We are All Equal In The Eyes Of The Law?

[impulse]

Somebody throw a bucket of cold water on these guys. Please.

[ramrod45]

At the risk of being bashed, I would have to say that racism is pretty prevalent in our world. For all that countries and legalities have done, people are still racist to some degree. People will have a different level, and consider different cultures/countries also at different levels. You find racism within races. Blacks often refer to a black that has "integrated" into the normal "white" society as Oreos (black on the outside, white on the inside). Blacks can use the "N" word for themselves, but anyone that does gets the race card tossed up. I'm sure a lot of us still think of those "Mexicans" as being illiterate illegal immigrants. Personally I just figure all of us have some level of prejudice or racism. I think realizing we are all different, but embracing the differences, is much better than trying to toss everyone into the same pot, because we are not all alike. Some Thai's probably could care less about a farang, maybe find us a curiosity, some will not like us. Hey, goes both ways most of the time. The error is grouping a few million people into a single category (such as saying all Thai's are racist against farangs). But bottom line is racism exists, has existed, and most likely will continue to exist for a long time, mostly because a lot of us just aren't comfortable with people that are "different" than us. But if you use racism as a means towards hatred, then a person is excusing their actions.

[robblok]

He did show you the book that he had fined some Thai people also.

So why are you complaining?

You did the wrong thing, you were caught and you were fined.

Don't do it again and then you will not have the opportunity to cry on TVF.

I should know better than to reply, but here we go:

I am complaining because, he only started his motorbike to catch the pesky farang, after at least 10 Thai's had committed be same offence right in front of him, without him reacting..........

The names in his book had no relevance to the situation at hand.................

Poor baby.. its ok to cry here.

I was on the bike and made a turn where I could not make it.. the cop stopped me.. saw I was foreigner (and I acted like I could not speak Thai) and let me go. The wife came a bit later with the car did the same thing got stopped and fined. (were holding a spot check there for that offence).

So sometimes it works against you to be a foreigner and sometimes for you.. live with it.

But guess you call this racial just like you call in the news everything political. While the solution is just don't break the rules. I sometimes get fined and like you I hate going to the police station ect. But I have never been ticketed for an imaginary offence. That was what I would see as profiling or unfair.

[Stan42]

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

-George Orwell, Animal Farm

[Beetlejuice]

i wont go into detail but no we are not. too many cases and incidents to list here , i just do not have the time. ok i will give you the last one, driving down a main rd and sober 6am in morning, a taxi driver with a farang and drunken thai girl on back, taxi driver comes from behind bangs into me , thai girl has been shouting and swinging a bottle of whiskey about, taxi driver loses balance and comes into me, causing my bike no real damage only a scratch, no damage to his, police are called, girl has a scrape on her ankle, she states farang fault, her english boyfriend even backs metyo cops, this happened at crossroads at soi buakao,lankee,dianna so there are cameras, i point to cameras telling police to look at them, cop shouts at me to ,stop my mouth now, ok i stop. i have to pay 2000 baht , 1ooo to taxi driver and 1000 to the whore who says she needs to go hospital.

is that enough ? theres more, awhole lot more

You allege, taxi with drunken Thai girl and farang on-board, bangs into your motorbike from behind, minimal damage to your motorbike and no damage to the taxi.

The police are called, Thai girl who was obviously drunk as a skunk in your opinion, shouts, it`s the farang`s fault, the police immediately stop you in your tracks when tried to explain and demanded 2000 baht,

Total rubbish, your story has more holes in it than a lump of Swiss cheese. Firstly, you alleged it was the taxi driver who rear ended you, the farang passenger or taxi driver must had admitted that the distractions caused by the drunk female passenger made him lose attention and bump your bike, otherwise how would you have known the girl had been shouting and swinging a bottle of whiskey about inside the cab?

And if according to you it was the taxi driver`s fault and no one incurred serious injuries, than why would the taxi driver had wanted to get involved with the police?

There is no way that the police would have taken the drunken woman at her word, not given you a chance to state your version of events with no mention whether the police took a statement from the taxi driver or the farang passenger. If this had happened to me, out of principle, I would had insisted on going to the police station, being heard and making an official statement, especially considering it was the driver of the taxi who rear ended you.

Sorry, don`t believe it. Just another I am the victimised farang story. I wonder if you even live in Thailand?

[salty14]

I have found it the racism by cops the other way round! Done thousands of Km's between Isaan, Pattaya and down South and every time we pass through a road block I show the relevant paperwork and I'm ushered through. I've only ever had one fine for speeding (admittedly I was doing about 140) and was "fined" 200 baht. In fact last time I drove down from KK I had the girlfriends cousin and family following (Thai) and they were stopped twice as much as me at road blocks and even made to do a urine test for drugs! The icing on the cake was at the last stop, the police checked my paperwork and said "carry on", then stopped the cousin, asked him if he was traveling with the farang ahead, "yes we are".. "Well farang drive too fast.. Can we have 20 baht for red bull?"

Ha ha didn't I laugh my a**e off when they told me at the next stop!! [emoji13][emoji13]

After the OTT driving restrictions in Australia, I'll take the leniency here any time

[marko kok prong]

Seeing as there really are not any road rules here,i think the op was just unlucky,we tend to remember the unlucky days in these situations more than the lucky ones when we get away with it.

Edited May 31, 2015 by marko kok prong

[MrJohnson]

I think many times i have NOT been stopped because I am a white farang. Somtimes I think the police think it is simply too much hassle to stop a farang. Been here since '97. Stopped twice for doing the wrong thing. On both occasions I suggested an on-the-spot fine, not the policeman. It was my choice, I didn't want to waste time going to a police station to pay the fine. Sometimes being a farang works in one's favor, sometimes not.

[RustBucket]

I had Black friends like that in the UK, always bleating on about the cops only stopped them because they where Black, how about when they stopped me, was it because I was white ?

Loads of Thais get stopped for motoring offences everyday, in fact if you go on a Highway up country you're less likely to get stopped for a spot check and have your car searched simply because you're a Farang, The Thais have a much tougher time with the cops, we get away with a lot.

We actually do get away with a lot.

Everytime I get stopped i smile at the copper and rabbit out in my broadest Geordie accent some nice pleasntries. Most of these roadside cops can not speak even basic English, let alone understand broad Geordie, they always just look at me and wave me through.

Touch wood, so far I have never even been asked to show my license.... They just can not be bothered to deal with someone they can not communicate with.

My advice is to NEVER speak Thai to them..... not even sawatdee kap. My wife told me that and she has been absolutely correct thus far.

Edited June 1, 2015 by RustBucket

[RustBucket]

By the way..... The difference between the width of a car and a motorcycle is enough to make a difference in safely rounding the turn.

A car needs much more space and a bike can usually get around relatively safely, not so much for the car.

So maybe the copper was looking more at the safety aspect.

[Berkshire]

He did show you the book that he had fined some Thai people also.

So why are you complaining?

You did the wrong thing, you were caught and you were fined.

Don't do it again and then you will not have the opportunity to cry on TVF.

I should know better than to reply, but here we go:

I am complaining because, he only started his motorbike to catch the pesky farang, after at least 10 Thai's had committed be same offence right in front of him, without him reacting..........

The names in his book had no relevance to the situation at hand.................

Poor baby.. its ok to cry here.

I was on the bike and made a turn where I could not make it.. the cop stopped me.. saw I was foreigner (and I acted like I could not speak Thai) and let me go. The wife came a bit later with the car did the same thing got stopped and fined. (were holding a spot check there for that offence).

So sometimes it works against you to be a foreigner and sometimes for you.. live with it.

But guess you call this racial just like you call in the news everything political. While the solution is just don't break the rules. I sometimes get fined and like you I hate going to the police station ect. But I have never been ticketed for an imaginary offence. That was what I would see as profiling or unfair.

Agree. So sick of farangs crying the race card all the freakin time. When I go by a police checkpoint, all I see are Thais being pulled over. And you're right, I've never been pulled over for no reason. Every time I've gotten stopped, it was for something that I did wrong. If I was to tell a cop in the USA why others aren't being pulled over for speeding, they'll simply say "YOU were speeding"....end of story. I can't stand crybabies like the OP.

[salty14]

I had Black friends like that in the UK, always bleating on about the cops only stopped them because they where Black, how about when they stopped me, was it because I was white ?

Loads of Thais get stopped for motoring offences everyday, in fact if you go on a Highway up country you're less likely to get stopped for a spot check and have your car searched simply because you're a Farang, The Thais have a much tougher time with the cops, we get away with a lot.

We actually do get away with a lot.

Everytime I get stopped i smile at the copper and rabbit out in my broadest Geordie accent some nice pleasntries. Most of these roadside cops can not speak even basic English, let alone understand broad Geordie, they always just look at me and wave me through.

Touch wood, so far I have never even been asked to show my license.... They just can not be bothered to deal with someone they can not communicate with.

My advice is to NEVER speak Thai to them..... not even sawatdee kap. My wife told me that and she has been absolutely correct thus far.

Rustbucket- Absolute classic I can just imagine the dumbfounded look on the coppers face when you break out the Geordie accent.. I need to work on that!! I think either Geordie or Glaswegian would work a treat!

My bird told me the same thing about never speaking Thai to them and it definitely works.. And 9 out of 10 times the cops ask me if I speak Thai.. I just smile and look stupid...

[JLCrab]

I like the one from above Every time I get stopped ... I do as much as I can early in the morning. When the Thais ask me why are you up and out so early, I tell them: The Police are still asleep.

[cretan]

you say you had to pick up your licence from the station, just curious why they take your licence.

I do feel it would be annoying to be the only one stopped when numerous others did it, pretty sure that was the obvious point you were making that somehow go missed by many.

Edited June 2, 2015 by cretan

[mogandave]

you say you had to pick up your licence from the station, just curious why they take your licence.

I do feel it would be annoying to be the only one stopped when numerous others did it, pretty sure that was the obvious point you were making that somehow go missed by many.

The cops want money and stop people breaking the law that look like suckers that have money.

They don't stop people that look like they don't have any money, because they just want money.

If people get indignant and don't give them money, they take their license and force the mark to go to the station where they charge about four to ten times what the mark could have just given the cop.

It really has nothing to do with race, it has to do with money.

[cretan]

I believe there is a degree of racism in all people towards some race wether they admit it or not.

[mogandave]

I believe there is a degree of racism in all people towards some race wether they admit it or not.

If it is your position that different races often view the race they are a part of as generally superior (or inferior) to other races than I would agree.

If it is your position that those same people all discriminate against other races in an effort to deprive them of equal rights and protection under the law I would disagree.

[BudRight]

I believe there is a degree of racism in all people towards some race wether they admit it or not.

If it is your position that different races often view the race they are a part of as generally superior (or inferior) to other races than I would agree.

If it is your position that those same people all discriminate against other races in an effort to deprive them of equal rights and protection under the law I would disagree.

It's interesting that you and I have opposite opinions; I don't think people generally regard their own race as superior, but they discriminate anyway by choosing to associate with people similar to themselves (and by logical necessity shunning dissimilar people). The phenomenon is called homophily, and it is an emergent property of any network (social, computational, chemical, etc) where the nodes are dissimilar in type. The information exchanged between similar nodes is always greater than dissimilar ones even when accounting for the distance between nodes. If allowed to move, nodes will break connections to travel to regions where there are other similar nodes.

It is an explanation for functional specialization within the human brain, and with some imagination, even this very forum where the posters are by and large,

1. Old

2. White

3. Male

4. Living in Thailand

5. Married to Thai women

6. Not especially poor.

So anyway I think I've made my point.

Edited June 2, 2015 by BudRight

[mogandave]

I believe there is a degree of racism in all people towards some race wether they admit it or not.

If it is your position that different races often view the race they are a part of as generally superior (or inferior) to other races than I would agree.

If it is your position that those same people all discriminate against other races in an effort to deprive them of equal rights and protection under the law I would disagree.

It's interesting that you and I have opposite opinions; I don't think people generally regard their own race as superior, but they discriminate anyway by choosing to associate with people similar to themselves (and by logical necessity shunning dissimilar people). The phenomenon is called homophily, and it is an emergent property of any network (social, computational, chemical, etc) where the nodes are dissimilar in type. The information exchanged between similar nodes is always greater than dissimilar ones even when accounting for the distance between nodes. If allowed to move, nodes will break connections to travel to regions where there are other similar nodes.

It is an explanation for functional specialization within the human brain, and with some imagination, even this very forum where the posters are by and large,

1. Old

2. White

3. Male

4. Living in Thailand

5. Married to Thai women

6. Not especially poor.

So anyway I think I've made my point.

Well, you've stated it anyway.

[cretan]

racism is spawned from ignorance and knowing little to nothing of those people that they claim they are racist against.

Generally a few issues or problems with 1 or 2 people of the same race will have people claiming they dislike that race and they are all the same.

All people are Individuals, races have cultural similarities however people are different enough to warrant an individual judgement based on character and not race.

[NanLaew]

Racism my a r s e.

If the OP hadn't decided to follow the herd, he wouldn't have been ticketed. The only thing vaguely related to race of any sort is the silly bugger doing what the locals did and choosing to make the illegal turn. That's not racism, that's peer pressure.... or Thainess.

So is a traffic plod on a bike nailing your honky a r s e.

[Stan42]

I swear this is a true story.

Today I was walking down suk went I dumped my cigarette into the gutter (which I always do because it kind of makes sense, you're not creating a fire hazard by throwing a lit cigarette in a bin, and I'm not cluttering the sidewalk, it goes directly into the sewers) a few seconds later I was stopped by two cops on a bike. I was actually glad, because I finally got to test out my theory.

Cop 1

I put on a grumpy face, pretend I'm farang who "no speak good English". I immediately understood that he wanted 3'000thb. In broken English I told him I didn't understand what he was saying and gestured to talk to his buddy.

They switch places

Cop 2:

I put on an innocent, retarded face. Spoke to him in 100% clear Thai. He was surprised and asked me some questions and I answered them. Yes I'm Thai, yes I was born here, yes I grew up here (which was a lie but who cares), then I pretended to nervously fiddled around my wallet making sure that he saw that I actually had two 1'000thb bank notes on me, then got out and showed him my Thai ID card.

He apologized for the inconvenience and let me off with a warning.

Here's the proof:

I pretended to walk away really slowly as I eavesdropped on them. Cop 2 said to cop 1, and I quote:

"Nong khao penn khon Thai"