Fearing military, Pattaya rushes to eradicate sin

PATTAYA: Officials are racing to clean up Pattaya’s beaches and vice spots to try to shake off the “sin city” tag and prevent the military stepping in as they have done in Phuket and Hua Hin.

Pol Col Suppatee Boonkrong, deputy commander of Chon Buri Provincial Police, who took over as acting head of Pattaya City Police on June 3 in the wake of the coup, said he was aiming to eradicate all prostitution.

“I want to completely change the image of Pattaya from being sin city to a friendly town that everyone can enjoy,” Pol Col Suppatee told the Bangkok Post Sunday. “Safety is our number one concern and that is what we are trying to bring back to the town.”

Pol Col Suppatee said reports of thefts had fallen since special patrols began arresting 20-30 bag-snatchers and thieves a night.

He conceded that there weren’t enough police officers to tackle street prostitution so they were being assisted by police volunteers in night-time sweeps. Typically, they were sending out groups of two to four police accompanied by four to eight volunteers in vans and trucks. The volunteers have no arrest powers, but can help compile evidence by taking videos, Pol Col Suppattee said.

“I told [the police officers] that the number [of arrests] this year has to be more than last year,” said Pol Col Suppatee, adding he was aiming to totally eradicate street prostitution. “This is my version of returning happiness to Pattaya town.”

Thitiyanun “Doi” Nakpor, the manager of Sisters, a health counselling centre for transgenders, said police were targeting ladyboy sex workers whom she had visited in custody. She claimed a police officer told her that they had been set an arrest target of 100 sex workers a night.

“We are arresting anyone for whom we have evidence of trying to trade sex for money,” he said. “Ladyboys happen to be the majority of people we arrest.”

Pattaya City deputy mayor Ronakit Ekasingh said they were trying to “keep things under control to prevent the National Council for Peace and Order taking over the situation as they did in Phuket and Hua Hin”.

Chief on the list was stopping beach chair and umbrella renters breaching rules on their allocated space of 7m by 7m, operating outside the designated hours of 7am to 6.30pm, and cooking on the beach, which is prohibited. They were also asked to remove chairs and umbrellas from the beach outside of the operating hours.

Mr Ronakit said since laws regulating the beaches came into effect in 2000 the situation had swung out of control.

“There are now 216 operators on Pattaya beach and 467 operators on Jomtien beach. None of them strictly follows our rules,” Mr Ronakit said.

The deputy mayor said he had sent out inspection teams to measure the deckchair plots and warn the operators along the 2.7km of beach in Pattaya.

However, the operators have reacted furiously at the officials and only the threat of the military coming in has had some impact.

“I told the teams to explain to the operators that if they don’t follow the rules from the town council, the NCPO will come in to take care of the problem,” Mr Ronakit said.

Dum, a beach chair operator in front of a large shopping mall, said he was tidying up his plot and strictly following the regulations.

“I am scared the NCPO will come and clean up the beach like they did to Phuket and Hua Hin. I have no back-up plan, this is the only career I have.”

-- Phuket News 2014-08-31

We are arresting anyone for whom we have evidence of trying to trade sex for money, he said. Ladyboys happen to be the majority of people we arrest.

Seems like a sex worker cleanup... Nice to hear about time in my opinion

So is it 'all prostitution' or 'street prostitution'???

If all they should have it sorted in 20-30 years or so at a rate of 100 a night by which time most ppl here will be long gone anyway.

A troll post removed.

Good. These corrupt people will only act when someone stronger forces them too. Gotta love ot when the army cuts through the red tape and corruption and orders them to do their jobs!

Defamatory post removed.

I believe the army have already been down to inspect the beach side of the 101 Walking Street businesses too.

I guess some people will like this fantasy, but the reality is that the tourists dont mind the street workers (apart from the ones that are thieves) and walking street is now quite an attraction because of its sordid reputation. what the tourists dont like and the reason many dont return is the polluted beaches and sea. but this isnt an attempt to try an attract tourists, this is just about face

aiming to eradicate all prostitution.

special patrols began arresting 20-30 bag-snatchers and thieves a night.

aiming to totally eradicate street prostitution

sent out inspection teams to measure the deckchair plots

cooking on the beach, which is prohibited.

​Sorry guys but this menial crap just won't cut it ! Why? because you have both served up this exact same nonsense previously on so many occasions.

Edited August 31, 201411 yr by Calimotty

Prostitution, it is the oldest profession in the world.

If they want to reduce it (they will never eradicate it), they need to look at the root causes and eradicate poverty, and the root cause of that in Thailand is corruption.

It is a great start. Walking street as long as it does not get out of hand i think you will find is kept as is just like patpong.

It is a atourist draw and they can keep tabs on workers in those places.

Where they have the trouble is the street walkers and hookers that are out on their own causing issues like drugging and stealing, beating up Johns.

This is what they are trying to get rid of.

Once they have cleaned up the area they then will be able to go to the NCPO or government and say look what we have done now willyou help us make the beaches better and more attractive so we can get the right people there.

While some will rejoice the attempts to 'eradicate prostitution' somewhere someone will have to think about the fact that it does bring in a tremendous amount of money. If the officials actually got their wish the population that supports Pattaya would be much poorer overall which could easily lead to unrest. I realize that some do not like the sordid reputation of the town but those same people also benefit from it. The police are paid via taxes and would not have any revenue for themselves if everyone packed up and went home to Isaan (yes assumption made that many of the girls come from Isaan).

Is it possible to have Pattaya doing something else to bring in revenue? Sure but that isn't being discussed. Right now they are just targeting 'prostitution'. I assume this is just a face saving measure and they aren't fully serious because if they do get very dedicated to the task all they'll do is destroy the economy and turn the place into a ghost town.

Isaans economy will take a big dive!

He has nearly an Impossible task to perform..It is so imbedded in this city that I can't ever see it happening?

It would seem that visible overt street sex workers are the target and not anything behind doors.

This conjure up memories how Cardinal Sin and the mayor of Manila cleaned up Eremite

and the Malate districts of all the hundreds of bars there in one fell swoop. that have resulted in massive

unemployment and significant drop in tourists to manila..

The same going to happened here, massive drop in tourism and even bigger drop in real estate

and hotel occupancy rates, let see if the new PM have big enough balls to take the Pattaya's

godfathers on.....

Is it time to Invest in Ban Chang?

In my opinion they should tackle the dirt that is all over the place , I think tourists are capable of staying out of trouble, but the confrontation with the garbage lying around is not good for the image, and I'm not talking Pattaya, the whole of Thailand is in poor shape.

Pattaya rushes to eradicate sin

It's still alive and well in my home, but I try to ignore it or pretend to rise above it from time to time.

Maybe they should take a look at attempts ar social engineering undertaken in the west. Prohibition in the US was not a resounding success and created something far worse as an unintended consequence.

Edited August 31, 201411 yr by Suradit69

Is it time to Invest in Ban Chang?

I would not say so

Hmmmmm....more good intention run amuck is what I surmise will happen.

Certainly if they can clean out the petty criminals and all the petty crimes perpetrated on tourists and visitors ( some Thai are victims also ) then that would be welcomed by all law abiding citizens.

If they make sure the girly bar clubs and the pick up places conduct themselves accordingly without harassing them like a witch hunt and focus on all the scam operators and street crime operators then the place will be better off.

But to say they are going to crack down on prostitution and try to eliminate it.................well that is not going to happen as the place was, in part , and a big a part it is, built on prostitution and the night life industry.

They have to come up with a better plan than simply sending out the police to start enforcing their new rules upon everyone as it never works out correctly and there is always unforeseen ramifications.

Just saying

Cheers

This is hardly new. Round ups of Beach Road streetwalkers have been going on for years. Maybe it will be different if they can somehow prevent them from going straight back to work!

Shoppers have increased in Central Festival by at least 50%...

I just told my wife and she laughed. What about the Issan girls? They not make money selling beer?

My wife’s other comment, was that all the stupid farang go there.

At some point this middle class dominate value will find resistance.

Some of the legal activities need to be cleaned up, but to eradicate what has provided many a income for many years will not make everyone happy.

Tourism Authority of Thailand trying to figure out how to explain a 50% drop in foreign tourist arrivals.

Isaans economy will take a big dive!

A big dive to what? Something lower than your IQ?

Is it time to Invest in Ban Chang?

In what regard?

Prostitution, it is the oldest profession in the world.

If they want to reduce it (they will never eradicate it), they need to look at the root causes and eradicate poverty, and the root cause of that in Thailand is corruption.

I agree, they will never clean up that mess, not here or anywhere. If the money that was "taken" from the people of Thailand, that was used to fill the PTP trough (and former governments) was returned to the people there would be no need to bribe the people for their votes.

Prostitution, it is the oldest profession in the world.

If they want to reduce it (they will never eradicate it), they need to look at the root causes and eradicate poverty, and the root cause of that in Thailand is corruption.

I don't believe that poverty is necessarily the main driving force for much of the prostitution in Thailand, despite what prostitutes may tell their clients. In Pattaya there is a big problem finding and keeping workers for jobs like waiters, sale staff and cleaners etc. The turnover is very rapid and there are job vacancies advertised all over.

Prostitution is more of a cultural way of life for some - it is an easy way to make a living and can be much better paid than real jobs. It is sometimes a temporary solution to a financial crisis in a family but that is not saying it results from poverty and saying it does does not do justice to those who work very hard in low level jobs in Thailand for low pay and they still manage to support families. Likewise, eradicating high levels of poverty will not I think eliminate much of the prostitution. It's much more complicated than that.

In my opinion they should tackle the dirt that is all over the place , I think tourists are capable of staying out of trouble, but the confrontation with the garbage lying around is not good for the image, and I'm not talking Pattaya, the whole of Thailand is in poor shape.

Exactly, I spoke with many family friends and married couples that have been here in the past years, not people interested in prostitution, none have complained of it. ALL however found that Thailand (not only pattaya) was full of litter, garbage on beaches, sides of roads, streets, etc..

Edited August 31, 201411 yr by firestar

social welfare. most of the women on the beach are unemployed solo mothers, pretty much similar to the people at the welfare office where I come from, and pretty similar to the streets of Victorian London before welfare