Bangkok police raid On Nut church, bust 20 undocumented African migrants

[TheKnave]

Everyone knows Nigerians in Thailand are drug dealers. Does anyone do much about it? No. Deport the ones without proper documentation.

Totally agree but expect the PC Brigade on here to attack your comment anytime soon

Totally disagree.

Totally agree with your disagreement.

Some are merely scam artists.

[patricev]

They are here to make money and there is no work permit category for what they do, that's for sure. But walking between the Sofitel and Soi 11 and listen, I found that I mostly hear French with accents from Ivory Coast and Senegal. That is why their English is not so good, most Nigerian speak English fluently although they use words and expressions not common elsewhere in the world. From the language, I think the Nigerians hang out further up toward Soi 4. And I think they specialize more in the scam industry because of their language advantage.

As for them working as "promoters" for Soi 11 clubs, this has to be the joke of the year.

It's getting tough for them to make good money in Europe so, like the tourists, they seek new destinations where life is ... easier!

[cup-O-coffee]

The main point I read here is that these are people here without the necessary documents and visas to allow for it. Everything else is speculation.

Factual patterns which evoke elements of mistrust and suspicion cannot be grounds for accusation of racism, and moreover these accusations obstruct the process of getting to the truth. Using the term "racism" has lost its integrity, in my view, as the people using it do not seem sincere about addressing or even discussing expressed factual patterns which evoke elements of mistrust and suspicion: ... rather instead they endeavor to avoid, use ad hominems or create unfair "rules and laws" which make it a hate crime to address factual patterns which evoke elements of mistrust and suspicion.

I can only presume that Nigerians make willful choices to be gainfully employed based upon their own personal reasons. I am certain these reasons are many and varied. But the thing is, they (like anyone else) need to understand that with risky choices comes risky consequences. People should not be entitled to special treatment simply because the consequences of their risky choices and risky actions catch up to them. And why is it that the sad sad reasons they give after they are caught are not the sincere behaviors they exercise before they are caught? That one always gets me.

And primarily, it is not "racism" to be mistrustful and suspicious of people who consistently demonstrate patterns, whether these people are random or in groups.

When it can be proved to me that bad people do not hide behind the law, or use facades of buildings to give a false impression because they walk into these facades, then I will be content to re-evaluate my views.

For the time being, however, I will view people and events with mistrust and suspicion when people and events fit a pattern deserving of such, regardless of randomness or groupings or the kind of buildings they walk into.

Edited November 25, 2014 by cup-O-coffee

[yanyk]

I wonder when people come on TV and talk about overstayers ..60% of people who use this forum have overstayed their visas once or twice or are using education visas and we all know they do not attend school. invading a church like that as if Osama Bin laden was hiding inside is a big joke. invade a temple like that and they would fine what they were looking for just that they won't find illegal immigrants.

[paymaster]

Not all Nigerians are drug dealers.

Remember the Nigerian soccer star who was lured to Thailand on a tourist visa? He said when the visa finish, many have to become gigolos for older Thai women. And these women want to have sex all the time.

Actual quote, 555

And not all drug dealers are Nigerian. Some are Mexican.

[paymaster]

Not all Nigerians are drug dealers.

Remember the Nigerian soccer star who was lured to Thailand on a tourist visa? He said when the visa finish, many have to become gigolos for older Thai women. And these women want to have sex all the time.

Actual quote, 555

And not all drug dealers are Nigerian. Some are Mexican. But they don't make very good gigolos.

[robertthebruce]

Hallelujah.....

[grumbleweed]

With Nigerians, its not a case of whether or not the are conducting any illicit practices, but which ones?

Christianity preys upon the very young and brainwashes them in to believing their ideology. Instilling lies and dismissing critical thinking in the process.

To some this may be a marriage made in heaven, but to others it is not beyond the realms of possibilty that the churches are being used by Nigerians as cover. There is afterall a Nigerian religious nut jack famous for his association with the Nigerian underworld in Thailand

No doubt this will draw claims of racism, even before I ask: wouldn't society be better served if the place had just been fire bombed?

Edited November 25, 2014 by grumbleweed

[jaywalker]

"reportedly in response to noise complaints" In Thailand someone complained about noise? That is got to be the first time ever I heard of such a thing. I can often hear the average Thai wedding or funeral 5km away from my home. Never mind the temple most days of the week. If they rent a speaker system by god they will get their moneys worth out of it. Of course all noise complains are handled by swat teams with drug tests in Thailand.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GIVE ME a break! Noise complaints???

SWAT uniforms to raid a church?

I could rant for days on end here about noise in Thailand, or Asia in general for that matter.

Would you believe some Cambodians moved in, in Florida, about an 8 - 10 minute walk from my Mom's house (over a quarter of a mile), and have parties where I can hear the music over her phone from thousands of miles away? It's TRUE!

==================

I have no particular love nor hate for Nigerians, but I have found that "most" folks that take at least an hour a week to go to church (I do) are a wee bit better than your average clown.

Don't get me wrong. I'm no Bible-Thumper, nor am I a hypocrite...Drinking a beer & smoking a cigarettes as I type this, but one does meet a better class (overall) of people at church than one does in a bar.

I LIKE bars too though, but I don't go overboard with either one (church, nor bar).......I haven't been in a bar in almost a year, yet have spent.....errr...have probably spent close to 100 hours in a church this year.

As for those spouting "Burn them at the stake!" because they over-stayed their visa's. Please explain to me who the victim of this "crime" was?

I'm from Florida. My Dad's 1st cousin was a Grand Wizard of the KKK. He had Klan rallies across the street, replete with 25 foot tall burning crosses back in the early 1970's.

I was raised in a highly racial discriminatory environment, yet I overcame it and see racism as utterly stupid.

This entire thing has a derogatory racial end to it, in my opinion.

Then again, much like the Thai police, everybody thinks all Nigerians are evil because of the actions of some of them.

......But raiding a church in SWAT gear????

[The manic]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

Why would someone who believes in God not approve of drugs. He made them as part of creation for our use and enjoyment. Th first miracle of Jesus was to turn water into wine. Perhaps you are confusing people who believe in god with those right wing christian groups who promoted their view of the bible in 1870 USA and onwards, primarily to support the grain/booze business.

[MDS]

Sorry but Nigerians have such a bad reputation around the world, deserved or not, that they should be made to apply for a visa, even for a holiday, before they are allowed to visit Thailand.

This could help keep some of the less desirable ones away.

[Bluespunk]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

Why would someone who believes in God not approve of drugs. He made them as part of creation for our use and enjoyment. Th first miracle of Jesus was to turn water into wine. Perhaps you are confusing people who believe in god with those right wing christian groups who promoted their view of the bible in 1870 USA and onwards, primarily to support the grain/booze business.

Nope.

I lived in Ghana for two years and met a lot of very earnest Christian evangelicals.

They had no time or tolerance for drugs and many were teetotal.

They were fundamentalists to the core.

Much like this group sound like.

Raiding their churches looking for drugs is a waste of time.

[kieran2698]

i dont like the police raiding a place of cult heavily armed

Tough. Seems like a good result to me. Twenty per cent of the congregation busted for illegal immigration status.

I agree with the "heavily armed" bit I'm glad they raided the church considering the outcome...

Doesn't say much for the 'Faith' of the 20 illegals when they can thumb their nose at the law of the land and feel ok about worshipping their god! Seems like their fair faith is about as valid as their god! (Since he/she didn't do anything about it either! - Or maybe... that's why the cops came??)

Nothing wrong with rounding up THOSE kind of hypocrites! I hope they unceremoniously get shipped back home... Thailand is probably better off without them I would think.

Perhaps you could point us to the verse which says you should have a valid visa. Plenty of versus condemn much of what you just said, blasphemy is what that's called.

[Fred Flinstone]

Well done to Thai authorities !

[kieran2698]

i dont like the police raiding a place of cult heavily armed

Tough. Seems like a good result to me. Twenty per cent of the congregation busted for illegal immigration status.

Sick puppy if you like a police state...different tune with arms turned your direction, wouldn't it be? Surely this was overly dramatic given a noise complaint.

Shame on you call people "sick puppy" for having an opinion. I agree 100%... great raid if result is 20 people without papers. These people have been accused earlier quite MUCH for doing the scams and the selling and smuggling of drugs. so what in hell are you talking about....

A church to me is not standing above the law, this is 2014 and priests and churches shall obey the law....

So good on Thailand and the rest of us for catching these guys from Africa, send them back ASAP..

Glegolo

Those people or different people from the same country? Xenophobia is a kind of sickness in my opinion.

[jaywalker]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

Why would someone who believes in God not approve of drugs. He made them as part of creation for our use and enjoyment. Th first miracle of Jesus was to turn water into wine. Perhaps you are confusing people who believe in god with those right wing christian groups who promoted their view of the bible in 1870 USA and onwards, primarily to support the grain/booze business.

I saw a Thai man wearing a shirt with a big pot leaf on it in Big C Ramkamhaeng once that said, "God invented Weed. Man invented Alcohol. Who do you trust?"

Not sure if he even knew what it meant, but I told him, about his shirt, "Jing-jing. Chope maak".

He just grinned at me.

As long as I am not hurting someone else, be it having a beer or taking a toke of some bush that grows wild, that I can grow in my back yard, I fail to see the harm I am doing.

No matter what your religion, or if you are agnostic or atheist, I'm sure we can all agree on the one concept of doing no harm to others, and treating other folks the way we'd like to be treated.

============

As for visa over-stays, can someone enlighten me as to where the victim is here? Anyone. anyone? I feel like Ben Stein.

If I may comment on other drugs, cocaine... I freaking LOVE IT! Too much. I quickly realized it was for losers after about the 3rd time I tried it 30 years ago.

Acid/LSD - see above about coke... been there done that, cast it aside.

Mushrooms... Scared the be-Jesus out of me the one time I tried them. NEVER AGAIN!

Heroin & meth/yaba. You could smack me in the head with a bag of either one & I wouldn't know what they are, as I've never seen them.

I do like my beer though, which, in moderation (don't drink all day every day and never drink and drive), hurts nobody.

[kieran2698]

So if your Nigerian and want to travel to Thailand don't, you will be accussed of being a drug dealer and thrown into a Thai jail. Paddyjenkins you little irish lepracorn.

They are accused for a reason, they are drug dealers or are you telling me that delightful bunch that hang around lower Sukhumvit are here for the Thai culture?

There most certainly are a bunch of Nigerian drug dealers on sukhumvit, there are also a bunch of drug dealing farrangs on koh phangan. Says nothing about farrangs in Thailand nor Nigerians. It would be unfair to ignore the Nigerian doctors, proffesors, uni lecturers, school trachers, textile and rice buyers, all legitimate members of Thai society, based on a few drug dealers just because they are the ones you notice outside your favourite girly bar.

[jollyhangmon]

Why would they search a church for drug use, Thai cops using racial profiling?.

... well, maybe they're just drawing conclusions as drugs & weapons - amongst other 'forbidden' stuff - seem to be found hidden in their TEMPLES on a pretty regular basis ...

[timewilltell]

Sick puppy if you like a police state...different tune with arms turned your direction, wouldn't it be? Surely this was overly dramatic given a noise complaint.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Good riddance to those flouting Thai law.

I would agree except Thais flout the law routinely and very often get away with it - in fact probably usually get away with it if their victim is a foreigner. That is plain wrong!

[BigC]

Why would they search a church for drug use, Thai cops using racial profiling?.

They is always one person that uses the race card

[Globeman]

i dont like the police raiding a place of cult heavily armed

Tough. Seems like a good result to me. Twenty per cent of the congregation busted for illegal immigration status.

Fine, but does it require a SWAT team? Heavy handed police tactics in the USA have caused alienation between the police and the public. But for reasons that are difficult to grasp, some people stand back in admiration of jackbooting.

[jaywalker]

i dont like the police raiding a place of cult heavily armed

Tough. Seems like a good result to me. Twenty per cent of the congregation busted for illegal immigration status.

I agree with the "heavily armed" bit I'm glad they raided the church considering the outcome...

Doesn't say much for the 'Faith' of the 20 illegals when they can thumb their nose at the law of the land and feel ok about worshipping their god! Seems like their fair faith is about as valid as their god! (Since he/she didn't do anything about it either! - Or maybe... that's why the cops came??)

Nothing wrong with rounding up THOSE kind of hypocrites! I hope they unceremoniously get shipped back home... Thailand is probably better off without them I would think.

Perhaps you could point us to the verse which says you should have a valid visa. Plenty of versus condemn much of what you just said, blasphemy is what that's called.

Yes, the Bible, Koran & others can be interpreted in many ways, yet that pesky bit about not having your papers in order and passports & visas does seem to be absent except in the laws of corrupt governments that want to fleece all & sundry, ie: THEIR SHEEPLE.

I was recently "pulled over" by a city policeman in the USA for "looking suspicious".

His first words were "Show me your ID!".

I'm Caucasian, cop was Caucasian. It was 11:15 PM & I was walking down a sidewalk.

Very much reminded me of the World War 2 movies where the Gestapo would say "Show me your papers!".

==============

Still waiting for any logical debate on who the victim is/who is being hurt by someone that over-stays their visa in Thailand. Not like a foreigner can apply for asylum nor government aid in Thailand.

Anyone? Anyone?

Edited November 25, 2014 by jaywalker

[Globeman]

Sick puppy if you like a police state...different tune with arms turned your direction, wouldn't it be? Surely this was overly dramatic given a noise complaint.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Good riddance to those flouting Thai law.

Yes, all violators of the widely respected laws of the Kingdom should be tortured and strung up with piano wire, their faces smeared with soi dog turds, forced to eat sand and drink ammonia, after which they should be paraded in the town square, lashed to spiked poles and shot with exploding bullets. And then they should be taken away to be tortured some more. State violence is the only thing these lawbreakers understand.

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." Never was a wiser platitude uttered. I don't know what it means exactly, but gosh, it sounds tough. Hey... and remember, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs - in a hot kitchen.

[Pundi6446]

Have they all been screened for Ebola?

[Globeman]

Yes God is great!! After their prayers it is straight back to Sukhumwit to sell their destructive merchandise!!

To the overly PC posters here, it really doesn't matter if they are black, white. green, blue or yellow, they are illegal immigrants. Deport them! End of story!!

If they did that with illegal Burmese immigrants, they'd have no fishing or island tourism industry left...

Simple-minded solutions don't work, as much as they may serve one's sense of "justice".

[Globeman]

i dont like the police raiding a place of cult heavily armed

Tough. Seems like a good result to me. Twenty per cent of the congregation busted for illegal immigration status.

Wonder if you'd say that if you had to fly back home to get a new visa.

We were all crying recently simply because of the border runs crackdown. And I also wonder if you're properly documented.

What'd you do for a living in Thailand? Any LEGAL activity? No? Guessed so...

As for border runs, the system should change: no more border runs for Farangs staying here with a valid visa, and no more border runs anymore either for anyone who SHOULD NOT BE HERE! Simple, clear.

P.S.: Fly back home for a visa, but maybe better don't come back, neither the Thais, nor the 'legit' Farangs, need you here! Bye-bye, good riddance!

Christ man, who the hell are you? Other than a keyboard warrior who loves his caps lock, I mean...

[gemini81]

Sorry but Nigerians have such a bad reputation around the world, deserved or not, that they should be made to apply for a visa, even for a holiday, before they are allowed to visit Thailand.

This could help keep some of the less desirable ones away.

So do Russians Chiese & Israelis. Raid their homes, embassies and places of worship with militarized police swat teams? Genius thinking buddy.

Edited November 25, 2014 by gemini81

[petercool]

A post using profanity was removed

[jaywalker]

Sick puppy if you like a police state...different tune with arms turned your direction, wouldn't it be? Surely this was overly dramatic given a noise complaint.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Good riddance to those flouting Thai law.

Yes, all violators of the widely respected laws of the Kingdom should be tortured and strung up with piano wire, their faces smeared with soi dog turds, forced to eat sand and drink ammonia, after which they should be paraded in the town square, lashed to spiked poles and shot with exploding bullets. And then they should be taken away to be tortured some more. State violence is the only thing these lawbreakers understand.

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." Never was a wiser platitude uttered. I don't know what it means exactly, but gosh, it sounds tough. Hey... and remember, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs - in a hot kitchen.

You make a great point Gemini... and if may add to it...

They should be broken at the wheel, after spending a week in the stocks, publicly flogged, and dunked in water to see if they float, as only the guilty float. The innocent just drown.

Oh yeah, burned at the stake as well in there somewhere for the Capital Crime of "not having 'proper' papers".

They are after all, from a country NOTORIOUS for having a corrupt government where scams abound, and everybody from said country is, by default guilty due to the passport they hold.

Not that Thailand has any scammers. Not that a Thai can get government benefits in Western countries, not that Obama cares about illegal immigration.

Nope. Only in Thailand where a foreigner can get zero, zilch, nada out of the Thai government should illegals be prosecuted for "breaking the rules".

NOT saying that some rules are not necessary, but when they are so... either not enforced or only, on occasion, selectively enforced, and then hear the "sheeple" screaming "Burn them!"???

I can only say that I'm glad that mob has been fortunate enough to have never been in some other folks' shoes and have had a perfect life.

I'm no bleeding-heart liberal either, yet I've been through a few times where I needed some help, time and a way to make my own path though.

I'm from the USA, and I have never taken anything in the way of a handout from the USA government.

I don't agree with bums what do, but don't agree with the "tar & feathers" approach for someone that has a certain skin color or passport either that has failed to jump thru a few idiotic hoops either.

Back to.....Can anyone point out a victim of anyone that overstayed their visa? Not talking about a scam they might have run, just the heinous crime of staying on one piece of real estate/country longer than what some politician said they could stay?

I've done it. Guess who I hurt? Zero, zip, nada nobody. I overstayed 2 years once. Cost the Thai tax payer zero, zip, nothing nada.

Yet I should be burned at the stake according to many on this forum.

I never recommend that anybody do what I did, and I did it many years ago.

Always do your best to abide within the laws, no matter how stupid they are, but don't vent venom at victim-less "crimes" please?

[grumbleweed]

It would seem that the Nigerians are getting more than the usual support in this matter. Not because of their association with Christianity is it?

Hypocrosy in the least, but I would take it further and go on to say; In the name of Jesus you are defending the indefensible

Edited November 25, 2014 by grumbleweed