Crooked Bangkok Cops Steal 2 Million Baht From Victims

[sirchai]

BANGKOK – September 1, 2012 [PDN]: the arrests of three corrupt police officers were coordinated by Pol. Lt. Col. Surawej Karnwattanasirikul, detective inspector of Thammasaka police station; and Pol. Capt. Sutep Janthawong, vice detective inspector.

Congratulations!-----

[Chads]

Hopefully, this is a sign of change.

[cheshiremusicman]

Personally I love the way the other cops are pointing at the guilty seated cops who are obviously the bad guys as they are handcuffed. it is as if the guys standing are just trying to clear themselves of any association with these guys.. "It was them, Honestly , we wouldnt do anything like this at all ......" yeah right ...

I would assume that the people pointing at the cops are the 'victims' that this crazy country arranges photo shoots for, because here in Thailand we (the populous) are assumed to be so blxxdy thick that we cannot 'imagine' what it must look like to have a gun pointed at you in a robbery or similar situations that are reported with arrest photos -Soap Box policing and reporting. And of course we always have to have the fact that 'Commander/Deputy commander/Ltnt etc and on down the line positions "Rushed to the scene" what a load of BS.

[EarthAlien]

Is it just me or does the seated uniformed cop look like "Mo" from the Three Stooges?

[americaninbangkok]

The only reason they've been arrested is because they wouldn't share it out with their bosses !

No, they're being arrested for sheer incompetence. No self-respecting corrupt cop in this town would let himself get arrested this easily. Only 2M THB from 40 residents? Obviously an amateur performance.

And why is the picure dated July 31 (as noted earlier by pointoffew)?

[Tanaka]

The simple answer to the question about the date would be that the camera being used did not have its date updated.

[americaninbangkok]

The simple answer to the question about the date would be that the camera being used did not have its date updated.

I get your point. But normally, when the date feature is not "updated", it usually remains at a previous date... not one in the future. Not trying to split hairs, but if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck... then it's probably a corrupt Thai cop.

[bobobo]

It could also be message from "the top" to all other officers, don't make any business without cutting a deal with us...

[rbrooks]

Today a prominent Thai businessman's son commits a fatal hit and run on a BKK policeman and was almost free until the BKK police inspector was caught setting up a dummy perp to take the fall as driver. Now BKK policemen caught scamming millions of baht from civilians? Say it is not so! I am in total shock.

[Andre0720]

There seems to have been a few stories over the last few months of cops being arrested for corruption.......maybe someone has been watching The Untouchables and fancies being the Thai Elliot Ness?.......anyway, the more the merrier, it's unacceptable and an embarrassment to Thailand.

There does seem to be more cases of crooked cops being arrested in the last few months. I know the last two times my wife was stopped for no helmet she had to go into the police station and pay the fine.

Not sure how much will be done about it but it is a start.

Quite so.

From a reliable source, I know that last year, some 8 officers in one station were no longer part of the force. Not sure what happened to them but corruption was the word going around...

[OzMick]

There seems to have been a few stories over the last few months of cops being arrested for corruption.......maybe someone has been watching The Untouchables and fancies being the Thai Elliot Ness?.......anyway, the more the merrier, it's unacceptable and an embarrassment to Thailand.

There does seem to be more cases of crooked cops being arrested in the last few months. I know the last two times my wife was stopped for no helmet she had to go into the police station and pay the fine.

Not sure how much will be done about it but it is a start.

Quite so.

From a reliable source, I know that last year, some 8 officers in one station were no longer part of the force. Not sure what happened to them but corruption was the word going around...

It would be nationwide news if they had been fired, prosecuted and gaoled. But when do you ever hear of this? Sure the 3 murderous cops were convicted, with a lot of help/pressure from NGOs, but they are now out on bail when sentenced to death <deleted>.

Edited September 3, 2012 by OzMick

[theblether]

Surely no one is surprised by this news.

Surprised they were arrested, and in view of the public.

.............."in view of the public" was the whole point of the arrest.

You can fool some of the people some of the time...........someone somewhere is getting heartily sick of the police going way over the top. It wouldn't amaze me if it's coming from the military.

It was Military Police that harassed and shut down the nightclub, Spicy, in Chiang Mai, infamously controlled by the BiB. There now seems to be a continual crackdown on licensed premises in CM and I wouldn't be surprised if that was a combination of political will with military muscle ensuring that the BiB tow the line.

Methinks " Big fish, bigger fish " is at play here.

At the end of the day though, it doesn't matter how or who, anything that reduces the impact of police corruption upon daily life has to be applauded.

[Jessi]

Most likely they will just get a transfer .......to Pattaya

[FarangTalk]

They must have stolen from someone higher up the chain than themselves.

[asiawatcher]

The arrests have been made - the punishment? What's left of the 2M will be passed up the food chain, they will pay about 10,000 baht fine and if they are red shirts (absolutely) they will get a suspended sentence or house arrest for a month and demoted (until the next internal assessment), when they will be full reinstated.

[CHRISTIANa9]

Have any faring fallen for this scam? Just curious..

[telco]

These Thai cops are so bent they cant even lay in bed straight

[jerrysteve]

Nice Sting Operation... Praise the Buddha!!

Will they have their EZ-BRIBE CARD TAKEN AWAY???

Praise the Buddha, and Say 100 Hail Marys also!

[Keesters]

Well done. Headlines like this should fill the newspapers daily for a year or two until all the crooked cops are caught and new recruits learn that they won't get away with it anymore.

[uptheos]

Now that's what you call 'pointing the finger at someone'.

[softgeorge]

The arrests have been made - the punishment? What's left of the 2M will be passed up the food chain, they will pay about 10,000 baht fine and if they are red shirts (absolutely) they will get a suspended sentence or house arrest for a month and demoted (until the next internal assessment), when they will be full reinstated.

And what sort of punishment would they get if they were yellow shirts? Are you insinuating that the elite hiso yellow shirts are dealt with more harshly?

[atyclb]

deleted.

Edited September 4, 2012 by atyclb