Foreigner Assaulted At Bangkok BTS Station By Security Guard - Police Launch Investigation

[Soutpeel]

This is a typical example of bad journalism. The plain facts are this: a normal working farang with his daughter is trying to get through BTS gates with balloons in his hand. The man is already bloodied when the video starts, so how can anyone assume he was hit with a baton ? A security guard is trying to do his job preventing him to get through (is it because of the balloons or because he seems to skip the ticket control system ?). If we have to establish who assaulted who, the video shows the farang assaulting the security guard and not the opposite (hence bad journalism). How did he get bloodied ? The video does not show. If we have to consider reasonable common sense, not the farang nor the security guard have shown some: the former for hitting and the latter for strictly forbidding such an innocuous act.

Well Sherlock Holmes....firstly he was hit with a metal detector not a baton and the BTS company has already come out and apologised to the guy concerned and fired the security guard...so using your incredible powers of deduction....you tell me who is responsible for the incident..I will even give you a little help...who was holding the metal detector ?

Edited March 23, 2012 by Soutpeel

[Soutpeel]

I was struck by the fact that whoever shot this video seemed to have an inkling or foreknowledge that trouble was going to brew. He/she was ready with camera rolling at the turnstile even before the trouble started. Anyway, the video makes it clear that the white man was arrogant and was seeking trouble with his violent behaviour. Let him get violent in his own country and get his ass kicked and more. Thais should simply ignore this incident and throw such violent foreigners into the clanger where they can regain their composure.

Strange if this is all true how come the BTS company has come out and apologised and fired the guard

[YoghurtLX]

I was struck by the fact that whoever shot this video seemed to have an inkling or foreknowledge that trouble was going to brew. He/she was ready with camera rolling at the turnstile even before the trouble started. Anyway, the video makes it clear that the white man was arrogant and was seeking trouble with his violent behaviour. Let him get violent in his own country and get his ass kicked and more. Thais should simply ignore this incident and throw such violent foreigners into the clanger where they can regain their composure.

The camera was rolling because something did happen well before and not because someone had a foreknowledge about it. Also, do you really think he was bleeding because he just does it all the time or it's from something that did happen long before that ?

There must have been a struggle before the video rolls and that explains why he is getting mad and also why someone takes his phone and starts filming.

[Soutpeel]

I was struck by the fact that whoever shot this video seemed to have an inkling or foreknowledge that trouble was going to brew. He/she was ready with camera rolling at the turnstile even before the trouble started. Anyway, the video makes it clear that the white man was arrogant and was seeking trouble with his violent behaviour. Let him get violent in his own country and get his ass kicked and more. Thais should simply ignore this incident and throw such violent foreigners into the clanger where they can regain their composure.

The camera was rolling because something did happen well before and not because someone had a foreknowledge about it. Also, do you really think he was bleeding because he just does it all the time or it's from something that did happen long before that ?

There must have been a struggle before the video rolls and that explains why he is getting mad and also why someone takes his phone and starts filming.

<deleted>...go and read the other thread which starts "BTS apologise to foreign teacher for assault"..

[sparebox2]

I was struck by the fact that whoever shot this video seemed to have an inkling or foreknowledge that trouble was going to brew. He/she was ready with camera rolling at the turnstile even before the trouble started. Anyway, the video makes it clear that the white man was arrogant and was seeking trouble with his violent behaviour. Let him get violent in his own country and get his ass kicked and more. Thais should simply ignore this incident and throw such violent foreigners into the clanger where they can regain their composure.

The camera was rolling because something did happen well before and not because someone had a foreknowledge about it. Also, do you really think he was bleeding because he just does it all the time or it's from something that did happen long before that ?

There must have been a struggle before the video rolls and that explains why he is getting mad and also why someone takes his phone and starts filming.

Please do you speculate on what happened before the camera roll.

Depending on which side I am on, I can tell different rude stories.

[cekipa]

This is a typical example of bad journalism. The plain facts are this: a normal working farang with his daughter is trying to get through BTS gates with balloons in his hand. The man is already bloodied when the video starts, so how can anyone assume he was hit with a baton ? A security guard is trying to do his job preventing him to get through (is it because of the balloons or because he seems to skip the ticket control system ?). If we have to establish who assaulted who, the video shows the farang assaulting the security guard and not the opposite (hence bad journalism). How did he get bloodied ? The video does not show. If we have to consider reasonable common sense, not the farang nor the security guard have shown some: the former for hitting and the latter for strictly forbidding such an innocuous act.

Well Sherlock Holmes....firstly he was hit with a metal detector not a baton and the BTS company has already come out and apologised to the guy concerned and fired the security guard...so using your incredible powers of deduction....you tell me who is responsible for the incident..I will even give you a little help...who was holding the metal detector ?

...... well said Dr Watson despite the fact that the article itself talks about a baton and not a metal detector .... we are waiting for updated video footage then

[Ferangled]

This is a typical example of bad journalism. The plain facts are this: a normal working farang with his daughter is trying to get through BTS gates with balloons in his hand. The man is already bloodied when the video starts, so how can anyone assume he was hit with a baton ? A security guard is trying to do his job preventing him to get through (is it because of the balloons or because he seems to skip the ticket control system ?). If we have to establish who assaulted who, the video shows the farang assaulting the security guard and not the opposite (hence bad journalism). How did he get bloodied ? The video does not show. If we have to consider reasonable common sense, not the farang nor the security guard have shown some: the former for hitting and the latter for strictly forbidding such an innocuous act.

Well Sherlock Holmes....firstly he was hit with a metal detector not a baton and the BTS company has already come out and apologised to the guy concerned and fired the security guard...so using your incredible powers of deduction....you tell me who is responsible for the incident..I will even give you a little help...who was holding the metal detector ?

...... well said Dr Watson despite the fact that the article itself talks about a baton and not a metal detector .... we are waiting for updated video footage then

Holmes, you'll be waiting a long time. The CCTV footage showing the assault is in the possession of the BTS, who've evidently been advised by their lawyers to issue a swift formal apology and not release the footage so as not to further incriminate their employees. I think that says it all really.

As other posters have mentioned the footage supplied with the OP, was taken by a Thai passerby, who shocked at witnessing the assault by the BTS guard started filming the fallout of the assault. There are witness statements to this effect. I feel further sleuthing benefits no one whatever your agenda might be but please sleuth on...

[longstebe]

I'm a nosy bazza, dying to see the CCTV.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

[PoodMaiDai]

And where are all the CCTV cameras that are all over the station?

[hungryhippo]

It is there country and their rules. We are guests here and act like it. What gives us any right to tell them we won't adhere to their rules or act politely.

...bog off back to your own country if you don't like it.

I was agreeing with everything you said until you pulled out this racist crap.

What does any of that have to do with this? How do you know this guy isn't a Thai citizen? What racist nonsense.

[midasthailand]

I guess it is fairly misleading to have the video at the start of this thread which shows only the aftermath of the assault. Obviously most of the hang em high mob here is convinced the video shows the event from begining to end

This is a man coming back from his daughters graduation and the balloons were given to her on that day. She is 7 and she obviously felt the ballons were special. They already been on other bts trains that day with the balloons and they were on their way home. A guard tried to stop the father from entering the turnstiles with the balloons even though his daughter had already gone through.

What happened next is unclear but we know the father was hit on the head with a metal detector. When the video starts he already has blood running down his face.

Ok now judge the man based on the video posted here and the missing information we do not have.

If you watch the Thai news report from Ch 3 you will see this event occurred at 8:30 P.M. What have they been doing between the time the graduation finished and the time of the event? My guess is slamming down a few pints.

[Ulysses G.]

I feel sorry for the Security Guards in this mess - and genuinely wonder about the affect it will have on security in general on the BTS and elsewhere in future.

The Guards are in a no-win situation:

1) If they had let this boorish idiot board with the balloons they were not doing their job - by allowing a breach of the regulations.

2) If they try to stop him and he does not comply what are their options but to use physical force? (An earlier Poster said "call the Police" but the "teacher" was clearly determined he would not stop even to rationally discuss the problem, so by the time Police arrived he would have been on the train and long gone.).

I have seen reports that the BTS initially suspended the Guards for allowing the man to get past the Barriers and a later report that they have been disciplined (or will be - not sure) for assaulting the man.

If I was a BTS Security Guard - earning just enough to feed my family, with unemployment rampant in Thailand - I would be in a quandary what to do the next time an incident such as this occurs; and let's not forget, next time it could be a serious, genuine security / terrorist threat.

Patrick

On top of this, some are claiming that because BTS fired the guard it must have been his fault. It is it really any surprise that they threw him under the bus?

[Reasonableman]

Could be, or maybe he was visiting a sick friend in hospital, or saying confession at the local church, or doing some shopping, or making IEDs in his backyard.... let's speculate on that, shall we?

I guess it is fairly misleading to have the video at the start of this thread which shows only the aftermath of the assault. Obviously most of the hang em high mob here is convinced the video shows the event from begining to end

This is a man coming back from his daughters graduation and the balloons were given to her on that day. She is 7 and she obviously felt the ballons were special. They already been on other bts trains that day with the balloons and they were on their way home. A guard tried to stop the father from entering the turnstiles with the balloons even though his daughter had already gone through.

What happened next is unclear but we know the father was hit on the head with a metal detector. When the video starts he already has blood running down his face.

Ok now judge the man based on the video posted here and the missing information we do not have.

If you watch the Thai news report from Ch 3 you will see this event occurred at 8:30 P.M. What have they been doing between the time the graduation finished and the time of the event? My guess is slamming down a few pints.

[lubbkis]

Why do these people think they are above the law?

Because they are tall and believe they are from Valhalla.

[swillowbee]

In the last 24-hours, this story, reported in two threads on Thaivisa, has gathered over 38,000 views. Few subjects have done so in such a short time.

I understand from Thai friends that the story similarly dominates the Thai broadcast news.

The surprising level of attention appears to belie a much deeper, greater issue than a farang being assaulted on the BTS. It seems to have ignited a cultural clash between Thais and farang, exposing the huge gap existing between what Thais view as civilized behavior and farangs view as civilized behavior, in context to the same event.

Even Thais will concede that Thai cultural values make Thai people quite different from other people around the world, even from other Asians within close proximity you would think them more similar than not. If farang have been unaware of the cultural chasm in which they live and work here, this event is sure to awaken them.

This sort of spirited discourse might end up being healthy for both Thais and farang ... for Thais to understand just how far removed what they consider civil behavior is from that of much of the world in which they (presumably) want to be a part ... and for farang (tourists, retirees, investors, whatever) to understand what is the real Thailand, not the Thailand as sentimentally portrayed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand's marketing campaign.

An event similar to this occurred in LA, which polarized much of the LA community along racial lines, precipitating widespread riots, mayhem, arson ... a video depicting the beating of a black man, Rodney King, by LA cops in 1991.

Fast forward to 2012 ... this video, submitted by a Thai by-stander and witness to a similarly disturbing event, seems to be bringing to the surface great pent-up frustrations. even animosities. by both farang and Thais.

THAT, to me, seems to be the developing story here.

[Ferangled]

"On top of this, some are claiming that because BTS fired the guard it must have been his fault. It is it really any surprise that they threw him under the bus?"

They threw him under a bus as well? As if firing him wasn't enough already! Still it saves him being prosecuted and locked up for a stint for GBH ...

"If you watch the Thai news report from Ch 3 you will see this event occurred at 8:30 P.M. What have they been doing between the time the graduation finished and the time of the event? My guess is slamming down a few pints."

That was, quite obviously, the opportunity for them to plan their devious scheme and manufacture the gas filled devil balloons used to such devastating consequence. It was clearly all part of Iran's plan to cause a state of national terror in Thailand making use of their sleeper "clover girl scouts" brigade in Bangkok.

[Soutpeel]

On top of this, some are claiming that because BTS fired the guard it must have been his fault. It is it really any surprise that they threw him under the bus?

Batter someone round the head with a metal detector and then next day gets fired....naah couldnt have been his fault as cant see the connection between the two events....or could it be that on the BTS station surveillance footage in all its glorious technicolor, a security is guard beating someone round the head after a verbal confrontation ?.....said footage goes to BTS lawyers who suggest they get rid of Corporal Somchai and send some flowers as they may face a civil claim from the farang for pain and suffering caused by one of their employee's ?....

Based on the speed of the BTS's response, pretty sure the evidence they have is pretty conclusive, as if it was a wrongful dismissial, the BTS could face a labour court case by the security guard, as we know in Thailand the laws for dismissal are pretty tight and favour the employee, therefore they would not dismiss him based on a whim, there have been valid grounds for immediate dismissal and pretty sure beating someone round the head with a metal detector would fall into this catagory under the labour law...

If it was fully the farang's fault the video would have been released already publically to defend the BTS's side of events

[Ferangled]

In the last 24-hours, this story, reported in two threads on Thaivisa, has gathered over 38,000 views. Few subjects have done so in such a short time.

I understand from Thai friends that the story similarly dominates the Thai broadcast news.

The surprising level of attention appears to belie a much deeper, greater issue than a farang being assaulted on the BTS. It seems to have ignited a cultural clash between Thais and farang, exposing the huge gap existing between what Thais view as civilized behavior and farangs view as civilized behavior, in context to the same event.

Even Thais will concede that Thai cultural values make Thai people quite different from other people around the world, even from other Asians within close proximity you would think them more similar than not. If farang have been unaware of the cultural chasm in which they live and work here, this event is sure to awaken them.

This sort of spirited discourse might end up being healthy for both Thais and farang ... for Thais to understand just how far removed what they consider civil behavior is from that of much of the world in which they (presumably) want to be a part ... and for farang (tourists, retirees, investors, whatever) to understand what is the real Thailand, not the Thailand as sentimentally portrayed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand's marketing campaign.

An event similar to this occurred in LA, which polarized much of the LA community along racial lines, precipitating widespread riots, mayhem, arson ... a video depicting the beating of a black man, Rodney King, by LA cops in 1991.

Fast forward to 2012 ... this video, submitted by a Thai by-stander and witness to a similarly disturbing event, seems to be bringing to the surface great pent-up frustrations. even animosities. by both farang and Thais.

THAT, to me, seems to be the developing story here.

I found myself agreeing with everything you said up until the point where you drew the comparison between this and Rodney King.

I'm not going to get into the obvious differences in both content, background and severity because frankly it would be tasteless.

I think suffice to just say that was a totally different situation to the rather preposterous "balloongate" we are seeing unfold now.

[Ulysses G.]

the BTS could face a labour court case by the security guard, as we know in Thailand the laws for dismissal are pretty tight and favour the employee,

I'm sure that the BTS are shaking in their boots about that. Thailand is well known for protecting a low paid worker's rights.

Edited March 23, 2012 by Ulysses G.

[metisdead]

An off topic post has been removed. This topic is not about why your post was rejected on another site or questioning the other site as to their motives does not belong here.

[jbauer]

My God... Do some posters still think the video shows the whole story? It has been repeated several million times now, he was hit before the video started, it was filmed by a person who noticed this hitting, and the guy is obviously in a different state of mind.

I registered here purely because of this thread and the sheer moronic posts I was reding on it. In over 24 hours, the quality of at least half the posts hasn't changed, regardless of the statements that have been given by BTS since then (whatever you can imply behind them).

Seriously, at least half of you seem to be amazingly dumb. Not everyone, and some of the people I disagree with made valid points based on the evidence, but the rest of you are seemingly incapable of anything other than kneejerk reactions. I like reading Thaivisa, and have done for 2 years or so, but the pigheadedness on display makes me sick sometimes.

Maybe Thailand should get rid of some of the riffraff; the subject of this topic should not really be on the list, but some of you really should.

[Soutpeel]

That was, quite obviously, the opportunity for them to plan their devious scheme and manufacture the gas filled devil balloons used to such devastating consequence. It was clearly all part of Iran's plan to cause a state of national terror in Thailand making use of their sleeper "clover girl scouts" brigade in Bangkok.

One of the more plausible theories I have heard in the last 24 hours, well done for figuring it all out

[Nisa]

There may have been an assault* by a guard that is not seen on the video but I challenge anyone to come up with legal justification for the illegal actions the foreigner did on the video tape. (*Assault meaning an illegal and/or unjustified use of force)

I believe the farang, like everyone else personally involved, is seeing things through their own eyes but I am not about to say his accounts or anyone else's are lies. In an interview on Thai TV he says in hindsight he would have left and followed the instructions and rules. However he felt the assault on him was unprovoked while admitting the only thing he did wrong prior to being assaulted was not complying to the rules and kicking garbage can(s).

Interesting to note too that the farang said he did NOT press charges against the security guard and doesn't want him to lose his job. He said he only leveled charges at the BTS and another company involved with the BTS.

Edited March 23, 2012 by Nisa

[Soutpeel]

the BTS could face a labour court case by the security guard, as we know in Thailand the laws for dismissal are pretty tight and favour the employee,

Thailand is well known for protecting a low paid worker's rights.

Actually they are...and the Thai labour court is quite powerful and always side with the employee

[metisdead]

One post has been removed as the quoted post had been altered:

30) Do not modify someone else's post in your quoted reply, either with font or color changes, added emoticons, or altered wording.

[hands22]

In the latest interview clip, the teacher seems like a pretty decent down-to-earth guy.

But the person we saw in the video charging through the gate, kicking out at the security guard seemed like a different person altogether.

Similar to a person in road rage...full of blind anger.

[Soutpeel]

Interesting to note too that the farang said he did NOT press charges against the security guard and doesn't want him to lose his job. He said he only leveled charges at the BTS and another company involved with the BTS.

Because the farang concerned had a degree of empathy for the security guard, un-like the security guard who had tried to bash his skull in with a metal detector.

Has there been any report to date of the security guard concerned apologising for causing bodily harm to the farang ?

Also in cases like this he has correctly laid charges against the companies concerned because said security guard was representing the companies concerned and accountabilty would actually be with them as he was acting on their behalf

[Ulysses G.]

I wonder why the guy was still carrying the balloons if he had been viciously "assaulted" before the video took place.

[Soutpeel]

But the person we saw in the video charging through the gate, kicking out at the security guard seemed like a different person altogether.

Similar to a person in road rage...full of blind anger.

Getting hit around the head with a metal detector can do that to a person !!!

[Nisa]

People clearly cannot be serious when they somehow want to excuse in any way this guys behavior because they don't understand or agree with the legal rules of the BTS which this guy was not forced to take. In this case it is about not bringing filled balloons onboard ... just as they are banned on planes. Regardless if there was a sign posted or not is completely irrelevant as the guy was told he couldn't bring the balloons onboard (and he admits to understanding this) and his reaction was to become loud and unruley and then kick garbage can(s) which was what started the downhill slide of this incident ... the incident was not started because of a rule, the incident was about somebody refusing to obey the rules and the resulting actions that ensued.

It also appears there may not be any video of the original incident but both sides agree with the above being what happened. After that the farang says he was hit in an unprovoked way by security while security says they were defending themselves while trying to prevent the foreigner from destroying BTS property.

Another part where there is a tape is that the farang says he was attacked once again on the train platform when the train arrived. He says the tape doesn't show him being attacked but shows the security people around him.