Thai Policeman Kills Six Fellow Officers After Drinking Session

[chrisinth]

Very sad case. Just goes to show drink and guns don't mix.

+1

[sirchai]

seven men shot.... how many rounds in a gun belonging to a policemen .... ah... he used his colleagues gun too! OR Could this be a pay off in Russian roulette by others now not on the scene in the same force? Seems like something for NCIS to take over, or is the case that simply closed off?

Sad that I can't write what I'd like to reply...............

[RickBradford]

One notable point about this is that the shooter was 56 years old, and the six victims were 50, 52, 53, 54, 57 and 57. (according to the Thai press).

So it is hardly a case of over-excited youth getting into a fracas, more a reminder that wisdom does not always come with age.

[chrisinth]

Loss of face, pent up anger, weapons and alcohol are very dangerous combined in this culture.

LOL - and a perfectly safe combination in other cultures.

So true!

[chrisinth]

One notable point about this is that the shooter was 56 years old, and the six victims were 50, 52, 53, 54, 57 and 57. (according to the Thai press).

So it is hardly a case of over-excited youth getting into a fracas, more a reminder that wisdom does not always come with age.

Still comes down to guns & the amber nectar don't mix.

RIP for them all

[hehehoho]

I cannot recall ever seeing a report of a police officer executing his colleagues in my couple of decades in the West.

I can recall about half a dozen reports of such in my half a decade in Thailand.

I believe that many Thais have repressed anger due to the culture, and that they never get to practice it in a rational manner, thus it builds up and up and up.... while they are culturally forced through conditioning to smile....

It's really quite unhealthy emotionally.

It is actually happens in the west too where police carry guns. They kill themselves, their families and colleagues as well as going on shooting sprees from time to time. Simply do a Google search and you will find numerous stories of all of these instances from just the last year. But don't feel bad for having blinders on and pretending Thailand is so different because you are far from alone.

Please excuse me as I totally dismantle your post.

I'm really not sure if you're only playing dumb to try and mislead, or actually are of such a state.

Firstly as opposed to making massively vast comparisons you'll need to make a statistical and numeral comparison based on similar population bases to actually have a point (and not look a tad silly.)

The Royal Thai Police is a population base of 213,000.

You mention 'The West', let's just narrow that down to say America, which is to your advantage as it is quite a gun friendly society. The US police force population base is 708,000. Numbers from a UN Survey of international police forces in 2008.

So now one of the population bases is 3.3 times larger than the other.

So you can either show reports of US police officers going on murderous rampages, hacking off women's arms, executing each other etc etc, and be able to show us over three times the reports of US police officers doing such, that we could easily show you of Royal Thai Police officers doing.

You also have the added advantage that these reports will be easy to find through the English language media.

Or you can admit that you are grossly incorrect if you think such killings and mutilations happen on the same scale (or anything close to it) by Western police population bases as it does in Thailand.

Which one will it be Nisa?

And btw, feel free to work on any Western police population base as long as you ratio it back to the number of Royal Thai Police.

Thanks.

Edited December 28, 2011 by hehehoho

[ginjag]

It seems common sense that Police Oficers should not be allowed to be drunk while on duty. Random drug testing of all Police Officers should be routine. If found to be under the influence of drugs, or alcohol, they should be terminated from employment. Training needs to be improved, and updated annually. Anger management must be part of this training. Psychological assistance should be offered and available for Police Officers. This is a very streesful profession in any country. We have Human Beings doing these jobs not Super Men. Bettter training creates a more professional Police Department.

Were they on duty? In many places police are required to carry their gun at all times, even when off duty. However, I believe they are also never supposed to be intoxicated.

One poster said they were intoxicated and gambling and the argument was over one of them cheating at cards.

cheating in Thailand, sorry I'm not falling for that one

[chooka]

Alcohol is poison. I know Muang Thai so well because I can feel their way of thinking. A Police Officer was killed by someone in a rich family because he said that someone stepped on his foot. Penalty?

I will Preach this until I am dead: it is a hierarchical society . When people get mad here you are finished. Tragic but true. Adios

"When people get mad here you are finished. Tragic but true. Adios"

I must have found the only good one. My wife gets mad often, like if I leave the toilet seat DOWN and our son pees on it. I haven't been finnished off yet but thanks for the warning I will tread more gently.

[ginjag]

Alcohol is poison. I know Muang Thai so well because I can feel their way of thinking. A Police Officer was killed by someone in a rich family because he said that someone stepped on his foot. Penalty?

I will Preach this until I am dead: it is a hierarchical society . When people get mad here you are finished. Tragic but true. Adios

"When people get mad here you are finished. Tragic but true. Adios"

I must have found the only good one. My wife gets mad often, like if I leave the toilet seat DOWN and our son pees on it. I haven't been finnished off yet but thanks for the warning I will tread more gently.

For god sake tell her to train the kid to lift the seat up, or You train him...amazing free style kids.

[hehehoho]

This is a good report of alleged Thai police abuses.

If you haven't just eaten and don't mind reading of systematic torture, murder, and teenagers having their testicles crushed before being hung.

http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/viewfa.php?id=2121

[chooka]

Alcohol is poison. I know Muang Thai so well because I can feel their way of thinking. A Police Officer was killed by someone in a rich family because he said that someone stepped on his foot. Penalty?

I will Preach this until I am dead: it is a hierarchical society . When people get mad here you are finished. Tragic but true. Adios

"When people get mad here you are finished. Tragic but true. Adios"

I must have found the only good one. My wife gets mad often, like if I leave the toilet seat DOWN and our son pees on it. I haven't been finnished off yet but thanks for the warning I will tread more gently.

For god sake tell her to train the kid to lift the seat up, or You train him...amazing free style kids.

Yea if I do and he leaves it up she will get mad and I might be finnished. You know how women hate the seat left up. I use to leave it up all the time for him (3 yrs old) as tamson says get a thai mad and you are finnished. Anyway off topic.

[PoPanda]

I see so many people here insinuating that the Thai Police are all bad and this would never be tolerated within another country.

I am not sure if this is off topic or not but below I have posted a few links highlighting some of the nicer things the Thai police have done and some of the more despicable things done by the police in the UK.

My Aunt is in the constabulary in the UK and although they don't carry guns I frequently remember going to the "bobby's pubs" and seeing swarms of off-duty police swaying back out of the pub and into their cars.

Thai police rescue women forced into prostitution

http://www.radioaust...259.htm?desktop

Thai Police Rescue 1,000 Smuggled Dogs

http://www.peoplepet...0518622,00.html

A Good experience with the Thai traffic police

http://www.stickmanb.../reader1314.htm

UK police kill 3 with Taser, pepper spray

http://www.presstv.i...ail/195600.html

Caught on tape: Police beat and taser 'gentle' mentally-ill homeless man to death

http://www.dailymail...-man-death.html

UK

Police corruption probes in 19 forces

http://news.bbc.co.u...news/206221.stm

Of course I do agree that it is definitely more frequent here but no one can say that it is impossible to happen in their own country. I truly feel for the families and friends of everyone involved and hope that they eventually will find solace and comfort from those around them.

[ginjag]

I did read earlier where the police numbers here are about 210 thousand and in USA about 710 thousand.

now compare the countries population. approx again, 55 million--USA 455 million. police here over a third of USA--and an eighth of the population. does that tell anyone here they have too much time on their hands doing sweet F all. and with all the police, the RTPF could not prevent Swampy from being invaded.........and far worse still BKK occupied by the R shirts, I think this can be part of the reason things like this are happening, NO CONTROL..............numbers of police in our small town and area are 100, they have nothing to do with their time, drinking-gambling---get them out on the beat, mixing with the populous. Yingluck- get your family police chief in the office and trim the force, and pay the good ones more money, and have these monitored re work rate. This maybe wouldn't have stopped this incident, but it would lessen the chance it happening. To add-inactive posts should mean---HOME James......

Edited December 28, 2011 by ginjag

[hehehoho]

compare the countries population. approx again, 55 million--USA 455 million.

Eh?

I believe that in 2008 the pop. of the US was just over 300m.

Has it really increased by 50% in the past three years?

I also believe that the pop. of Thailand you give is short by over 10%.

Edited December 28, 2011 by hehehoho

[Nisa]

I cannot recall ever seeing a report of a police officer executing his colleagues in my couple of decades in the West.

I can recall about half a dozen reports of such in my half a decade in Thailand.

I believe that many Thais have repressed anger due to the culture, and that they never get to practice it in a rational manner, thus it builds up and up and up.... while they are culturally forced through conditioning to smile....

It's really quite unhealthy emotionally.

It is actually happens in the west too where police carry guns. They kill themselves, their families and colleagues as well as going on shooting sprees from time to time. Simply do a Google search and you will find numerous stories of all of these instances from just the last year. But don't feel bad for having blinders on and pretending Thailand is so different because you are far from alone.

Please excuse me as I totally dismantle your post.

I'm really not sure if you're only playing dumb to try and mislead, or actually are of such a state.

Firstly as opposed to making massively vast comparisons you'll need to make a statistical and numeral comparison based on similar population bases to actually have a point (and not look a tad silly.)

The Royal Thai Police is a population base of 213,000.

You mention 'The West', let's just narrow that down to say America, which is to your advantage as it is quite a gun friendly society. The US police force population base is 708,000. Numbers from a UN Survey of international police forces in 2008.

So now one of the population bases is 3.3 times larger than the other.

So you can either show reports of US police officers going on murderous rampages, hacking off women's arms, executing each other etc etc, and be able to show us over three times the reports of US police officers doing such, that we could easily show you of Royal Thai Police officers doing.

You also have the added advantage that these reports will be easy to find through the English language media.

Or you can admit that you are grossly incorrect if you think such killings and mutilations happen on the same scale (or anything close to it) by Western police population bases as it does in Thailand.

Which one will it be Nisa?

And btw, feel free to work on any Western police population base as long as you ratio it back to the number of Royal Thai Police.

Thanks.

I stand 100% by my above comments as they are 100% factual. You can talk in circle or be in capable of understanding a simply reply as much as you want and pretend I implied anything but what I said but won't take away from the fact that what I said was true.

[chooka]

This is a good report of alleged Thai police abuses.

If you haven't just eaten and don't mind reading of systematic torture, murder, and teenagers having their testicles crushed before being hung.

http://www.chiangmai...wfa.php?id=2121

Reading that I beleive it would be either a very stupid person or a very brave person who decides to act and try and change the culture of the police. Something certainly needs to be done so that people do not fear thier police and they have confidence in them.

Originally modeled on the pre-World War II national police force of Japan, the TNPD was reorganized several times to meet changing public order and internal security needs. American advice, training, and equipment, which were provided from 1951 through the early 1970s, did much to introduce new law enforcement concepts and practices and to aid in the modernization of the TNPD. During this era the strength and effectiveness of the police grew steadily.

Edited December 28, 2011 by chooka

[hehehoho]

At Nisa:

From your last sentence:

But don't feel bad for having blinders on and pretending Thailand is so different because you are far from alone.

I challenge you that Thailand is in fact different. Very very different in fact.

The Royal Thai Police commit murders, massacres, and mutilations far, far more commonly than any Western police force when comparing factual and statistic numbers.

So I'm afraid that I and others are not pretending that Thailand is so different in this regard, because it is, and you are grossly incorrect on this.

Yes?

[hehehoho]

This is a good report of alleged Thai police abuses.

If you haven't just eaten and don't mind reading of systematic torture, murder, and teenagers having their testicles crushed before being hung.

http://www.chiangmai...wfa.php?id=2121

Reading that I beleive it would be either a very stupid person or a very brave person who decides to act and try and change the culture of the police. Something certainly needs to be done so that people do not fear thier police and they have confidence in them.

But they're no different than Western police forces.

[WarpSpeed]

Behind every smile is an angry Thai.

Seems like many of them wear brown uniforms.

Thinking back to the Royal Thai Police officers who executed the backpacker in Pai, the one who executed two of them in Kanchanaburi, the one who cut off the arms of that karaoke girl, the one who executed another cop and his wife at a roadstop.... etc etc.

I wonder what vetting actually goes on with the police force here? In the west, at least where I'm from there is a rigorous vetting system that applies with both physical and psychological screening and continual evaluations for mental health given the high stress of the job, there is still some that fall through the crack as there always will be but it's not anywhere near as often as it seems to be here..

It seems the only requirement, if it's even a requirement, is past military experience for example and that doesn't work as the draft system here also does not address any of theses issues.

If it was in deed a celebration of promotions, what a sad and tragic turn around in emotions for the families, my heart goes out to them.

[Nisa]

At Nisa:

From your last sentence:

But don't feel bad for having blinders on and pretending Thailand is so different because you are far from alone.

I challenge you that Thailand is in fact different. Very very different in fact.

The Royal Thai Police commit murders, massacres, and mutilations far, far more commonly than any Western police force when comparing factual and statistic numbers.

So I'm afraid that I and others are not pretending that Thailand is so different in this regard, because it is, and you are grossly incorrect on this.

Yes?

Taking once sentence out of context of both my post and the post I was replying and then redefining what that sentence means to be argumentative only says a great deal about you.

[hehehoho]

Can you please explain in what context I was 'pretending Thailand to be different' then?

It wasn't with regards to police officers shooting, murdering, and maiming others?

Thanks.

[Nisa]

Behind every smile is an angry Thai.

Seems like many of them wear brown uniforms.

Thinking back to the Royal Thai Police officers who executed the backpacker in Pai, the one who executed two of them in Kanchanaburi, the one who cut off the arms of that karaoke girl, the one who executed another cop and his wife at a roadstop.... etc etc.

I wonder what vetting actually goes on with the police force here? In the west, at least where I'm from there is a rigorous vetting system that applies with both physical and psychological screening and continual evaluations for mental health given the high stress of the job, there is still some that fall through the crack as there always will be but it's not anywhere near as often as it seems to be here..

It seems the only requirement, if it's even a requirement, is past military experience for example and that doesn't work as the draft system here also does not address any of theses issues.

If it was in deed a celebration of promotions, what a sad and tragic turn around in emotions for the families, my heart goes out to them.

It actually is not that easy now a days for a pretty tough and dangerous job.. You need a college degree and of hundreds of applicants only a handful will get hired. The starting pay is about 7,500 baht a month which includes working 7 days a week on 8 hour shifts. The standards of new hires is considerably higher than it used to be but a lot of the old timers are still around "training" these new guys.

It would simply be ignorant to believe there is not going to be corruption or bad eggs in any group that is given power but add to the fact where Thailand is in its development as well as the pay of regular officers and it should be expected as it was in most countries at some point in their development.

[EyesWideOpen]

To the police apologists on this thread who are aghast at the level of venom directed at the police force, let me ask one question. Why ??? If the police here actually acted like police, ie civil servants that helped people and stopped crime, there would probably be an outpouring of grief for them. Instead they received an outpouring of scorn. This is because the Thai people truly hate and fear the police, who are nothing more than one of the largest mafia organizations in the world. Their task is to collect money, and nothing else. Any long term expat with open eyes will know that as well. The negative stories are endless. The tourist shooting in Pai by the mad dog policeman who eventually killed his wife because he was never jailed. The Kanchanaburi policeman who was drunk and chased down two tourists and shot them like dogs.The drunk policeman who was angry at the karaoke girls who rebuffed his advances so he chased her down and cut off her arm. My contempt for the Thai " police" simply knows no bounds. To cut crime, fire every one of them...........

[Christmas]

sorry Sirs, but the most anoying postings or talkings with Expats in Thailand start with: One of my friends is a policeman.... My best friends brother is the chief of the police station here.... My lady I havent met at a bar

Always an eye roller them.

[EyesWideOpen]

sorry Sirs, but the most anoying postings or talkings with Expats in Thailand start with: One of my friends is a policeman.... My best friends brother is the chief of the police station here.... My lady I havent met at a bar

Always an eye roller them.

+1 !!!! It appears that the expats who have a policeman in their new " extended family" seem to have a pretty benign view of the police. Hmmm I wonder why. Hey wait ! Maybe it is because when another policeman tries to shake down the farang, the first thing he does is pick up his mobile phone and call the police member of his extended family in order to get out of the fine.........

Edited December 28, 2011 by EyesWideOpen

[hehehoho]

Let's take this moment to reflect on the father of the modern day police force. Phao Sriyanond.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phao_Sriyanond

[Oberkommando]

No surprise to find the usual suspects rushing to the defend the honour of the Kingdom of Thailand using any means necessary including flawed Thai Police statistics to try and prove their points. A police force that a UN report in 2009 condemned for their actions and journalists inferred that they were nothing more than 'organised criminals'.

According to the British FCO, the murder rate of Britons in Thailand is five times that of Britons at home making it the most dangerous tourism destination for Britons (and now Aussies too I believe according to their consular statistics). There's a civil war raging in the South with over 5000 dead in 7 years (many more than died in the 30 odd years of the troubles in Ireland). A politically sanctioned 'War on drugs' where over 2,500 people were executed by this Police force extra-judicially (think hit squads, planting evidence, personal vendettas etc).

But apart from the hyperbole this is a country where gun culture is rife. Everywhere business disputes are settled by violence, politicians kill each other over arguments, loss of face results in someone brandishing a gun. It's a regular occurrence and the Police are part of the problem, not the solution. It's a country still living on a feudal model where local gangsters work their way up to village heads through murder, corruption, extortion and thuggery. The Thai Police embrace this model of society. It's possible this officer was harbouring a grudge and being cheated at the dice game was the straw that broke the camel's back, however given the fact that most of the witnesses turned out to be victims, and the notoriously inept and incompetent investigation techniques no doubt used, I doubt we'll ever know the truth.

Time to wake up and stop the idiotic comparisons with 'back home' though, you're not in Kansas any more Dorothy.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Oberkommando

[chooka]

What is taught to Thai Police recruits. www.newtatics.org

Police training about the use of force and firearms in Thailand so far didn't include much about psychology, only about the technical issues of shooting. So this is completely new and very important. We need to know how are brains are functioning in a situation of potential violence in order to aviod making mistakes. - Thai Police Trainee.

WHAT DOE'S POLICE MEAN?

P - Polite

O - Organised

L - Lawful

I - Intelligent

C - Community - Orientated

E - Educated.

Thai Police Trainee.

[Scott]

Stay on the topic of the OP. Considering the number of police in Thailand and the number of expats with wives/partners, I would be greatly surprised if many did not have an acquaintance or two wearing a brown uniform, however, that is not the topic of the thread.

This is about a number of police officers who were killed.

[Nisa]

According to the British FCO, the murder rate of Britons in Thailand is five times that of Britons at home

Please back that up with a link ... I won't hold my breath. Drunk Brits getting themselves killed on motorbikes while not wearing helmets is not a murder.

Are you really trying to suggest that near 4,000 Britts (more than the total number of all murders in all Thailand in a typical year) are murdered in Thailand every year? There are about 700 to 800 murders in the UK every year.

The fact that Britts get them selves killed while while on vacation in Thailand is everything to do with Britts having a problem controlling themselves on holiday when given too much freedom and little to do with violent Thai police or people..

The murder rate in Thailand (as well as many countries) is much higher (possibly 5x) than Britain and if you are trying to extrapolate information by way of number of Britts in Thailand and number murdered here ... that would be insane and make no sense what-so-ever. It only makes sense while in a country that the similar crime rates will hold true for you.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Nisa