Facebookers Face 8 Years in Jail for Criticizing Thai Cops

[dhream]

the whole point of social media was for the public in general to be able to express a point of view without fear of intimidation,i guess it did n't work out.Governments dont like being criticised and clampdowns will get worse as security is deemed to get worse.

Welcome to 1984.

While I agree with your Orwellian concerns, I'm pretty sure social media was created to keep across each others banal lives, not as a tool for freedom of speech. You're thinking of the mostly misunderstood logic behind the now shuttered and always 'dark net' Silk Road. Principally it was about individual sovereignty. What better way to express that, rightly or wrongly, than to sell highly illegal substances freely, and complete with customer reviews, and escrow protection. One of the brightest young minds this century has seen now rots behind the supermax bars of one of the worst police states in the world. Edited November 24, 2015 by dhream

[MMF]

Now I can see what you mean. (I'm referring to Thai Visa warning me) Thanks, appreciated. In future no mention of anyone or any names!

Now, for the point above, well well well, there you have it. In the end, I suppose there is a different way to run a country in each of the nations of the world? We know what's going on here (talking to the people that have been here for a wile) so, either take it as it is and, keep your nose clean or, leave.

I'm from Italy, I've been living here permanently for 4.5 years but before that I was coming and going for around 3 years.

I left Italy on February 1970 and arrived in London on the 4th, after a wile i started to complain about several things that I found wrong there, inc the weather, of course. It wasn't till an English frind open my mind and gently said...but Maurizio, why don't you go back to Rome?

Enough said....

All the best

[raybal5]

Some people just don’t understand our work, and I guess we cannot make everyone understand our work.”

That's a classic.

Col. Sompong Thip-aphakul, head of the Krabi Police Station. We do understand what your work is supposed to be. We just don't understand why you seem to fail at actually doing it. To then start threatening to jail people who highlight your shortcomings is not only immoral, it is probably illegal, even in Thailand.

[soalbundy]

"Peerasuth said he called officers at Krabi Police Station about the incident, but no one picked up the phone, so he took the woman to the hospital on his own. Even after the woman was admitted at the hospital, no officer showed up to assist her, he wrote.

“So, these are police that serve the people? If the victim was your own relative, what would you think? This kind of thing happens almost every day, but don’t you dickheads think about fixing it at all?” he wrote in a post set to be publically viewable.

Sompong said Peerasuth’s account of events was false, because the man in fact never alerted his station to the incident.

“He said he was angry that he called us and we didn’t respond to the scene. But actually, he was calling 191. He never called us. And maybe the 191 people didn’t pick up the phone, that’s why he got angry,” Sompong said."

Teaching a moral lesson?

Yeah, right, that's what's happening here.

Then what is the point of having 191 if no one is going to answer?

It's a zebra crossing thing.

[soalbundy]

In that case i wont critisise them, that'll learn em

[reptile91602]

We better be careful on here too,if they ever get to read some

of what is said about them on here,there could be a few arrests,

they are very sensitive,8 years is more than you would get for

murder !.

regards Worgeordie

It's coming!

[toybits]

I just want to know if my understanding is correct. Police are public servants. They are paid through taxes paid by the citizens of this country. In effect, they are employees of the tax-paying citizens. As Employers, don't tax-paying citizens have the right to demand good service? NO? Oh! Okey....

[johnmcc6]

It's a simple rule for us. Don't mess with the locals. If anyone thinks it's so bad here it may be time to leave?

[SOTIRIOS]

...a blameless perfect society......???

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

A sad commentary on how things have gone from worse to worse here.

And, the descent seems to be accelerating rather than moderating.

The road to "democracy" seems to have taken a serious wrong turn, and instead ended up lost in China or North Korea.

[Josh88]

Well, let's just hope thai police doesn't start browsing english forums...

You think they are not monitoring this already

Well they're certainly doing a poor job of it if they are. Half the members of this forum would be in jail by now if this topic is an example of an offense necessitating arrest.

[Khun Paul]

Being ex-police myself, if I complained about what people said of me, I would be spending almost every day in court suing people. It goes with the job, many people do not like what you do and many complain, sometimes the complaint is justified sometimes not.

being a police officer you learn to have thick skin water off a ducks back sort of thing, I know how the police are supposed to work, unfortunately here they seem to work differently , sometimes not at all.

Complaining about being criticised is a childish game , they should just get on with the job and make sure it is done properly and if as in this case part of the ageny did not work properly as is alluded by the chappie in charge , then he should make sure it does. Not prosecute the Public for failings in the RTP setup.

[dhream]

Thailand have very strict laws regarding to what you can write about others on the internet, and the laws is not new.

6 years ago, one falang wrote not nice things about another falang on Facebook. The falang who had bad things written about him took the matter to the police.

The Facebook post was not in Thai and had to be translate so the police could understand. The falang who wrote on face book had to pay a big fine or face jail.

You can talk a lot about "freedom of speech".

But you have to ask yourself, is it fair that somebody can talk bad and about you or your business. Yes you can say if it is true, but there is many lies out there.

You see many examples of how a business write false reviews about a competitor on reviews site like trustpilot .com. I have worked with internet reputation management, and a real cash cow for me was to get false reviews and lies removed for my costumers.

So maybe Thailand have better rules than you will find in many other countries. One of the black arts in internet marketing is called deception management. It is very easy to spread lies on the internet and make people believe them.

So i think Thai rules are fair. If somebody write a lie about you and your company it is not cheap to get the lies removed from the internet. And many times a lie about you can be on a site you do not know, so you have virtually no chance to defend yourself.

In other countries the law allows 'test cases' that are used to create 'fairer' laws, jury systems, which means trial by ones own peers, and strict rules of evidence. Meaning the police version of this account would be inadmissible in court as hearsay. Also, if the police need the courts to defend their fragile reputation. the big question nobody is asking is Why?

This is why, until you understand these UNIVERSAL principles, there will be no rule of law, just rule by decree.

[Tchooptip]

Attempts to reports a violent crime, police ignore it. He complains on social media, and now gets sentenced to prison.......don't worry people the resident thaivisa sexpats will be along soon to tell everyone how great thailand is compared to those police state western countries where everything is banned.

Don't worry some ThaiVisa members preferred no to read the whole article.

1) The first incident relates to a video posted Nov. 12 by Sukanya in which she vented anger and lashed out at a cop who told her not to park in a restricted area. The video went beyond complaining about the officer, and in it Sukanya accused him of planting drug on innocent motorists, Sompong said.

Peerasuth said he called officers at Krabi Police Station about the incident, but no one picked up the phone, so he took the woman to the hospital on his own. Even after the woman was admitted at the hospital, no officer showed up to assist her, he wrote.

“So, these are police that serve the people? If the victim was your own relative, what would you think? This kind of thing happens almost every day, but don’t you dickheads think about fixing it at all?” he wrote in a post set to be publically viewable.

Sompong said Peerasuth’s account of events was false, because the man in fact never alerted his station to the incident.

He said he was angry that he called us and we didn’t respond to the scene. But actually, he was calling 191. He never called us.

[dhream]

no we are ok on here guys, it said FACEBOOK, not THAIVISA, we are coming next lol !! and next there will be a wall built between north and south

You can say what you like, if where you say it is not hosted on Thai soil. Just google John Oliver + Thailand. It's hilarious, but like most funny things, sadly true.

[dhream]

Attempts to reports a violent crime, police ignore it. He complains on social media, and now gets sentenced to prison.......don't worry people the resident thaivisa sexpats will be along soon to tell everyone how great thailand is compared to those police state western countries where everything is banned.

Don't worry some ThaiVisa members preferred no to read the whole article.

1) The first incident relates to a video posted Nov. 12 by Sukanya in which she vented anger and lashed out at a cop who told her not to park in a restricted area. The video went beyond complaining about the officer, and in it Sukanya accused him of planting drug on innocent motorists, Sompong said.

Peerasuth said he called officers at Krabi Police Station about the incident, but no one picked up the phone, so he took the woman to the hospital on his own. Even after the woman was admitted at the hospital, no officer showed up to assist her, he wrote.

So, these are police that serve the people? If the victim was your own relative, what would you think? This kind of thing happens almost every day, but dont you dickheads think about fixing it at all? he wrote in a post set to be publically viewable.

Sompong said Peerasuths account of events was false, because the man in fact never alerted his station to the incident.

He said he was angry that he called us and we didnt respond to the scene. But actually, he was calling 191. He never called us.

and where are the phone Records? They love to show pictures of arrested people, guns, drugs, where are the PDF of the phone Records? Same with that other story about the museum. Where are the Accounts for all to see? Just some guy saying it's all OK. 555.

[SunsetT]

if the service isn't good enough then expect to be criticised, it's all part of feedback and continued improvements

and if you think you are beyond criticism be careful about the can of worms you are about to open, it will come back and bite you hard

If this woman broke the law then prosecute her for the offence she committed and move on, this libel accusation is pure nonsense and any reasonable court will see it that way

"...any reasonable court will see it that way."

Well, herein lies the problem for the accused.

'Reason' in Thailand................

[TigerandDog]

if the service isn't good enough then expect to be criticised, it's all part of feedback and continued improvements

and if you think you are beyond criticism be careful about the can of worms you are about to open, it will come back and bite you hard

If this woman broke the law then prosecute her for the offence she committed and move on, this libel accusation is pure nonsense and any reasonable court will see it that way

"...any reasonable court will see it that way."

Well, herein lies the problem for the accused.

I guess that will depend of the definition of defamation that Thai law uses. I've just looked up the Oxford dictionary definition and defamation is saying something FALSE (verbal or written) about somebody that damages their reputation. From what I can see the Thai legal definition ignores the most important word, viz. false. So even if the statements made by the defendants are TRUE, under the Thai definition it is still defamation because it damages reputations.

[Benmart]

They discredit themselves. No need for this reader to saý more.

[oneday]

"...We are not being vengeful. We are just doing our duty..."

Really? Seems like this is exactly what they are doing...being vengeful.

[mikebell]

Well, let's just hope thai police doesn't start browsing english forums...

Using Thai police & English is a classic oxymoron. Their English vocabulary starts & ends with 'money'.

[realenglish1]

If anything this should be a civil case not criminal These are not Thai criminals in any sense of the world

[crusty]

Vengeful, spiteful, trivial, immature, predictable and typical.

"And while we will penalise you for exposing the truth, allow me to confirm that all of our police force that wear the wings and parachute badge insignia on their left breast have all passed the parachute test by jumping out of planes" Yeah right !

[MikeOwen]

Be careful what you say on Thai Visa , it could mean a stay in the monkey house !

[catinthehat]

Some people just dont understand our work, and I guess we cannot make everyone understand our work.

That's a classic.

We are not being vengeful. We are just doing our duty.

Some people just dont understand our work, and I guess we cannot make everyone understand our work.

Once again: out of the mouths of babes. Children in uniforms.

How about REALLY DOING THEIR DUTY. Instead of living the high life off of all of their extortion.

I once tried to engage the police to file a report of not being paid by a client.

In addition I had proof that this client was laundering money through their "NGO".

At the police station the first thing they asked was for a 30,000 THB downpayment to start on the report.

Further they wanted to set up a payment plan for me to continue to make further installment payments at certain milestones.

[Langsuan Man]

Unfortunately truth is no defense on the charge of defamation in this country

[tomacht8]

"Peerasuth said he called officers at Krabi Police Station about the incident, but no one picked up the phone, so he took the woman to the hospital on his own. Even after the woman was admitted at the hospital, no officer showed up to assist her, he wrote.

“So, these are police that serve the people? If the victim was your own relative, what would you think? This kind of thing happens almost every day, but don’t you dickheads think about fixing it at all?” he wrote in a post set to be publically viewable.

Sompong said Peerasuth’s account of events was false, because the man in fact never alerted his station to the incident.

“He said he was angry that he called us and we didn’t respond to the scene. But actually, he was calling 191. He never called us. And maybe the 191 people didn’t pick up the phone, that’s why he got angry,” Sompong said."

Teaching a moral lesson?

Yeah, right, that's what's happening here.

Then what is the point of having 191 if no one is going to answer?

It's a zebra crossing thing.

What's wrong with the 191 national emergency number?

Was this only an isolated case, that no one took the emergeny phone call?

Or happens this frequently?

Normally, the central emergency number should be manned 24 hours.

[Broeno]

Thailand and North Korea. Brother and sister.

[dhream]

This is Thailand plain and simple,don't like it nobody's asking you to stay, and if you can't leave well then just sit back and have a fanta preferably Orange

Fanta, invented in Nazi Germany, what a great way to toast the departure of democracy. Chokdee!

[kennypowers]

"The land of the free, they said..."

Bringing up kids here is a no no.