Random Foreigners Being attacked by gangs

[BadaBing]

I]To me, a hood is just another name for a gang[/b] and gangs are one of the most violent groups in the US. If you were part of a gang, and doing what gang members do, I would expect a lot of violence would come your way.

 

Which country club have you been sheltered in all your life dude ? " Hood " is short for " neighborhood " , ever lived in one ? If SD was in a " gang " his compatriots would be referred to as " homie's " or " home's " , oh yeah , if you ever hear someone say they are " crashing at the crib " that don't mean they are doing a swan dive into a baby basket , it means they are sleeping at their home that night.

 

Hope that helps you understand the lingo somewhere between street talk and ebonics....

 

Bada from da hood Bing

[BadaBing]

Just because i'm bored , did a wikipedia on hood and came up with these two gems....

 

An African-American street slang term for 'neighborhood'.

Clitoral hood, the outer layer of skin surrounding the clitoris

 

Bada Bing

 

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

All,

 

A 'hood' is merely slang for a 'neighborhood', usually a less than safe area in the ghettos of the USA. It does not mean SD belonged to a 'gang'. Although he may have lived in a less than desirable neighborhood at one time I doubt he was a gangbanger. :smirk:

 

As for this whole argument about the safety of living or playing and visiting the LOS it boils down to what your experiences have been and what you have seen. Many have never had a violent episode in the LOS nor seen much if any violence. This slants their bias towards Thailand being particularly safe, especially if they HAVE had a bad experience in their home country or seen bad shit in their home country. To them it FEELS and LOOKS to be very safe. Problems back home vs no problems here = "I think the LOS is a safe place."

 

Now you take a guy like BangkokTraveler who has been assaulted here in Bangkok and of course HE is going to see Thailand as a dangerous place. For him it HAS been dangerous and he has been the victim of violence. So of course he sees that Thailand CAN BE a dangerous and unsafe place for a farang to live or play. It is all about experiences and perceptions.

 

If you know a few guys who have had bad experiences here you will be more likely to think that Thailand is unsafe, especially if you yourself has been in some trouble here. If you and your buddies have not had problems here you will tend to believe that Thailand is a fairly safe place.

 

I myself have seen bad shit happen here, not a lot, but some. I know it IS POSSIBLE to have a problem here. I also have had very FEW problems here in Thailand myself. So in my case I know that the possibility lies here in the LOS for bad shit to happen, but I also realize that I have had far less troubles here in the LOS hanging around in BAAAAAAAD places than I have had in the West hanging around in BAAAAAAADDD places, and with BAAAAD people. So to me Thailand is a fairly safe place as long as you keep your wits about you, use some street smarts and common fucking sense (Shut yer face and avoid trouble, don't fight when you can easily walk away, don't flash cash around, don't walk alone late at night in dark areas shitfaced and wearing your 5 baht fucking gold chain, don't take skanks and freelancers off beach road in Patters and other likely to be trouble lasses on drugs and desperate types, etc---It ain't brain surgery.)

 

As for BT's assertion that hanging in these bad areas is not too bright if you want to avoid trouble, well, yes, if you want to ensure you have no likelyhood of having trouble certainly do avoid these nasty places and nasty people doing nasty things. Or, at least know that you are not in a place with Hi So's and non-violent citizens who would rarely resort to violence if things go a bit wrong for you or you do something stupid, silly, or culturally incorrect. Yes, some of the people involved in these areas and this sex scene are not the nicest people in Thailand and definitely may not cut you a break when you act foolishly or flash your wealth. They just might take a given opportunity to relieve you of your wealth, or take offense and resort to violent behavior. It's a given that this could be a possibility. BUT, let me say, with a bit of common sense I'll take this place and the scene here over ANY fucking other place I have ever been around these same sorts of denizens in the west! Using a bit of brain-power and sense here and being cautious and smart and polite here and you will be very much less likely to have any problems than say, ah, Jamaica, or the Bahamas, or London, or Paris, or New York, or LA, or any other big city or sex scene nightlife area at night time any where in the world in my own humble opinion and from my own experiences.

 

I'll take my chances here and with my own intelligence and common sense. I see little to worry about. But then, as BT experienced, random violent crime is just that ... random, and even taking every precaution there is still a chance things can go to shit for you.

 

Stay alert, and use your head and trust your instincts.

 

Cent

[..]

Yup, 'hood is just short for neighborhood. Easier to write when I am too lazy to type. That's it. Gangbanger? Nope, I spent my youth just trying to stay away from those deadend clowns. Too busy studying, playing football, working, chasing skirt, and playing with cars to care about that shit.

 

My experiences were just relating reality in lower middle class neighborhoods in the States (actually, two of the stolen cars and attempted rape happened in upper class neighborhood in Las Vegas) versus middle class neighborhoods (see, I spell it out just for you ) in various Asian cities, tho' heavily slanted towards Bangkok as I have spent a total of 12 years of the 20 here.

 

Cent: "It ain't brain surgery." Well, bro', to a lot of guys, it seems that it is.

 

Regards,

SD

[Guest lazyphil]

No doubt my mrs in her 'hood' in Bangkok heard of and wittnessed a zillion more criminal/violent activities than my 'hood' (council estate).....I think poor Thais are likely to be subjected to more violence than their equals in the west. As far as us farangs in LOS are concerned its pretty safe, I've never had a single problem in LOS, but my mrs assures me some areas in bkk (shes a bkk girl and knows what shes talking about) are very dangerous, her brother attended don muang tech school and has a few tales to tell of here, most farangs cant spot the bad areas from the good because it all looks the same, when i've been on holiday in america its quite easy to notice when you've taken a wrong turn into a dodgy hood, me and a friend got lost from philadelphia airport trying to find our friends home in swarthmore and ended up in a hood (burned out cars, graffiti, empty houses, broken windows etc etc), two home boys pulled up ......and gave us directions to our destination

[shotover2]

FOW is a good guy and is one of the only fellows I got to know a bit.Hes still around BKK for sure he just swore off Naaaana P.(said it was like another addiction) :smirk:

 

If you read the thread regarding 'Por Teck Tung' (the Thai rescue organization) on Thaivisa.com, I think you will see that Fly is feeding his addiction under another boardname. If DNA science could be applied to writing styles, this would be an exact match.

 

[jitagawn]

"most farangs cant spot the bad areas from the good because it all looks the same,"

 

You know Phil that this is the same problem most guys have with the girls.. :smirk:

It all looks the same...

 

At this point this is a rather silly debate and both of the :smirk: leading protagonists are just yak yak yakking, It all in ones experience.

 

SD Ugh I can see where you are coming from here with all of that karma in the states -bummer/Home invasion?ugh.. sounds horrible but I am most happy your daughters situaion in the tuk tuk turned out all right...as a one who has a daughter that wodul be brutal

[Gadfly]

I think poor Thais are likely to be subjected to more violence than their equals in the west. As far as us farangs in LOS are concerned its pretty safe, I've never had a single problem in LOS, but my mrs assures me some areas in bkk (shes a bkk girl and knows what shes talking about) are very dangerous, her brother attended don muang tech school and has a few tales to tell of here, most farangs cant spot the bad areas from the good because it all looks the same,

This is really the point. No one, at least not me, is claiming that Thailand is Somilia or even Jamica. And when someone makes this sort of comparison (Thailand vs Jamica), the expression 'damning with faint praise' comes to mind.

 

There is an interesting history to this debate.

 

If you go back a bit in another thread, about an English teacher who ended up in ICU over an argument in one of Sukhumvitâ??s outdoor bars, you will see this statement: â??Thailand is by any metric less dangerous and violent than my home country.â?Â

 

You will see this claim made with absolute moral certainty to support the argument that Thailand is much safer than the US: â??Thailand is by any metric less dangerous and violent than my home country.â?Â

 

That really summed it all up. And then I provided a metric which proved otherwise:

This is demonstrably untrue. Even using official Thai rates, the murder rate in Thailand is 36% higher than the U.S. (You are presumably comparing Thailand to the US (or is it the UK where we will get even lower rates?)) The latest statistics available for homicide and violent crime rates I could find in Thailand are for the year 2000 (Thai Police Stats) when there were 5135 reported homicides. In that year the population of Thailand was about 62,000,000 (Thailand in Figures published by Alpha Research Co., Ltd.). This works out to about 8.3 murders per 100,000 people.

 

By contrast, in the year 2000, the murder rate in the U.S. was 6.1 per 100,000 (US Dept of Justice Stats A homicide rate of 8.3 per 100,000 in Thailand makes its homicide rate 36% higher than the U.S. rate. I think that is a pretty clear metric where Thailand is more dangerous.

 

These statistics donâ??t come through in the quote (which you find @ 26-07-05 06:37 AM - Post#421310 ), so I will provide them here in case anyone wants to check. The Thai stats are here Thai Statistics on Violence and the US stats are here US Statistics on Violence. I have see some here argue that I haven't provided any references to back up my point, so I guess I need to re-post this stuff.

 

I also explained why Thailandâ??s statistics systematically underreport violence. No one ever rebutted these statistics or disputed that Thailand does systematically underreport violence.

 

Now, let's go back for a second to the battered Farang English teacher thread because it reveals a great deal about what is being said now. The post concerned an English teacher who ended up in critical condition because a bottle of whiskey (may or may not) have been accidentally knocked over; no one really knows, but no one disputes it was an accident. But Suadum said, and again I am quoting his words, â??I would side with Thaiâ? even without knowing any of the facts. Another member (not me) summed up Suadumâ??s position as follows: â??So basically you are saying when a bar bill is disputed, deadly force is the appropriate and justified way for the bar to settle it.â?Â

 

Figjam said:

And here lies the whole question. I do not need to know the bar owner's reasons nor the customer's to state that smashing someone's skull and sending him in ICU with internal bleedings in response to whatever non physically violent disagreement is in any case totally, absolutely, completely, entirely unacceptable anywhere but in a ruthless rabid dogs' society.

 

This is history, but it is useful to keep these earlier comments in mind when reading the current posts. It shows where â?? for better or worse - we are coming from. And it gives you something against which to measure the statements you now see in this thread.

 

Now in the interest of compromise, I will readily agree that Thailand is pretty safe if you don't go out at night, stay away from bars that foreigners frequent, you don't engage in p4p, and stay away from that small out-of-the-way section of Pattaya "west of Sukhumvit". Since this apparantly describes the behaviour of the members of this new board, there really is nothing to discuss, is there :smirk:

 

[gummigut]

Suadum: Personal experiences aside, I think you are way off the mark.

 

Maybe it is safer for farang's per se, but violence by and large is much greater over here.

 

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[trooper]

A bit offtopic but I'm just interested what are the most dangerous neighborhoods in Bangkok? I have heard that the slums of Klong Toey are not for the white people but never been there so haven't seen it.