The real problem is, they will not go after these guys. Not the top bankers, not the high ranking guys, not the provincial authorities, and certainly not the army, or the police. They are all corrupt beyond imagination. And the level of corruption simply escalates, the further up the food chain you go. They police and army are not expected to be honest, and they are not expected to engage in law enforcement, traffic or public safety, on any level. It is an irrevocably broken and dysfunctional system. Any hyperbole to the contrary, is just a smoke screen, intended to deceive the most naive amongst us. These guys are above the law. Any and all laws. The only time they are arrested is when it becomes big news, or it is reported internationally, and Thailand gets a ton of egg on it's face. And even then, it normally does not result in a conviction. Very, very few current (not former) police, immigration, customs, cabinet officials, army officials, or administration officials are arrested here, tried, convicted and imprisoned. Many years ago, my sister in law, was involved with a rather dodgy Brit, while living on Samui. When she finally ditched him, he was livid, and just could not handle it. He ended up coming one night, at 3:30am, and burning down her bungalow, which was made of wood and thatch. It went up like a bomb. Fortunately, neither she, nor her four roommates were there at the time, or they would have either died, or ended up with major 3rd degree burns all over their bodies, which I believe was his intention. In most countries, this would be treated as attempted murder, correct? The police were able to find a video of him racing away from the scene, at around 3:35am, as there was a CCTV camera in front of the police station, only a few hundred meters away from her bungalow. They took him in, and told him he would have to leave Thailand, and could never return. Not sure what exchanged hands, for him to not have been arrested. He was also told he would have to pay my sister in law 120,000 baht for the destruction of her gold, cash, and possessions. Same for her four friends. He did pay. It was likely 600,000 baht exchanged hands. We know that for a fact, as we were friendly with a couple of his friends, who said he paid, and he also left the country. When she went to the police station to collect, she was told that he never paid, and he was already back in the UK. But, that they had advocated for her, and made sure he could never come back to Thailand! When she pushed, and told them that she knew for a fact that he had paid them, she was told that her life would be in danger, if she pushed this, and that she needed to back down, and go away, or her safety could not be guaranteed. How does a young woman react to a policeman saying something like that to her? The real problem is, you cannot report these guys. Not to the higher ups, not to the provincial authorities, and certainly not to the army. They are all corrupt beyond imagination. And the level of corruption simply escalates, the further up the food chain you go. They are not expected to be honest, and they are not expected to engage in law enforcement, traffic or public safety, on any level. It is an irrevocably broken and dysfunctional system. It is all a franchise. Like a pyramid scheme.
