Police hunt thugs who brutally attacked British family in Hua Hin

[catman20]

look at the video 1m 14seconds the old farang man swings the first punch at a Thai man that is being held by people if you ask me they got what they deserved.

[catman20]

There has been much discussion of who started it and whether this can happen anywhere. I believe we are looking at an incident in 2 parts. The first part is the altercation between 2 Thais and the British family which probably could happen anywhere given the right circumstances. The second part is the horrific, seemingly unprovoked kick in the face of the mother. I doubt something of this viciousness would happen in many places and seems to me symptomatic of something really frightening. It looks very much like a hate crime as was mentioned previously and I am deeply concerned of where this might lead should what passes for law and order here really does collapse as some fear.

you need to look at the video again 1m 14 sec

[chiang mai]

i dont know about you guys, but i found the few troll-thai apologists(soi biker bonkers, chiang mai, thaiduncack) as disgusting than the thai scums.

For God's sake, an ederly woman, age unknow, was kicked in the head and in the teeth, but you still have these stray dogs who will defend anything thai.(some of them have posted more than a dozen messages on this thread)

Nobody Mr Bender is attempting to defend the actions of those Thais and everyone agrees the beating was disproportionate, it's a measure of your poor reading and./or comprehension skills if you think differently. But what a few people, including myself have tried to do here is to account for why the altercation happened in the first place, to that end we've looked at the video several times and concluded that it started with a bump between two people that the foreigner should have acknowledged but didn't. The problem was later compounded by two of the foreigners hitting two Thai men in public and making them lose face, the rest is history as they say but the reasons I've outlined is why the problem happens in the first place.

Some people may say that bump between the two men was nothing, the sort of bodily contact that takes place every day in the streets of London or New York and they would of course be correct. Sadly however Thailand is neither of those places and bodily contact between strangers hence they are not correct in reference to Thailand. In the main, bodily contact by stranagers is frowned on, mostly it's avoided unless an apology or acknowledgement follows, think manners! That contact is about invading another persons space, it's part of the reason why Thai's will often cut across right in front of you when a Westerner might have waited a moment and gone behind you. Many will think that's a small deal and whilst once again it was disproportionate to the beating that followed, it is not a small deal, it's a cultural difference that visitors need to understand and judging from these two threads, very few people do.

So that was the issue that started the ball rolling, it escalated from there when the foreign woman hit the Thai male and her son punched another man. Some may say it was just a slap, nothing to speak of, she's an old lady and they would again be right. Except in Thailand and in other Asian countries a foreigner cannot just slap a local man, especially a drunken one and in public and expect nothing bad would happen, whatever was going through their heads that made them think differently on that point can only be down to alcohol I would guess. Face and loss of face is massively important here and it doesn't matter who or what the offender is, trouble will almost certainly follow.

There, we've explained it all to you, now you don't have to feel bad that you didn't understand what was going on and resort to calling people names.

Good job explaining exactly how toxic this aspect of "face" is. You've made it clear you think Thais are justified in kicking people unconscious and putting them in an ICU because they lost face.

Obviously the two drunks agree with you because they didn't run away, they weren't arrested for their actions, and they didn't apologise to the elderly people they brutalised.

Oh, wait......

"Good job explaining exactly how toxic this aspect of "face" is. You've made it clear you think Thais are justified in kicking people unconscious and putting them in an ICU because they lost face".

I've explained some aspects of Thai culture to you, in the context of that video, I make no claims about right or wrong other than to say the beating were totally unwarranted. How you choose to read between the lines is your prerogative, if the above post is an example of your skills in that area, don't give up your day job.

[newatthis]

look at the video 1m 14seconds the old farang man swings the first punch at a Thai man that is being held by people if you ask me they got what they deserved.

Yes, the tourists were out of line, BUT no one deserves what happened from 1:41 onwards.

[Howitzer]

[DavisH]

But don't worry! The Police Chief has vowed to track down those who released the video clip and have tarnished Thailand's reputation!!!

[phuketandsee]

To my mind the last few seconds are the really troubling part. Up to then it is the family and the 2 original Thais and there is no question the Brits unnecessarily and very unwisely escalated the situation. But where did those other thugs come from? Looks like pure opportunistic, violent hatred to me and totally unjustified by what had gone before.

How much of this violence and hatred is lurking just below the surface all around us? We should all be very careful out there.

[phuketandsee]

From CBS News in the US:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/thailand-gang-attacks-uk-family-video/

Check out the comments. I wonder if TAT reads these things. They should be very worried. But what are the chances of that?

[soalbundy]

I live in the countryside and know mostly very courteous Thais,very friendly and kind, there is of course always the odd one who is a nasty piece of work but you get that everywhere. This senseless violence seems to me to be prevalent in tourist areas, perhaps jealousy,perhaps cultural misunderstanding, i don't know. The violence shown on the video was horrific and cant be excused whether they were drunk or not,when drunk the inner man comes out.

[nemrut]

From CBS News in the US:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/thailand-gang-attacks-uk-family-video/

Check out the comments. I wonder if TAT reads these things. They should be very worried. But what are the chances of that?

It's interesting how the article mentions no details leading up to the attack and portrays the Brit family as entirely innocent.

The Telegraph did the same here going so far as editing out the initial push by Brit son of Thai man:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/28/shocking-video-emerges-of-british-family-being-brutally-attacked/

Neither article mentions the assault by the Brit mom which exacerbated the situation nor the Brit son holding the Thai man so dad could punch him around 1:15.

As mentioned by others, the Brit family is not innocent by any means - son forcefully pushing someone out of the way, then restraining man to be assaulted, mother slaps another.

What kind of people behave this way as visitors in a foreign country? It really speaks to a level of arrogance, entitlement, and sadly, disdain many farang have for non-whites. Would this British family have been as bold in the UK?

Imagine if the family were Thai or Asian behaving similarly in the US/UK/AUS. My guess is that the outcome would have been much worse, especially if the family were black and the attackers were white.

[willfreeman]

there was also the foreigner hacked to death by a thai cab driver in bangkok just a few years back, a friend said now they are trying to track down who leaked the cctv footage of the hua hin incident of course if that hadnt been leaked it would have been swept under the rug like most other violence towards foreigners

[alanrchase]

there was also the foreigner hacked to death by a thai cab driver in bangkok just a few years back, a friend said now they are trying to track down who leaked the cctv footage of the hua hin incident of course if that hadnt been leaked it would have been swept under the rug like most other violence towards foreigners

Did the report not say the police released the video to help identify the attackers?

[stander]

From CBS News in the US:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/thailand-gang-attacks-uk-family-video/

Check out the comments. I wonder if TAT reads these things. They should be very worried. But what are the chances of that?

It's interesting how the article mentions no details leading up to the attack and portrays the Brit family as entirely innocent.

The Telegraph did the same here going so far as editing out the initial push by Brit son of Thai man:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/28/shocking-video-emerges-of-british-family-being-brutally-attacked/

Neither article mentions the assault by the Brit mom which exacerbated the situation nor the Brit son holding the Thai man so dad could punch him around 1:15.

As mentioned by others, the Brit family is not innocent by any means - son forcefully pushing someone out of the way, then restraining man to be assaulted, mother slaps another.

What kind of people behave this way as visitors in a foreign country? It really speaks to a level of arrogance, entitlement, and sadly, disdain many farang have for non-whites. Would this British family have been as bold in the UK?

Imagine if the family were Thai or Asian behaving similarly in the US/UK/AUS. My guess is that the outcome would have been much worse, especially if the family were black and the attackers were white.

'It's interesting how the article mentions no details leading up to the attack and portrays the Brit family as entirely innocent.'

This is exactly how the Thai bashers on here want the incident to be portrayed

[luckyman]

Most likely they will get fined only 250 Baht each, since the ladyboys who knocked out a tourist in Pattaya were fined 500 Baht each, but they used a stone as weapon. The thugs in the video used "just" fists and feet...

How about a serious crackdown on foreigners who dare to walk around in Thailand? Perhaps hunt all foreigners in Thailand down for loitering? That would be a good start, no?

Most likely not, actually.

This happened in Hua Hin, the King's residence and not in Pattaya!

In Hua Hin different rules apply, and you can take my word that these thugs will be severely punished and after the photo shoot almost surely already took a serious beating by the cops.

Trust me, I know some of the police very well and any crime against foreigners is treated very differently in Hua Hin compared to Samui, Phuket and Pattaya for example.

Even more so now since the Army took over the country...

Sorry about the scepticism, but I would have to see this to believe this, especially as they are from "powerful" families in HH.

Next time in the area, buy a few beers in the London Bar and ask the owner or his wife about that little incident when a few guys came visit asking for protection money. Ask them what happened to them, this was about 1 year ago. In fact most other bar owners might be able to tell you as well as it is quite a story.

They (the police)certainly are very serious about safety as its their livelihood, all bars pay 'commision' to the police every month.

These thugs now have been messing with the local economy by damaging its reputation, the cops donot take that lightly, believe me.

(Or you can also pm me for further details as I rather not post the story here in an open forum.)

And that is in Hua Hin and in Cha-am even more....

[CharlieH]

The people concerned have been arrested. Please continue in the other threads now running.

CLOSED

[Jonathan Fairfield]

LATEST: Leaking Hua Hin attack footage "damaged the country" say authorities

Please continue the discussion there.

Thanks