10,000 police officers mobilized for Sunday election

[webfact]

10,000 police officers mobilized for Sunday election
By Coconuts


Police guard Bangkok's Metropolitan Police Bureau last month. Photo: Zanyasan Tanantpapat

BANGKOK: -- With protesters vowing to stop voters from reaching polls Sunday, authorities announced today that 10,000 police officers will be fielded to keep voting centers open.

Although the caretaker government has reaffirmed its commitment to not using force, the police mission will be to prevent protesters from shutting down the vote as they did throughout the capital this past Sunday's early voting.

The police will be deployed at the request of civic authorities at the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, according to Chalerm Yubamrung, the labor minister who recently assumed command of the government's crisis response agency. [read more...]

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2014/01/29/10000-police-officers-mobilized-sunday-election


-- Coconuts Bangkok 2014-01-29

[winstonc]

10.000 out of 140.000 dont seem to be taking it too seriously,maybe just in essential ptp areas..south none needed of course..

[love1012]

If they protcet the polling stations the same asthey protect the protestors it should be worth seeing!!

[PREM-R]

10,000 policemen, that's almost 2 to each protester.

[MunterHunter]

10,000 policemen, that's almost 2 to each protester.

And i bet they still cant do jack-schit about anything...

[xminator]

Not enough, they need 10 times the number, and start setting up security at polling boots at once.

[drand11]

Need alot mote than 10,0000!! Lets do things right and get a Peace award after.

[bkkjames]

what were they doing before?

[slapout]

Are the police to be armed this weekend? The protestors seem to enjoy camping out while the police seem to like starting to work on their own schedule. It will be interesting to see who is the first arrival at voting booths as well as who will hold the high ground.

[Boxclever]

It could go either way this Sunday.

Either the protesters will fizzle out and succeed in closing only a couple of booths in Bkk due to low turnout figures or...

The protesters get the numbers they need to spread out over the whole city in which case 10,000 cops is not nearly enough.

My money is on senerio 1.

Any bets?

[transam]

what were they doing before?

Interesting question.

[mrtoad]

what were they doing before?

Interesting question.

The usual, which is not a lot.

Hopefully Chalemrs Span will not be leading any of the Police teams

[furyrider]

what were they doing before?

Extended Coffee break I would emagine

[hands22]

It's great that the army has decided to do 'something' instead of waiting for a call for help from EC who will be more than happy to close the voting booth at the first opportunity.

I think the army is sending a clear message to Suthep. Do not mess around this time! If you try to disrupt and provoke a fight from the soldiers, you will have face the full force of the the army. Plus the police.

[MunterHunter]

It's great that the army has decided to do 'something' instead of waiting for a call for help from EC who will be more than happy to close the voting booth at the first opportunity.

I think the army is sending a clear message to Suthep. Do not mess around this time! If you try to disrupt and provoke a fight from the soldiers, you will have face the full force of the the army. Plus the police.

Not sure where you get the Military/Army involvement from, did you dream it?

[bigbamboo]

Not enough, they need 10 times the number, and start setting up security at polling boots at once.

The rest are being set aside as Chalerm's personal body guard to help settle his nerves.

We wouldn't want Mr Happy Toilet's daddy to have an unhappy toilet moment on the big day, would we?

[ManopY]

So they will take the 10,000 Police Officers who are protecting Chalerm and his CMPO center for this job!

[Scamper]

In the full article, Chalerm bids the media not to cover the protests. In what other country could that possibly be tolerated ? Keeping the public's eyes shut may sound great for Pheu Thai's interests, but no other interests are served in a free society when the public are blocked from information.

[Sunderland]

More likely there will be 10,000 army on standby to keep an eye on 10,000 police trying to control 10,000 protesters and a mere 10,000 voters will turn up. It will take 10,000 more days to solve this crisis. Expect another 10,000 hubs to be announced in the coming days.

[paddyjenkins]

10,000...50,000....100,000....makes no difference how many are "deployed" as they just stand there looking on and do exactly nothing...better to save money by telling them to just stay home.

in fact, why exactly does thailand even bother having a police force or an army? seems they may as well just have a free for all, mob rule, mafia rule type country....oh, hang on, thats what they do have...

[mamypoko]

Police! A great chance to up your stock...cuff dat punk!

[WhizBang]

It could go either way this Sunday.

Either the protesters will fizzle out and succeed in closing only a couple of booths in Bkk due to low turnout figures or...

The protesters get the numbers they need to spread out over the whole city in which case 10,000 cops is not nearly enough.

My money is on senerio 1.

Any bets?

My money is on scenario #2.

However, I do worry what will happen if violence erupts.

[Lingba]

Based on past events...It doesn't matter how many police are deployed as I don't see them attempting to put themselves in harms way for anyone...They will just stand there and hand out flowers

[Tatsujin]

I mentioned it before in another thread, these are the "Border Police" apparently. Look nice in the Boy Scout uniforms

[blackman]

why bother?

the elections a costly joke which will result in nothing as there won't be enough people to make a government

its just a smokescreen to keep everyone busy whilst the amnesty bill drifts along to be self fulfilling in 178 days

everyone is cleared since 2006

thaksin comes back, elects himself PM/dictator, appoints all his family as cabinet, recovers his seized money, gets revenge on everyone who stood in his way, reds are happy

everyone else is looking around wondering what happened and awaiting a knock on the door

[ggold]

It's great that the army has decided to do 'something' instead of waiting for a call for help from EC who will be more than happy to close the voting booth at the first opportunity.

I think the army is sending a clear message to Suthep. Do not mess around this time! If you try to disrupt and provoke a fight from the soldiers, you will have face the full force of the the army. Plus the police.

I think the army is sending a clear message to Suthep.

If the army send any message I think it would be to the caretaker government!

[Robby nz]

Whats the point, all the BKK election officials have resigned, there is no one to run the election.

And what happened to the 50,000 they got out not so long back to stop a peaceful demo ?

[djjamie]

Principle of Democracy - Equal protection under the law.

The murder of Sutin has garnered no leads. There was a police station 10 minutes from the scene yet no tomato police on the scene when the red shirts turned up?

Every single violent attack directed towards the protestors has come up with nothing and there is never any police in the area.

Principle of Democracy - Equal protection under the law.

Yet police with the help of the Minister for Labour identified the murderer of Akeyuth before the investigation even started.

Yet the PTP can put together 4000 police to guard parliament house 2 months ago. Those 4000 police stood in front of an empty area where you could hear a cricket chirp.

Yet the PTP can bring out 10 000 police to guard polls.

Principle of Democracy - Elections

So when it comes to what the PTP want then the police are always available and you can be assured that anyone that causes trouble on "ELECTION DAY" will be dealt with quickly.

Principle of democracy - Free and fair elections

Seems the rice farmers will be getting paid 2 days before elections take place. With going against the constitution aside this is a nice little carrot for the gullible. Here is some of the tax payers money from Bangkok to win a few more votes.

Principle of Democracy - Freedom to protest peacefully.

Emergency decree just happens to be enforced a week before elections because of the violence perpetrated against the PDRC.

Principle of Democracy - Freedom of the Press.

Under the emergency decree the PTP can decide what they want to air and what will be censored.

So the PTP will be abusing 1/ equal protection under the law. 2/ Freedom to protest peacefully 3/ Freedom of the press 4/ Free and fair elections so they can adhere to 5/ Elections.

I laugh when they say respect my vote as it reminds me of the voter fraud by the PTP in parliament that was caught on camera. One regime leader even stated that "I don't see anything wrong with it" Incredible!! Not a word about this on TVF from the opposition.

Now imagine what the regime will be like after the elections.

Hitler had his fans. Mugabe had his fans. Saddam had his fans. Chavez had his fans. They didn't have those fans after the changes the regime made though, but by that time it was too late. I only want the gullible to see what the future holds for them. They will will be the ones suffering as the farmers are now.

Edited January 29, 2014 by djjamie

[webfact]

200,000 policemen to keep security on election day

BANGKOK: -- An estimated half of the 400,000 strong police force will be dispatched to maintain law and order on the election day this Sunday, according to a senior police officer.

Pol Lt-General Amnart Anatngam, assistant national police chief who heads the police centre to maintain peace during the election, said that more than 200,000 policemen would be deployed, and more than 50,000 of them commissioned officers. Those are in addition to 1,450 rapid deployment units on standby at police stations, he added.


-- The Nation 2014-01-29

[gemini81]

Principle of Democracy - Equal protection under the law.

The murder of Sutin has garnered no leads. There was a police station 10 minutes from the scene yet no tomato police on the scene when the red shirts turned up?

Every single violent attack directed towards the protestors has come up with nothing and there is never any police in the area.

Principle of Democracy - Equal protection under the law.

Yet police with the help of the Minister for Labour identified the murderer of Akeyuth before the investigation even started.

Yet the PTP can put together 4000 police to guard parliament house 2 months ago. Those 4000 police stood in front of an empty area where you could hear a cricket chirp.

Yet the PTP can bring out 10 000 police to guard polls.

Principle of Democracy - Elections

So when it comes to what the PTP want then the police are always available and you can be assured that anyone that causes trouble on "ELECTION DAY" will be dealt with quickly.

Principle of democracy - Free and fair elections

Seems the rice farmers will be getting paid 2 days before elections take place. With going against the constitution aside this is a nice little carrot for the gullible. Here is some of the tax payers money from Bangkok to win a few more votes.

Principle of Democracy - Freedom to protest peacefully.

Emergency decree just happens to be enforced a week before elections because of the violence perpetrated against the PDRC.

Principle of Democracy - Freedom of the Press.

Under the emergency decree the PTP can decide what they want to air and what will be censored.

So the PTP will be abusing 1/ equal protection under the law. 2/ Freedom to protest peacefully 3/ Freedom of the press 4/ Free and fair elections so they can adhere to 5/ Elections.

I laugh when they say respect my vote as it reminds me of the voter fraud by the PTP in parliament that was caught on camera. One regime leader even stated that "I don't see anything wrong with it" Incredible!! Not a word about this on TVF from the opposition.

Now imagine what the regime will be like after the elections.

Hitler had his fans. Mugabe had his fans. Saddam had his fans. Chavez had his fans. They didn't have those fans after the changes the regime made though, but by that time it was too late. I only want the gullible to see what the future holds for them. They will will be the ones suffering as the farmers are now.

Brilliantly said, and it is factual. In addition, we've seen it play out time & again. We also see the police not intervene when it suits them too, according to who they support. That means Sunday they'll be in full force. Could get ugly. I hope it turns out for the better; no more of these 'elusive' grenade attacks and so on.