Kasit slams international community

[Wallenda]

 

So have been talks lately with red shirt sympathizers: "we are ready to die for the cause" is something I hear often lately

 

Yea and best not to focus too sharply on what they mean by "the cause"--do that and you quickly find out the causes are different, and even contradictory. Democracy and Thaksin? Would take some courage to ask that question: puncturing a hole in denial often provokes pretty wicked lashing out.

 

They're trained to think this way from the time they learn to speak. Namely that the big leader is who's important and your main value is how well you serve him. Switching to a new leader while one winds down isn't a big stretch, it's to be expected. How can one possibly live with no leader to serve? The very thought must strike terror. As you can see, fear is a fantastic motivator. Far more effective than reason.

[Flashermac]

Have at length, I also lost a family member because he'd pissed off a cop who held a grudge . . . .

 

 

I've known some very nice Thai cops. I've also met a few nasty ones. Apparently, the police have had big problems ever since Phao Sriyanond ran them in the 1950s:

 

 

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Police terror

 

Phao was promoted to the position of director of the police in 1951, by which time he had become one of the country's all-powerful triumvirate. A client of the CIA, Phao received funds and hardware to build his personal fortune, as well as to turn the police into an alternative force to oppose his military rival, Sarit Thanarat.

 

Phao established an intimate circle of police officers, known generally as the "Knights of the Diamond Ring", which was notorious for its treatment of opponents of the government and the police generals - even resorting to assassination and murder. Their crimes were many:

 

- In March 1949, three MPs from Isaan and an associate, all one-time disciples of the exiled Pridi, were arrested on charges of treason. They were shot dead by their police escort while supposedly being transferred from one jail to another.

- On December 12, 1952, Tiang Sirikhanth - MP for Sakon Nakhon, a leading Seri Thai member, and an opponent of the government - was arrested with four of his associates. They were murdered (allegedly by strangulation in a police station) and their bodies burned in a forest in Kanchanaburi Province.

- A successful newspaper publisher, Ari Liwara, refused to sell out to Phao and was killed in March 1953.

- In 1954 Phon Malithong, MP for Samut Sakhon who provided evidence of corruption against Phao in Parliament, was in found tied to a concrete pier in the Chao Phraya River, having first been strangled.

 

 

Phao was extremely wealthy. He demanded protection money from businessmen, rigged the gold exchange, and blackmailed corporations into giving him huge shareholdings. He also profited greatly from the opium trade.

 

Police units transferred opium from the poppy fields of the Golden Triangle to Bangkok, ready to be exported. Trucks, planes, and boats which had been supplied to the police by the CIA, were instead used to move opium, which the police carefully guarded. >>

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phao_Sriyanond

 

 

[Nervous God]

I know a lot of nice cops, I was talking to DC recently about this, I'd rather a Thai cop most times than a thug idiot Aussie cop for most times.

 

Many times I've seen violent events, but the cops remain remarkably restrained, long past the snapping point I've seen in Aus.

 

Recently a drunk hit one bloke and one wifes cars. After a 23 km car chase by locals the cops in Australia would have been going nuts, here they acted calm and kept everyone calm.

 

Of course there are awful examples of really bad Thai cops, far worse than Aussie bad cops I'd suggest too.

 

But the ave cop here - I've found courteous, and useful/

[Flashermac]

A few years ago, a promising young cop in Bangkok stopped a motorist for a minor offence. As the cop was writing a ticket, the driver grabbed the cop's pistol and shot him dead with it. The other policemen immediately drew their pistols, but when the perp dropped the gun and raised his hands ... they did not fire! They arrested the guy, who was charged with murder. I couldn't help thinking how US cops would have shot the SOB to pieces. The dead cop was in his early 20s, had a wife and children, and had been named policeman of the year of his district. He was on the promotion list to sergeant. Frankly, if I'd been a cop I'd have shot the bastard that murdered somebody for nothing ... a few hundred baht fine. It was another "Do you know who my father is?" situation.