Police officer in charge warns of violence during Bangkok shutdown

[webfact]

Police officer in charge warns of violence during shutdown
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Pol Lt-General Sophon Pisutwong, who is in charge of the operations in relation to the "Bangkok shutdown", warned Thursday that some of the 27 missing police guns and ammunition might be used to incite violence on Monday.

Sophon said the weapons - six shotguns that riot-control police used to fire rubber bullets with, 12 teargas launchers, three .38 pistols as well as six police personnel pistols - had gone missing from police trucks during the December 26 clash between anti-government protesters and police force at the Thai-Japanese Stadium. So far, only one 9mm pistol belonging to a Nakhon Sawan police officer has been retrieved and the suspect arrested, he added.

Sophon cited an investigation report into the Din Daeng clash as saying that the spent bullets and cartridges found there and outside the stadium had been fired from 16 pistols of the .32, .38, .45 and 9mm type. Hence, it is believed that 43 guns had been used in the December 26 clash - the 27 allegedly stolen ones and the 16 guns used, he said.

The police officer also warned that the country's glory did not need to come from the cremation flames of the protesters or law enforcers, and hence all sides should join hands to solve the problem.

Saying that police would set up checkpoints to block guns and explosives from being smuggled into the seven key protest sites, he also urged people to alert the police of suspicious looking individuals so as to prevent violence and maintain peace and order. The police will also ensure traffic flow, prepare ambulances, tow trucks and fire engines in case of emergency as well as have police investigators gather evidence and take video and audio recordings.

-- The Nation 2014-01-09

[bapak]

Setting the stage for a frame-up...

[Zolt]

The police officer also warned that the country's glory did not need to come from the cremation flames of the protesters or law enforcers

Whoa.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Zolt

[Emptyset]

Missing weapons? I would say more like 'relocated weapons'.

Probably will be shot from police hands in alternative attire.

Already caught one of em, but it wasn't the police who caught a third man, it was protest guards that caught a policeman.

Strange how there was no more mention of that supposed protest guard who was caught with one already.... yes, very strange that.

Er, he was mentioned in the article above? Why do you refuse to believe protesters looted police vans when even protest supporter Michael Yon says he witnessed it?

[briboy]

I suggest he knows exactly what is going to happen where its going to happen and by whom....

[aimbc]

More intimidation and scare tactics. If anyone uses small arms that was stolen from the Police and kills anyone with it, it will become the responsibility of the police. We the public trust that we gave the police the power to acquire arms so that they may perform their duty. We also respect the law enough that we won't obtain arms ourselves and give up the rights to bare arms. So that we may entrust government to protect us. Now that the arms are stolen, by the police own negligence, it should be them who are the actual murderers. They must be accountable for their gross negligence. I would call for the administrative action of the officer in charge for not providing better procedure for securing of the armament.

The above of course is to put the responsibility on the police lap in term of accountability. Through their negligence, they provided arms to the wrong people. But of course what they are doing here is to free themselves from any violence as they will not be responsible for any shooting that may occur. We all know, if someone wants to do harm, they can obtain the weapons from anywhere. They don't need to wait for an opportune time and take it away from a bunch of inept police force. I want to know why they never announced what was stolen until now and why no one too responsibility for the missing weapon cache. All too convenient.

But more importantly, this is another scare tactics by the government. The pressure for YS to step down has just increase tremendously. But I doubt she cares, because the lives of the protesters are just the minorities. Her majority is safe and she can careless about anyone else. YS better start thinking hard about protecting the people. If any shooting should occur under her administration, especially in a peaceful atmosphere, she is ultimately responsible for people death. Besides, she know she created this mess and still have not taken responsibility for it. Just worried about what the majority will think.

[rogerdee123]

This article's headline should read ...... "Police negligence causes loss of 27 guns on 26th December."

[MaxLee]

Police officer in charge warns of violence during shutdown

Thank you, we didn't know that...

[ChrisY1]

Good training in weapon security here.......unfortunately, the RTP sometimes are a hopeless Keystone bunch.....

[Scamper]

First of all, this question absolutely begs to be asked - how can the police possibly ensure traffic control ? Or is one of the litmus tests for becoming a policeman being possessed of a profound sense of irony ? Outside of that, the police are also getting their chief talking point across - if there's any violence - really, it has nothing to do with the police ! After all, the police in all their legions will be the only ones who will be carrying full armaments and riot gear, which - naturally - they have absolutely no intention of using.

[longtom]

So this handful of 'misplaced' guns are so much more dangerous than the 10'000s of weapons (from self made guns to RPG launchers) which are out there anyway?

[Thait Spot]

So these "unarmed " police in fact not only had weapons but additionally had ammunition to render them lethal.

And despite this were so incredibly unprofessional and incompetent that they allowed the weapons and ammunition to be stored together and stolen.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[FangFerang]

Missing weapons? I would say more like 'relocated weapons'.

Probably will be shot from police hands in alternative attire.

Already caught one of em, but it wasn't the police who caught a third man, it was protest guards that caught a policeman.

Strange how there was no more mention of that supposed protest guard who was caught with one already.... yes, very strange that.

Er, he was mentioned in the article above? Why do you refuse to believe protesters looted police vans when even protest supporter Michael Yon says he witnessed it?

Both sides have their musclemen, but everyone seems to notice only the other side has musclemen...very curious...plainly human illogic, but still very curious...especially since the TV "divide" reflects the same percentages across country, more or less, but more like 50/50, instead of 60/40.

[FangFerang]

The police officer also warned that the country's glory did not need to come from the cremation flames of the protesters or law enforcers

Whoa.

Yeah. Woe. The worst kind of /wō/, it is the same sound, but has funereal tones and irreconcilable differences..

[seajae]

strange that this is only coming to light now, they claimed there were no weopons/live ammunition at that protest but now they need to be able to make the protesters look guilty if anything happens. By the way, I thought they said the gun found was lost while the officer struggled with the protesters, these guys really need to get their stories straight, men in black not police, yes they are police, we had no weapons or live ammo, yes we did but it was stolen.........idiots

[choff56]

So these "unarmed " police in fact not only had weapons but additionally had ammunition to render them lethal. And despite this were so incredibly unprofessional and incompetent that they allowed the weapons and ammunition to be stored together and stolen. Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Maybe they were sold.

[surangw]

you don't need to visit a fortune teller to predict this.

[whybother]

I thought Chalerm was in charge.

[fish fingers]

so basically he's saying any death that can be traced back to a police firearm will be someone else's fault.

[CraigSchuler]

How does a police force lose 27 guns and ammo? Who's in charge of this dog & pony show?

[aimbc]

Missing weapons? I would say more like 'relocated weapons'.

Probably will be shot from police hands in alternative attire.

Already caught one of em, but it wasn't the police who caught a third man, it was protest guards that caught a policeman.

Strange how there was no more mention of that supposed protest guard who was caught with one already.... yes, very strange that.

Er, he was mentioned in the article above? Why do you refuse to believe protesters looted police vans when even protest supporter Michael Yon says he witnessed it?

I wish you wouldn't have said that, though he witness looting, he had no way of knowing exactly what was looted. Don't try to white wash the police for being inept. They have no plan in protecting anyone. Only their own pockets. TS is a great example of what you can become when you start as a cop.

[pkspeaker]

OH WHATEVER! The only way the police could have prevented the theft of these firearms is if they had shot dead a bunch of protesters forcing them disperse, any other country dealing with that kind of riot would have killed at least 20 protesters.. The police killed NO protesters and during the protest 1 police office was murdered by armed men firing live rounds from behind the protesters so they used this chuk-and-duck strategy in which they would withdraw and fire teargas-this is what allowed the protesters to push forward and loot these weapons.. if you think they did such an 'incomptetent' job lets see you go out there and deal with these facists. If they kill p[ortesters then you say they 'murdered' them, if they don't you say they are incompetent.

More intimidation and scare tactics. If anyone uses small arms that was stolen from the Police and kills anyone with it, it will become the responsibility of the police. We the public trust that we gave the police the power to acquire arms so that they may perform their duty. We also respect the law enough that we won't obtain arms ourselves and give up the rights to bare arms. So that we may entrust government to protect us. Now that the arms are stolen, by the police own negligence, it should be them who are the actual murderers. They must be accountable for their gross negligence. I would call for the administrative action of the officer in charge for not providing better procedure for securing of the armament.

The above of course is to put the responsibility on the police lap in term of accountability. Through their negligence, they provided arms to the wrong people. But of course what they are doing here is to free themselves from any violence as they will not be responsible for any shooting that may occur. We all know, if someone wants to do harm, they can obtain the weapons from anywhere. They don't need to wait for an opportune time and take it away from a bunch of inept police force. I want to know why they never announced what was stolen until now and why no one too responsibility for the missing weapon cache. All too convenient.

But more importantly, this is another scare tactics by the government. The pressure for YS to step down has just increase tremendously. But I doubt she cares, because the lives of the protesters are just the minorities. Her majority is safe and she can careless about anyone else. YS better start thinking hard about protecting the people. If any shooting should occur under her administration, especially in a peaceful atmosphere, she is ultimately responsible for people death. Besides, she know she created this mess and still have not taken responsibility for it. Just worried about what the majority will think.

[Rob8891]

Shouldn't the headline read " .....POSSIBILITY of violence......" or are the police issued with Crystal balls now?

[whybother]

OH WHATEVER! The only way the police could have prevented the theft of these firearms is if they had shot dead a bunch of protesters forcing them disperse, any other country dealing with that kind of riot would have killed at least 20 protesters.. The police killed NO protesters and during the protest 1 police office was murdered by armed men firing live rounds from behind the protesters so they used this chuk-and-duck strategy in which they would withdraw and fire teargas-this is what allowed the protesters to push forward and loot these weapons.. if you think they did such an 'incomptetent' job lets see you go out there and deal with these facists. If they kill p[ortesters then you say they 'murdered' them, if they don't you say they are incompetent.

The easy way to prevent the theft would have been to NOT leave them in their vehicles.

[JoeThePoster]

Police officer in charge warns of violence

That settles it then.

[millwall_fan]

More intimidation and scare tactics. If anyone uses small arms that was stolen from the Police and kills anyone with it, it will become the responsibility of the police. We the public trust that we gave the police the power to acquire arms so that they may perform their duty. We also respect the law enough that we won't obtain arms ourselves and give up the rights to bare arms. So that we may entrust government to protect us. Now that the arms are stolen, by the police own negligence, it should be them who are the actual murderers. They must be accountable for their gross negligence. I would call for the administrative action of the officer in charge for not providing better procedure for securing of the armament.

The above of course is to put the responsibility on the police lap in term of accountability. Through their negligence, they provided arms to the wrong people. But of course what they are doing here is to free themselves from any violence as they will not be responsible for any shooting that may occur. We all know, if someone wants to do harm, they can obtain the weapons from anywhere. They don't need to wait for an opportune time and take it away from a bunch of inept police force. I want to know why they never announced what was stolen until now and why no one too responsibility for the missing weapon cache. All too convenient.

But more importantly, this is another scare tactics by the government. The pressure for YS to step down has just increase tremendously. But I doubt she cares, because the lives of the protesters are just the minorities. Her majority is safe and she can careless about anyone else. YS better start thinking hard about protecting the people. If any shooting should occur under her administration, especially in a peaceful atmosphere, she is ultimately responsible for people death. Besides, she know she created this mess and still have not taken responsibility for it. Just worried about what the majority will think.

The responsibility for any violence rests entirely with Suthep Thug-sabaan and his hired henchmen. The political temperature is now too high for these demonstrations and he should call them off forthwith. The police must prevent the closure of Bangkok and if the protesters refuse to disperse, the police must ensure that they do so, Mob rule has gone far enough. This attempt to overthrow the duly elected government is an act of treason.

[JohnP1752]

The police are simply saying that they had some guns stolen and the demonstrators have their own as well, as all the evidence has been collected and proven.

Anything else is hypothetical and unproven at this stage. Although one would think that they may have a grudge against the demonstrators because 2 of theirs were killed last year.

Lets wait and see what happens.

[tingtongteesood]

OH WHATEVER! The only way the police could have prevented the theft of these firearms is if they had shot dead a bunch of protesters forcing them disperse, any other country dealing with that kind of riot would have killed at least 20 protesters.. The police killed NO protesters and during the protest 1 police office was murdered by armed men firing live rounds from behind the protesters so they used this chuk-and-duck strategy in which they would withdraw and fire teargas-this is what allowed the protesters to push forward and loot these weapons.. if you think they did such an 'incomptetent' job lets see you go out there and deal with these facists. If they kill p[ortesters then you say they 'murdered' them, if they don't you say they are incompetent.

More intimidation and scare tactics. If anyone uses small arms that was stolen from the Police and kills anyone with it, it will become the responsibility of the police. We the public trust that we gave the police the power to acquire arms so that they may perform their duty. We also respect the law enough that we won't obtain arms ourselves and give up the rights to bare arms. So that we may entrust government to protect us. Now that the arms are stolen, by the police own negligence, it should be them who are the actual murderers. They must be accountable for their gross negligence. I would call for the administrative action of the officer in charge for not providing better procedure for securing of the armament.

The above of course is to put the responsibility on the police lap in term of accountability. Through their negligence, they provided arms to the wrong people. But of course what they are doing here is to free themselves from any violence as they will not be responsible for any shooting that may occur. We all know, if someone wants to do harm, they can obtain the weapons from anywhere. They don't need to wait for an opportune time and take it away from a bunch of inept police force. I want to know why they never announced what was stolen until now and why no one too responsibility for the missing weapon cache. All too convenient.

But more importantly, this is another scare tactics by the government. The pressure for YS to step down has just increase tremendously. But I doubt she cares, because the lives of the protesters are just the minorities. Her majority is safe and she can careless about anyone else. YS better start thinking hard about protecting the people. If any shooting should occur under her administration, especially in a peaceful atmosphere, she is ultimately responsible for people death. Besides, she know she created this mess and still have not taken responsibility for it. Just worried about what the majority will think.

So you are advocating violence then. I suppose you think more people should have died in 2010 too ?

[Zumteufel]

How does a police force lose 27 guns and ammo? Who's in charge of this dog & pony show?

By having somebody look the other way, I suppose. I suspect it happens all the time in all kinds of contexts all around the world.

[rickirs]

Police would set up checkpoints to block guns and explosives from coming into the protests sites? Unless these are covert, randomly moving checkpoints, all anyone who wants to take weapons into the protest sites has to do is GO AROUND THE CHECKPOINTS. MBK Tokyo has better security than this. Unless you can establish choke points to control entry in and out of the protest sites, police efforts are only window dressing.