Have You Ever Had Dealings With The Police?......

[EyesWideOpen]

Was driving a flashy looking BMW motorcycle a bit south of Chiang Rai. Was pulled over in a large permanent highway police

checkpoint where they were basically pulling everyone over and fining them. They even had a table set up for immediate payment.

After I was stopped , I carefully showed the policeman all the correct papers. He insisted that I pay 300 baht. I politely refused

and said there was no reason to pay money. Never raised my voice, and spoke only English to him. He then insisted I go inside

to the main office and speak to his superior. Once inside his office with my girlfriend, he again insisted in broken English that I

had to pay the 300 baht. Again I politely refused, at this point sort of confused as to where they were going to go with this.....

He then turned to my girlfriend, and spoke in Thai that I was a bad farang and also that I had a dog's mouth, bak ma, and insisted

that the money be paid. He was clearly playing on the fear every Thai person has of the police..

By the way, saying someone has a dog's mouth is a very severe insult in Thailand. So here I am being basically extorted by monkeys,

and he has the nerve to insult me for not wanting to pay it. So I stood up, and to his amazement launched off on him speaking Thai.

I told him he was nothing more than the mafia, that he stole money from poor people, and that all the Thai people hated the police.....

Clearly this was a level of confrontation that he never dreamed could exist. He stands up, his face turns red, he flings the paper

he was holding, and he starts screaming in harsh Thai that I could not understand. There were two other policemen in the room,

their eyes are now as big as saucers in complete astonishment at their almighty boss being dressed down by the farang.

At this point I realized that I may have gone a bit too far....In the understatement of the year, my girlfriend turns to me and says

I should step outside , and she will take care of the problem. She of course paid him the 300 baht, and we were on our way.

[benalibina]

Bad and good all in one night.

1st trip to Thailand long time ago and first night on Thai beer. Pissed as but polite and not obnoxious and walking back to motel about 2 in the morn in quiet street, fell over a garden fence into a garden bed and joed out for an hour or so. Came to, extracted myself and continued the stagger back to motel when BIB ute pulled up, 4 of the little shits piled out surrounded me with hands on batons and gun butts. Went peaceful. A security guard had seen me go along street, missed the fall over fence and joe out bit but then seen me again leaving the property. He along with an absolute stuck up young a hole couple (the only ones who could speak English) had me then pegged as a leader of an international crime syndicate that was working the neighborhood. You could not have made this crap up and their ignorant inability to see at a very early stage that I was nothing more than a 1st time greenie tourist. Long shot was the head night cop had me in an interview room and at one part was waving a non cop regulation pistol under my nose trying to get me to confess. No go so was taken to an on site magistrate type guy in his pjs, a lot of hand pointing and thai yabber and then put in the cells till morning. Whole lot of them acted like the ignorant pheasants they were. What was not missed with the All Black t shirt I had on and them able to work out I was a Kiwi was the insults that then flowed. Would have loved to have the lot of them in my bush raised environment back here in NZ on my terms especially the a hole young couple and me with the guns and batons.

That was the bad.

The interesting part was the behavior in the morning. At about 6 in the morning the day shift cops and magistrate (butch female) came in and all the thai's in the cells were on their bellies bowing and scraping to the cops who were seemingly threatening them. When the cops had seemed to get their jollies there they turned to me now sober and were meet with a f... you defiant look back. The butch bitch then backed off.

These idiot pheasants thinking they had their criminal syndicate master mind then handed me over to the day shift detectives one of who could speak a little English and who quickly was able to put one and one together to get the right answer of two and that I was just that green tourist who did not realise the strength of Thai beer. We did brunch, Eagles music (both huge fans) and a few fags together while he waited for a girl friend who spoke fluent English. Once she arrived we did the scene enactment together in what was a scenario I could understand. We visited the motel to get my passport etc. in plain car and when the D understood that I was a child sponsor who came to visit the Buriram village that I was sponsoring we were the best of mates. The D even grinned when at one point the security guard during the scene enactment tried to grab me by the arm to which I raised my fist, and he backed off - a right reversal from the previous night. After that was over I was taken to late morning court where I was being charged but discharged without fine or conviction with being drunk. While I was waiting my turn (sitting right beside him in a squashed little box office) the older cop who was residing as basically the small claims magistrate over a young girl and young guy dispute over a motor bike accident. Could not understand much Thai but could get the drift by drawings and that they were doing. What was obvious watching this older cop doing his work was that he was a real good nice guy. I actually enjoyed the morning in the company of the BIB and experiencing their work..

It is obvious that the night beat is a pain in he ass for cops with drunks and all the other crap that goes down but sometimes a bit of logic and common sense should prevail. Something that was missing in spades.

Edited to add that while there are a hole Thai cops there are also very good every day nice guys among them too!

A nice story, made me laugh. Would have been better if written with a spellingcheck and paragraphs. Anyway, funny it was !

[Chittychangchang]

Stopped at a police checkpoint last year with the wife and children.

Several police on duty checking papers, id's etc.

Checked my licence while admiring the Buddha amulets around the children' necks and took it over to the superior officer, "here we go" i thought.

Came back with a smile and more amulet chat in Thai, then wished us a good day in English.

No Worries

CCC