Bangkok Police officers suspended over alleged extortion of Italian tourists

[jpduggan]

Why is there no photo of the two victims pointing at the horrible cops?

[skyaslimit]

It is too sad to see some junior officers spoiling the reputation of well educated and trained police force as RTP.

sent by skyaslimit using thaivisa forum mobile app.

 

I commend you on your fantastic sense of dry humor

I still take your comments as a compliment.

sent by skyaslimit using thaivisa forum mobile app.

[tingtongfarang]

It is too sad to see some junior officers spoiling the reputation of well educated and trained police force as RTP.

sent by skyaslimit using thaivisa forum mobile app.

I commend you on your fantastic sense of dry humor

I still take your comments as a compliment.

sent by skyaslimit using thaivisa forum mobile app.

Thank god there was humor involved, i had a sinking feeling for a moment that you might have been serious

[skyaslimit]

 

My wife said she did not see anything on the Thai news about this. did anyone else see it?

I spoke to several Thai friends. None have heard a thing about this. I even asked one to google it in Thai. As of a few hours ago they still didn't hear anything about it. 

 

The full force of the brooms is in action. 

 

 

Typical, as there is no way to shift the blame for this onto foreigners.  I can see a phantom Cambodian or Burmese being invented and thrown into the story, and then of course it will be all over the local news.

 

The Nation channel broke the story on the 22.08.13, at 9.40 p.m news and then repeated it in detail last night at same timings.

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[Paul888]

Corruption free since the last time somebody reported them to Interpol.

[razer]

Maybe all crimes against foreigner should involve interpol

[EyesWideOpen]

I wonder how the TAT is going to spin this.....I suspect this story is not playing well in Italy .

But the most amazing part of this story to me, is that any long term expat here knows NOTHING

will happen, and this story will fade away. In pretty much exactly the same fashion as that

woman who was held for ransom on the trumped up shoplifting charge at the airport....

Good thing Thailand has a lot of beautiful girls to keep the tourists coming. Other wise

with endless stories like this one, Thailand would be on the black list of every travel agent

in the world as being too dangerous...

Edited August 24, 2013 by EyesWideOpen

[Commander Tamson]

Isn't Uzbekistan next to Tajikistan? - just saying

[tingtongfarang]

I wonder how the TAT is going to spin this.....I suspect this story is not playing well in Italy .

But the most amazing part of this story to me, is that any long term expat here knows NOTHING

will happen, and this story will fade away. In pretty much exactly the same fashion as that

woman who was held for ransom on the trumped up shoplifting charge at the airport....

Good thing Thailand has a lot of beautiful girls to keep the tourists coming. Other wise

with endless stories like this one, Thailand would be on the black list of every travel agent

in the world as being too dangerous...

I,m sure they have the required people who went into coverup and blame shifting mode since it happened and still working, one would think this one is,nt going to be an easy one but then many of us often thought that.

[MegaRanter]

So far only one standard lie line is missing from the police reports.

That these people were fake police.

Can still be woven in somehow. Or they were supposed to be elsewhere on study leave.

[angiud]

today its huge news in italy the 2 main newspapers read by milions of people every day made this the biggest news

http://www.corriere.it/

First page the main Italian newspaper:

http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2013/08/24/news/thailandia_due_turisti_italiani_sequestrati_e_subito_liberati_arrestati_due_poliziotti-65208350/?ref=HRER2-1

and on the main TV networks

(August, holiday month, is poor of news..)

[IAMSOBAD]

Because they can't extort money off of jet ski customers in Nana...the BIB use the ATM scam.

SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT!

The most corrupt law enforcement agency on the planet!

The HUB of HYPOCRISY... THAILAND

Edited August 24, 2013 by IAMSOBAD

[drdoom6996]

This is fair warning to all foreigners. Beware of this kind of activity by police and Thailand in general. You are at risk any time anywhere in Thailand.

I have lived here for 26 years. The only people I have ever been afraid of are the "Boys In Brown". I'm sure there are times I should have been afraid. But I have been robbed twice and the first time the BIB asked for money to catch the culprit. I have stayed clear of them since. As the man says, at risk anytime and anywhere in Thailand. If it was not because of my child I would have probably have moved by now.

[EricBerg]

Spread the news, keep reposting, have friends outside of Thailand call the police and newspapera in bkk to ask when and where the trial will be, send e-mails to tour-operators asking if it is safe to travel to bkk/Thailand. Ask what parts of town are unsafe etc.

Ask Thai friends/relatives about how they feel about this and other corruption. In the long long run all this may have some meaningful result.

Western ambassadors expressing their concern as a group recently got some coverage and lead to minor superficial action (jetski- and taxi-scams). If tourism and foreign investments suffer then the bad guys on top will try to clean up at the basis some more. From there the long road to real cleaning can start. There just isn't any fast working detergent. Yet passive complaining/sulking never did any good.

Especially the "international aspect" (another user's comment) will do some good.

[osiboy]

The only way to get anything to change in Thailand, is exposure to the world. And hit them in there pockets!

As i have said a few times , the Thai authorities seem to have some sort of "hold' over European embassies , very little is reported on the national or international news about the murders,rapes , corruption , extortion or scams of EU citizens in Thailand , it baffles me !

[dudu]

The only way to get anything to change in Thailand, is exposure to the world. And hit them in there pockets!

As i have said a few times , the Thai authorities seem to have some sort of "hold' over European embassies , very little is reported on the national or international news about the murders,rapes , corruption , extortion or scams of EU citizens in Thailand , it baffles me !

Problem being, if all deaths and accidents and scams worldwide were reported,the daily paper would weigh around 5 kgs.

[Scott]

A post with foreign language content has been removed.

[dudu]

A post with foreign language content has been removed.

just translating what it said, relevant to the story, thought that was ok..especially when they say the ransom money was transferred, you could have just taken of the italien bit.

[Scott]

Here's the rule:

English is the only acceptable language, except within the Thai language forum, where of course using Thai is allowed.

[EyesWideOpen]

This is fair warning to all foreigners. Beware of this kind of activity by police and Thailand in general. You are at risk any time anywhere in Thailand.

I have lived here for 26 years. The only people I have ever been afraid of are the "Boys In Brown". I'm sure there are times I should have been afraid. But I have been robbed twice and the first time the BIB asked for money to catch the culprit. I have stayed clear of them since. As the man says, at risk anytime and anywhere in Thailand. If it was not because of my child I would have probably have moved by now.

Odd .... I will be leaving because of my child. I do not want her to grow up in a culture so damaged

that ordinary people fear the police.

[dudu]

This is fair warning to all foreigners. Beware of this kind of activity by police and Thailand in general. You are at risk any time anywhere in Thailand.

I have lived here for 26 years. The only people I have ever been afraid of are the "Boys In Brown". I'm sure there are times I should have been afraid. But I have been robbed twice and the first time the BIB asked for money to catch the culprit. I have stayed clear of them since. As the man says, at risk anytime and anywhere in Thailand. If it was not because of my child I would have probably have moved by now.

Odd .... I will be leaving because of my child. I do not want her to grow up in a culture so damaged

that ordinary people fear the police.

leaving the planet are we?

[geezer2]

proof men are smarter than monkeys......

what country are you in ??

[Beetlejuice]

Nothing more than "SAVING FACE" because it went global. They will be slapped on the wrist and put back on the streets to continue bringing down the face of this country!

Even if this is not a face saving exercise, the damage is done and this event has really put the cherry on top of the cake as to the International perception of the reputation of the Thai police force.

This appears to have been an organised racket, run by those higher up at the police department with many collaborators involved, only this time it appears they chose the wrong victims.

That whole police department should be shut down and investigated. Whoever is ultimately in charge whether a part of this racket or not, must also take full responsibility and be sacked, plus the Italian tourists for which this must have been a terrifying ordeal, must be compensated.

An outrageous affair.

[tingtongfarang]

Nothing more than "SAVING FACE" because it went global. They will be slapped on the wrist and put back on the streets to continue bringing down the face of this country!

Even if this is not a face saving exercise, the damage is done and this event has really put the cherry on top of the cake as to the International perception of the reputation of the Thai police force.

This appears to have been an organised racket, run by those higher up at the police department with many collaborators involved, only this time it appears they chose the wrong victims.

That whole police department should be shut down and investigated. Whoever is ultimately in charge whether a part of this racket or not, must also take full responsibility and be sacked, plus the Italian tourists for which this must have been a terrifying ordeal, must be compensated.

An outrageous affair.

Agree with your sentiments but alas its only a dream many have here that the system would work in this way, this racket is only one of many targeted at foreigners.

[tingtongfarang]

Spread the news, keep reposting, have friends outside of Thailand call the police and newspapera in bkk to ask when and where the trial will be, send e-mails to tour-operators asking if it is safe to travel to bkk/Thailand. Ask what parts of town are unsafe etc.

Ask Thai friends/relatives about how they feel about this and other corruption. In the long long run all this may have some meaningful result.

Western ambassadors expressing their concern as a group recently got some coverage and lead to minor superficial action (jetski- and taxi-scams). If tourism and foreign investments suffer then the bad guys on top will try to clean up at the basis some more. From there the long road to real cleaning can start. There just isn't any fast working detergent. Yet passive complaining/sulking never did any good.

Especially the "international aspect" (another user's comment) will do some good.

spreading the news internationly maybe has an effect into shaming them to make justice seem to be done, I tried asking thai friends about this subject and most seem in the first instance to be confused why this should be news and tell...sure...this is thai police...was always the same,

then i expalin it happened to tourists...there eyes open a little and some amount of thought process goes into action for a few moments,

Most just have no idea what this means when its in the international news....for them its just everyday stuff which does,nt surprise.

planet thailand very big...world outside very small.

[tingtongfarang]

I read camo,s post about the attempts at extortion that went on involving your biz and income not only of you but thai workers,

All i can say is...feel better to know these scams are not only targeted at westerners, Asian nationals from other countries are targeted also, i had once made friends with 2 korean guys who were in the oil biz, sent over by there company to set up office in bangkok,

They had visits from a group claiming to be immigration who came monthly demanding payments because their work permits were not processed or rather the process not completed for the usual reasons of not knowing the system, or not being told who they should grease, even the lawyer was getting rich

these visits came monthly at random dates and 20k for each of them seemed to be the norm they told, i was once there when they got a visit and the eyes went wide when they assumed another 20k ontop of the usual 40k might be possible, they were told i was a friend visiting and i was asked to leave, i did as asked by the koreans but as a person watcher i felt sure only one of these guys was infact from immigration and the rest were just a few mates or selected relatives,

After not much over a year of monthly extortion and still it seemed no closer to being legal regardless of how much they tried and claimed to be doing everything correct although it had cost they told vast amounts of money,

They finally convinced the big boss in soul that to offer their services in the oil industry in thailand was not a viable concept and it all folded up.

i truly felt sad for these guys when they explained they had hated their time here and would never get the idea to return for whatever reason.

Edited August 24, 2013 by tingtongfarang

[CUNJU]

Don't mess with us Italians, we invented what the Thai police are trying now!! hahaha

[thaigolfer]

Once I had to pay 500 Baht to a policeman on Silom Road. He saw me throwing away a cigarette-but on the street. I tried to explain that I was a non-smoker, had no cigarettes with me and no lighter. He insisted harsh and unfriendly so I paid.

In every other country all Thai police would be in jail. Here they are untouchable and can do what they want. They all protect each other. The worst punishment for a police after a criminal act is to be transferred to a part where people are poor.

[tingtongfarang]

Once I had to pay 500 Baht to a policeman on Silom Road. He saw me throwing away a cigarette-but on the street. I tried to explain that I was a non-smoker, had no cigarettes with me and no lighter. He insisted harsh and unfriendly so I paid.

In every other country all Thai police would be in jail. Here they are untouchable and can do what they want. They all protect each other. The worst punishment for a police after a criminal act is to be transferred to a part where people are poor.

The cigarette but scam is an old one which is here to stay i think, best to do as some others and speak another language or even make one up...but dont stop walking. They only target foreigners and even thais around them throw buts down and nothing will happen.

Myself about 6-7 years ago i subconiously stayed away from tourist areas without giving it thought, when friends asked me why i had no interest to go to nana or even sukhumvit itself i had to think why exactly this was...i remembered that one day it dawned on me i was,nt going to meet any nice people there.

[Nowisee]

As this and many other instances of corruption, bribery and extortion continue, it will draw more and more attention and soon it will begin showing up on major nightly news shows around the world.

Then these Thai idiots that have no moral or ethical values, the same predatory idiots that act like any other convict or thug will bring shame to their country and police force.

Why thai people don't stand up to this is beyond my comprehension. I also think we foreigners should make as much noise about this as possible, each and every time it happens to us. Travel in pairs and video anything that happens, post on YouTube, post on FB anything... at least while we are living in country.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Nowisee