot stores. That happens most everywhere in large cities, and there's no excuse for it, but a mob going after one man doesn't happen anymore, the last such time was racial attacks in the south against blacks.

10 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

applauding kicks to the head

Put your glasses on Richard and read my comment.

Where did I say that I was applauding kicks to the head?

Just now, SAFETY FIRST said:

11 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

applauding kicks to the head

Put your glasses on Richard and read my comment.

Where did I say that I was applauding kicks to the head?

Your response effectively endorses the thuggish and violent response.

By agreeing with it, praising it, even framing it approvingly with a 'well done' and thumbs up - you are validating the violence. That is not neutrality - that is applause.

Are you genuinely unaware of what your own words and emojis are endorsing?

54 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Your “well done to the Thai men” comment punctuated with a thumbs up, reads as an endorsement of what happened.

1 minute ago, richard_smith237 said:

Your response effectively endorses the thuggish and violent response.

By agreeing with it, praising it, even framing it approvingly with a 'well done' and thumbs up - you are validating the violence. That is not neutrality - that is applause.

Are you genuinely unaware of what your own words and emojis are endorsing?

Naah, I'm not going to get in an argument with you, you provoke me with your crazy thoughts all the time.

You got to get a life mate, stop talking fiction,make believe, what's going on in your head.

I know you're not a Thai basher like SO MANY HERE, but you seem to take the side of the so many disrespectful, nasty foreigners that we see on this forum.

I like the way Thai's deal with trouble makers, not like the Wokey West, all the lefties want to hand out a slap on the wrist.

This does not work, they keep repeating their bad behaviour, corporal punishment is required.

Should be 3 years jail for kicking head when on ground. So cowardly. The half nude guy was harmless.

23 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Put your glasses on Richard and read my comment.

Where did I say that I was applauding kicks to the head?

Pretty simply, "

Well done to the Thai men 👍"..........................This after watching the video and seeing their actions. You know what you meant and so do we. You show this thinking all the time. No one here is saying foreigners acting stupid is okay by any means.

You have been here long enough to know most of the crap that happens is Thai against Thai, and Thai against foreigner is a lot more than foreigner against Thai. And you don't see 5 foreigners after 1 Thai, kicking them when down, but we see this weekly here, and that's just what's on the TV or videos here.

Why bother coming to this forum if you dislike foreigners and why do you anyway? I'm not a Thai basher either. I just see things as they are, both sides.

5 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

foreigners we don´t need here

What's this "we" business? Did someone drag you away from the computer and pin a sheriff's badge on you? Were you appointed to the Thailand Gatekeepers' Association? Thank God people of this ilk don't roam about, but get their Thai 'wife' to be their intermediary with the physical realm.

48 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Naah, I'm not going to get in an argument with you, you provoke me with your crazy thoughts all the time.

You got to get a life mate, stop talking fiction,make believe, what's going on in your head.

I know you're not a Thai basher like SO MANY HERE, but you seem to take the side of the so many disrespectful, nasty foreigners that we see on this forum.

I like the way Thai's deal with trouble makers, not like the Wokey West, all the lefties want to hand out a slap on the wrist.

This does not work, they keep repeating their bad behaviour, corporal punishment is required.

Our observations and interpretations sit on a spectrum.

In this case, I see a foreigner behaving badly - that deserves condemnation. No argument there.

But I also see four men using a level of violence that could very easily have been fatal. That is far more serious than the initial stupidity. Proportion matters.

Disagreement is not friction. This is a forum for discussion. Challenging your view is not antagonism. Yet you seem quick to frame any opposing opinion as a personal attack, which suggests a degree of fragility rather than open debate.

My position is consistent - I judge individuals on their actions. If foreigners act like thugs, I will say so. Equally, if local men had restrained this individual without such extreme violence, I would commend them while still criticising the foreigner’s behaviour.

But what we saw here was not restraint. It was not measured intervention. It was a frenzied, pack-style assault that appeared wildly disproportionate to the trigger - those men were waiting for an excuse.

By applauding it - “well done Thai men, thumbs up” - you have chosen an extreme end of the spectrum. That position overlooks the broader danger of normalising men who respond to minor provocation with potentially lethal force. That is not about nationality. It is about standards.

There is no polishing behaviour like this. Men who react with that level of violence are dangerous - not just to badly behaved tourists, but to anyone who happens to cross them at the wrong moment.

We have seen before how quickly situations spiral - the Hua Hin market assault of a few years ago comes to mind. It does not take much for overreaction to turn into tragedy. That is precisely why proportion and restraint matter - its why these characters need to be dealt with by authorities - this was assault with potentially deadly force.

The foreigner also needs to be dealt with by authorities - that was drunk and disorderly.

55 minutes ago, khaosokman said:

Should be 3 years jail for kicking head when on ground. So cowardly. The half nude guy was harmless.

Agreed - he was being a drunk nuisance and clearly needed to be stopped.

It would not have been difficult for the men to subdue and restrain him. That would have been entirely commendable.

Instead, they allowed their blood-lust to surface and attacked him with a level of violence that is often fatal.

Had they stopped once he was on the ground, my view would be very different. At that point he was no longer a threat to anyone.

The issue is not that he was confronted - it is the excess that followed.

I Can't comment based on the Video.

Video shows someone in the road, in underwear, who said a few verbal words.

Unless you witnessed the event or had supporting reports hard for less biased, reasonable person, to arrive at a fair conclusion.

The value of the Video is learning more about Thai fighting style, what type of attack to expect, and what location to change to if this is an unjust attack.

The Thais are getting sick and tired of this kind of behaviour. Seems to me that I read about this kind of stuff every day, and so am I.

Thugs are thugs regardless of nationality....no shortage of them in most every country in the world. Some are religious thugs, some are police thugs, some are gang thugs, some are just everyday tough guy thugs who love to kick people in the head.

Been going on for centuries.

Your kid takes off all it clothes and starts kicking the furniture, that ends with as smacked bottom.

Message sent, message received.

45 minutes ago, flaming dragon said:

What's this "we" business? Did someone drag you away from the computer and pin a sheriff's badge on you? Were you appointed to the Thailand Gatekeepers' Association? Thank God people of this ilk don't roam about, but get their Thai 'wife' to be their intermediary with the physical realm.

What on earth are you talking about? Out of meds?

7 minutes ago, robert2 said:

Your kid takes off all it clothes and starts kicking the furniture, that ends with as smacked bottom.

Message sent, message received.

True for the very young, and a slap can teach quick, but it can't get out of hand, using violence every time, especially as they age. Then it teaches violence is the answer. These cowards learned this at home, with either an absent or abusive father, and or mother. Adults are supposed to act like adults and not toddlers running wild. This could have ended with a few subduing the man and holding him until either he calmed down or the police came. This action is being done many times all over Thailand and being a learned behavior, will continue. If they tried this in the US, ganging up 5 against 1,all of them would have been found and hospitalized. It doesn't happen besides withing gangs.

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

Our observations and interpretations sit on a spectrum.

In this case, I see a foreigner behaving badly - that deserves condemnation. No argument there.

But I also see four men using a level of violence that could very easily have been fatal. That is far more serious than the initial stupidity. Proportion matters.

Disagreement is not friction. This is a forum for discussion. Challenging your view is not antagonism. Yet you seem quick to frame any opposing opinion as a personal attack, which suggests a degree of fragility rather than open debate.

My position is consistent - I judge individuals on their actions. If foreigners act like thugs, I will say so. Equally, if local men had restrained this individual without such extreme violence, I would commend them while still criticising the foreigner’s behaviour.

But what we saw here was not restraint. It was not measured intervention. It was a frenzied, pack-style assault that appeared wildly disproportionate to the trigger - those men were waiting for an excuse.

By applauding it - “well done Thai men, thumbs up” - you have chosen an extreme end of the spectrum. That position overlooks the broader danger of normalising men who respond to minor provocation with potentially lethal force. That is not about nationality. It is about standards.

There is no polishing behaviour like this. Men who react with that level of violence are dangerous - not just to badly behaved tourists, but to anyone who happens to cross them at the wrong moment.

We have seen before how quickly situations spiral - the Hua Hin market assault of a few years ago comes to mind. It does not take much for overreaction to turn into tragedy. That is precisely why proportion and restraint matter - its why these characters need to be dealt with by authorities - this was assault with potentially deadly force.

The foreigner also needs to be dealt with by authorities - that was drunk and disorderly.

The Thai's are fed up with all the nasty, disrespectful foreigners.

Yes, they overreacted, that's what people do when they've HAD ENOUGH.

Same, same, the Thai's don't want to put up with it any more

57 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

The Thai's are fed up with all the nasty, disrespectful foreigners.

Yes, they overreacted, that's what people do when they've HAD ENOUGH.

Same, same, the Thai's don't want to put up with it any more

Thai thugs have reacted like this for at least the past 20 years. This is not some sudden tipping point where ordinary people have collectively “had enough”.

Framing it as a national breaking point gives the behaviour a legitimacy it does not deserve. It was not a measured reaction from frustrated citizens - it was a group of men escalating to extreme violence because they could. Because they are thugs.

Being fed up does not automatically produce near-fatal assaults. Character does.

These incidents also tend to occur in high-tourist areas, there are Thai people who are tired of badly behaved foreigners and still manage not to beat someone unconscious. That alone shows this was not about national sentiment - it was about individuals willing, perhaps eager, to act violently when given the opportunity.

But, familiarity can breed contempt. In places like Patong or certain parts of Pattaya, you often see a cycle - more ill-mannered tourists, more short-tempered locals, and the atmosphere becomes abrasive. It creates a double-edged stigma.

Personally, I avoid those areas. I much prefer parts of Thailand where I am treated with the same indifference Thais show each other - no special favour, no special hostility.

But there does seem to be a small element of men in some of these tourist hotspots with a hair-trigger response - not acting out of national outrage, but because they feel entitled to react aggressively. That is not patriotism. It is opportunism - a dog-pack.

1 hour ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

The Thai's are fed up with all the nasty, disrespectful foreigners.

Yes, they overreacted, that's what people do when they've HAD ENOUGH.

Same, same, the Thai's don't want to put up with it any more

What country was the farang? He looks Asian

6 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Read my comment again.

Where did I say I was in agreement with head kicking.

So it was your doppelgänger who wrote this?

Wonder who needs the Lithium...

I understand the Thai's getting pissed off with all these idiots. But that was over the top. They really do not like us.

Just now, lavender19 said:

I understand the Thai's getting pissed off with all these idiots. But that was over the top. They really do not like us.

I tend to disagree. The vast majority of Thais are generally as indifferent to foreigners as they are to each other. We do not occupy their thoughts any more than anyone else going about their day.

It is mainly in areas with heavy tourist footfall - where there are higher numbers of ill-mannered visitors and more jaded locals - that interactions can become strained.

In my day-to-day life outside those areas, my experiences range from simple indifference to genuinely positive treatment. That feels normal and unforced.

However, in places more associated with negative tourist behaviour - Pattaya, Patong and similar hotspots - the atmosphere can feel more abrasive. Not necessarily rooted in dislike, but in fatigue. People who deal constantly with transient visitors can become hardened or transactional in their outlook.

Many working in those areas are there primarily to extract income from tourism, which creates that double-edged dynamic - tourists behaving poorly on one side, and locals responding in a more mercenary or short-tempered way on the other.

That tension is situational. It is not a reflection of Thai society as a whole.

21 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

By all means control and subdue the idiot so he can't continue causing chaos / and attacking vehicles...

But that was not subduing him - that was attacking him with far more force and violence than the situation called for.

you are probably the Son of a Preacher Man