For Krisb, The Armed Guards Story!

[chrisrazz]

First let me say that this is a fairly complicated story and I hope that in writing it, it will make sense.

About six years ago, our eldest son and his now wife, were visiting relatives in a neighbouring village. They were bailed up by a group of a dozenish lads and subsequently attacked. During the attack, the girlfriend managed to get away and phone my brother in law ( fairly senior in the police, but not in the local station). Our boy was beaten about the head and body with blocks of wood, at some point during the melee, the mother of one of the attackers tried to stop the attack by grabbing our boy and thereby disabling his defence and/or escape. A rescue was mounted and our boy was rushed to hospital with head injuries etc. Fortunately for him there was no lasting damage. A report was filed at the local cop shop, statements by both our boy and his girl as to the events and ID of some of the known attackers. This report included the loss of a mobile phone and a Seiko watch my wife had given him. Cops visit the known attackers, my brother in law gets involved and visits the local mayor for more names etc. one of the boys was the mayors nephew. Mayor files a complaint against brother in law. Meanwhile, son no.2 decides to get involved and together with his crew, tracks down the brother of one of one of the lads and what ensues I don't know, but complaint is lodged with cops against our boy no.2, where a firearm is mentioned. The main protagonist in this story, ie mayors nephew, mothers son and the threatened brother is one and the same person. He has a lot of form for this kind of behaviour, even attacked an off duty cop by clubbing him from behind at a temple party. In all the previous cases, including the attack on the cop, these incidents were sorted out by the police mediating between victims and perpetrators for a payment. Police get their cut, victims family get paid, boys gets a get out of jail free card. The previous incidents did nothing to change the behaviour of this particular lad, who was gang leader in our story.

So, the police approach us with an offer to mediate. In consultation with the family, particularly my bro in law, we declined this offer on the basis that the lads involved were juveniles, we didn't need the money and we felt that by going to court might teach a lesson and perhaps save a life in the future, as the level of violence seemed to be escalating. A later incident involving the same problem child did in fact end in a fatality, but someone on his side in the fight.

It was at this point the statement regarding son no.2 was made, which he claimed was partially true, though no weapons were involved. Obviously, this statement was made due to our position in terms of going to court.

During all of this there was a party at the local temple, and due to our denial of a bribe this is when rumours started of a potential revenge attack on our family home were circulating, hence the armed guard the night of the party. I stayed home with son no.1 with a couple of blokes with pump action shotguns and bro in laws service revolver in my pocket. Of course nothing happened.

Back to the battle of claim and counter claim. Knowing that the opposition were fabricating a lot in the statement against no.2 and that is was just a ruse to either keep the issue out of court or to lower the bribe, I decided to call their bluff. We found two ladies that witnessed the incident who were prepared to and did make a statement to the effect that gang leaders mother had contributed to the attack by grabbing our boy, and, that we were planning to press charges against her. It appeared that quite a number of people in that village were fed up with this mob. We did this through a lawyer by the way. The immediate effect of this was that the statement against son no.2 was withdrawn, so we withdrew our complaint against the mother.

We were still missing a few faces in the gang, one apparently, was whisked out of town by his family virtually within a day of the incident, but still we hadn't got them all. So, now we move to army day. This as you may know is often marred by drunkenness and bad behaviour, our boy was up for the lottery, so we were in attendance, and lo and behold a couple faces, identified by the girlfriend, showed up to make idiots of themselves and finally land themselves at the police station as part of our story. Our boy ended up in the army. The court case went ahead, the boys found guilty and given good behaviour bonds and compensation was granted. The families complained to the court that they had already paid the police, which raised an eyebrow of the magistrate who asked the clerk of the court to make a note. The boys were held until compensation was paid. My wife noticed that the missing property was never raised in the court and had been removed from the case, the implication being that property crimes are more serious than crimes against the person, and that the families involved had actually paid the cops to remove those items from the charge sheet.

We never wanted these kids to end up in custody, just to learn a lesson.

We got 26,000 baht compensation.

[Rancid]

Yes, I remember once upon a time I had a life like that out in the sticks, fortunately that is all behind me now after dumped the wife and her whacko family. Yes had people with guns coming around, had someone try to blow up my car, that lifestyle is out there but generally as you get sucked into some family's dramas.

[aussiebebe]

Fascinating story, sorry to read that your son got drafted, could you not have avoided that with a payment? I'm not sure how the system works but I've a friend who's wife is from Surin and his step-son was drafted. He was explaining that villagers were disproportionately over-represented and it was pretty rough the first time the recruits could see their family, lots of tears, It's a difficult situation all round, no-one wants to be drafted.

[Semper]

First let me say that this is a fairly complicated story

You can say that again. It also happened "about six years ago", what kept you from telling us this story all these years?

[krisb]

Interesting story, why is this for Krisb?....sorry I must have forgotten something?

[chrisrazz]

From the thread where the guy in hong kong was soliciting for 'Thailand stories' for a book. I listed a few of my experiences and krisb wanted to know more about this one.

As for the army, it was the best thing that could have happened to be honest, took the lad out of the picture for a while and he did well by ending up on one of the community projects that the army gets involved with. He got on very well with the staff Sargent and should have stayed on and made a career out it.

Another boy in the family went and did basic training and was allowed to go home, then two months before the 2 years was up was recalled. Guess what, while at home on no pay, no ID card, no work etc, someone else was collecting his pay!

[chrisrazz]

Yes, I remember once upon a time I had a life like that out in the sticks, fortunately that is all behind me now after dumped the wife and her whacko family. Yes had people with guns coming around, had someone try to blow up my car, that lifestyle is out there but generally as you get sucked into some family's dramas.

I guess I'm lucky with my immediate family, good and honest, though sometimes lazy and often stupid, I'm generally happy. It's the extended family that can be a problem, always trying to borrow money etc. if you don't lend to them you're a category C word, when you do lend and want it back you're a category C word again. I've managed to convince the management that we are better to claim poverty ourselves. This also has its bad press in the local word of mouth media, shunned by the 'super rich' foreign pensioners due to our prercieved poverty. There was a time when any visitors turned up, my first question was 'what do they want?' Such visitors are now rare. A quiet life fuelled by misinformation. I love it!

[chrisrazz]

First let me say that this is a fairly complicated story

You can say that again. It also happened "about six years ago", what kept you from telling us this story all these years?

No Internet availability.

[MGLinearArt]

First let me say that this is a fairly complicated story

You can say that again. It also happened "about six years ago", what kept you from telling us this story all these years?

No Internet availability.

Good god man! How are you still alive?!?