The dark side

[jasmine]

[color:"red"] 50 meters away from me a cop shot a warning shot in the air while running after some gangboy who he then arrested. the boy was part of a group of a dozen just getting into a fight and had a huge machete with him. two kids were caught.

in another part of town, ram intra area, another copper was killed - first he was shot and then beaten with iron bars.

 

[/color]

 

On my brother house lane (Soi), for years, there was a family with 2 grown sons who rode motorcycles with demon speed and sometimes carried weapons like long swords, machetes without fear of anyone. Around their house, people got robbed regularly.

 

2 yrs. ago, both of them were shot by no one knows who. His father was shot by policemen, now the whole Soi has never had a single problem.

 

I feel that the Thai policemen are working harder now than my father's time.

 

Jasmine

[Guest]

In my experience I have found some Thais are not forgiving and will hold a grudge that never ends.

If there is a fight or a misunderstanding between falangs many times there is a forget and move on attitude, even a friendship can evolve. Although maybe this happens in LOS as well, I haven't seen it.

If someone has a beef against you or just plain doesn't like you, IME that never seems to change.

In this regard, and others, I find Thais are rather childish.

They also can change their mood VERY quickly. Especially if you say something that they interpret as criticism.

Maybe that's just the circles I've travelled in.

In general I think they do not know how to assert themselves well, and then explode when they feel they have been crossed or disrespected in some why.

This is not isolated to the BG circuit either, in fact some BGs seem to be more understanding of western ways because they have been around foreigners so much.

[Coss]

Thanks Brink, I'll add that to the list of words My Wi Mee doesn't know I know.

 

Cheers

 

Coss

[Guest]

>>>I feel that the Thai policemen are working harder now than my father's time.<<<

 

 

difficult to say. yesterday there was another cop firing warning shots at some racers just 20 meters away from me after they pushed him from his bike when he wanted to arrest them. the kids didn't give a fuck they just rode off.

what i see is a very worrying spiral of violence developing here. in some way i can't only blame the street coppers - their life gets increasingly dangerous while the kids just get more radical. the kids i can't really blame as well as their life is just very boring.

the present political course of no tolerance puts just too much pressure on all, and permits cops to be far too easy with their guns. i dunno, but there must be another way. over the last years, especially since the beginning of the drugwar i have witnessed things getting increasingly violent.

fortunately the more sophisticated guns are still out of the pricerange those kids could afford.

[pattaya127]

hey, FlyW, as Songkran approaches, it would be nice to have someone like you, near the street beat, to tell us about all the violence during these allegedly fun days. I think tempers flare a lot more than usual, especially as people start their drinking early. i've seen a few thai/thai beatings in pattaya, just because some guy on a bike waved off a bucket, wanting to stay dry.

Do you think that Songkran, every year is degenerating in a seemingly fun event (not for me though), but invites more and more wanton violence?

thanks

[Guest]

songkran is in bangkok mostly unusually quiet. most people either go for holidays, or back to their homevillages.

 

anyhow, lets see... ::

[Guest lazyphil]

Just one point to the question of the violence and running machete battles and Thai men not being cowards etc, does yaba and other drugs play a part giving Dutch Courage??

[Guest]

actually, more of the opposite.

the days there were still lots of cheap pills around, kids were stoned and happy. since the drugwar we have seen a tremendous increase in that sort of violence.

what plays more of a role today in the surge in violence is the lack of pills.

[sabio]

kawtort said:

In my experience I have found some Thais are not forgiving and will hold a grudge that never ends.

If there is a fight or a misunderstanding between falangs many times there is a forget and move on attitude, even a friendship can evolve. Although maybe this happens in LOS as well, I haven't seen it.

If someone has a beef against you or just plain doesn't like you, IME that never seems to change.

.

.

In general I think they do not know how to assert themselves well, and then explode when they feel they have been crossed or disrespected in some way.

You articulated this quite well. Sounds like extreme insecurity.

[sabio]

pattaya127 said:

i've seen a few thai/thai beatings in pattaya, just because some guy on a bike waved off a bucket, wanting to stay dry.

This is a good example of latent violence. Songkran and similar "license to annoy" festivals (like the dreaded foam spray in Rio during carnival) seem to bring out a soft form of violence. Now, to react violently when people refuse to participate shows that fun was only a pretext for violence.