Big Trouble in Thailand

[Big Boy]

Maybe the American/British fleet should take shore leave elsewhere???

British fleet What century are you living in? What few ships we do have left are tied up alongside because there's no fuel.

[STEVE G]

That law about tarnishing the reputation of Thailand is a bit crazy. Does that mean that the BBC are breaking the law every time they show a coup, or a PAD sit-in at the airport, or a demonstration at an Asean conference?

[Guess]

Episode 2 on youtube

Any chance of a torrent? The one I've found keeps giving me tracker problems and I can't use Youtube on this bagoshite connection.

Can't find a good one Buks, try that UK Nova, it might even have the new series of SHOOTING STARS.

This one
http://www.torrentdownloads.net/torrent ... Episode+2)
detailed earlier is working fine now.

Another is at http://www.torrentreactor.to/torrents/v ... ode_2.html

If you get trouble viewing youtube get a downloader (FLV) and save the file to disk. You can then watch it as is or convert it to AVI. I Think there are some downloaders on Firefox add ins.

[caller]

Well, according to Andrew Drummond, the next episode will reflect ever more poorly on the police:

http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2009/09/ ... cumentary/

[Super Joe]

Well, according to Andrew Drummond, the next episode will reflect ever more poorly on the police

Not so sure if the victims criticisms of the police will be in now Caller? It says 'who were about to be criticised' in episode 3 !?
The producer Gavin Hill also says in another of Drummond's articles on JJ that episode 3 will be boring (not sure he actually used that word) as they have had to cut out scenes that show Thailand in a bad light.

SJ

[Big Boy]

I've just watched the first 2 episodes for the first time - not bad, and it passed away a couple of hours.

After all of my years of visiting Thailand, I wasn't aware of the Tourist Police set up. I have a couple of questions that I'd like answered please:

- How many years have they had volunteers in the Tourist Police?

- Is the Tourist Police purely volunteer, or do they have paid Thais working alongside? I noticed one officer named Noi - was wondering if she was a volunteer as well.

- If these guys are volunteers, how do they live in Thailand?

- Are the Hua Hin Tourist Police farangs?

- Do they need visas?

Sorry for asking so many questions, I'm just amazed that such a volunteer force exists in Thailand.

[caller]

Can't answer your questions BB, but heres a link about 'meeting the cops' from the Bravo website:

http://www.bravo.co.uk/shows/big-troubl ... allery.php

[Big Boy]

Can't answer your questions BB, but heres a link about 'meeting the cops' from the Bravo website:

http://www.bravo.co.uk/shows/big-troubl ... allery.php

Thanks for that caller. I've read their profiles, and I still wonder how they can survive without wages in Thailand.

[caller]

Well, it appears the red-haired one runs a guest house in Samui (on her profile) and I would imagine Howard is pretty well known to those from Pattaya who should be able to answer your question?

[STEVE G]

- Are the Hua Hin Tourist Police farangs?

As far as I'm aware BB, the Hua Hin Tourist Police are a non-volunteer, fully fledged Thai police department.
I think the volunteers are something else and I don't think they have any in Hua Hin, certainly I've never seen any.

[Big Boy]

I've been looking around the web, and found this link which answers some of my questions http://thaitouristpolice.com/main.php

[Super Joe]

After all of my years of visiting Thailand, I wasn't aware of the Tourist Police set up. I have a couple of questions that I'd like answered please:
- How many years have they had volunteers in the Tourist Police?
- Is the Tourist Police purely volunteer, or do they have paid Thais working alongside? I noticed one officer named Noi - was wondering if she was a volunteer as well.
- If these guys are volunteers, how do they live in Thailand?
- Are the Hua Hin Tourist Police farangs?
- Do they need visas?

Sorry for asking so many questions, I'm just amazed that such a volunteer force exists in Thailand.

BB, the controversy/confusion is that they are not volunteer tourist police at all, but volunteer tourist police 'assistants', a gulf of difference. The Tourist Police clearly make reference to the word 'assistant' but it gets dropped in many reports you read, the volunteer part is a bit of a red herring, the assistant part is what's more relevant, here's why .........
Official Tourist Police Department guidelines for the 'assistants':
- Volunteers clearly understands that this program is purely volunteer, no payment in kind or cash for contribution what-so-ever
- Volunteer must pass probabtion period of 3 months to be fully endorsed as a TPD assistant
- Volunteers understand that being a volunteer is to assist the work of a police officer and not act on behalf of a police officer
- Volunteers should not be involved in activities such as arrests, interrogations, investigations or inspections

There are many Thais that are volunteers but only a handful of Farang volunteers in Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket, Samui and Chiang Mai. You only seem to hear about the Pattaya farang group though, maybe that just goes with the territory that is Pattaya??

There's claims they over-step their role, people don't like their black paramilitary-style uniforms c/w batons, handcuffs etc and the way they swagger around Walking Street. They were filmed on YouTube introducing themselves as the 'tourist police', one of them 'allegedly' maced a ladyboy, one ex-member was 'allegedly' using his position to deal and has been caught with 40g of herion. Then others say they do good work and have saved lives, injuries and diffused situations that could have turned bad and generally assist tourists who get into difficulties.

Think their WP's and visa extensions are sorted out for them by the authorities which I guess is fair enough as they are giving up their time unpaid. Remember reading they started in 1994. The leader Howard Miller (2nd left in pic) has a local TV slot, a radio show and runs a website reporting the local crimes, it has many paid sponsors maybe that's where the resentment comes from by Pattaya expats!?



Apologies if any of the above is incorrect, but you can read 101 different versions about them.

SJ

[PeteC]

Here's the story from the Pattaya Mail about the bad apple there. Pete
________________
Norwegian restaurateur arrested on heroin, gun charges

Former foreign tourist police assistant

Boonlua Chatree

A foreign tourist police assistant kicked out of the volunteer group six months ago is facing narcotics and gun charges after being arrested with 40 grams of heroin and a loaded handgun.

Norwegian John Martin Johansen, who also owns the John in Pattaya travel agency and Ingo’s Restaurant on Third Road, was taken into custody by Narcotics Suppression Unit officers Sept. 3 inside the El Paso Steakhouse restaurant in Pattaya.

Police said Johansen claimed he was a foreign police volunteer and tried to use his connections to police officials to wriggle out of the arrest. Officers from the drug unit, which operates semi-independently from the main Pattaya police force, was having none of it and transported the 39-year-old directly to Bangkok for prosecution.

A 10-year Pattaya resident, Johansen is well-known in the European community for both his Carre Four-area travel-and-visa business, his new Scandinavian restaurant and for a number of questionable incidents while serving as a tourist police assistant.

Howard Miller, group leader for the foreign tourist police assistants, was quick to put distance between his association and Johansen, who was expelled from the group based on the results of more thorough background checks earlier this year.

“Over the last 12 months the foreign tourist police assistants have completely overhauled their entrance procedures and conducted detailed investigations into all FTPA, myself included,” Miller said in a statement released by the FTPA. “Unfortunately, with any volunteer organization, regardless of nationality, some will try and join for their own gain and others will use their position as a cover for activities outside of the law.”

“I am pleased that our stricter vetting procedures appear to have worked, as if he was a current member of the FTPA and had been caught, this would have been devastating for our group and its members who tirelessly assist tourists on Walking Street 7 nights a week,” Miller added.

[Super Joe]

Here's the story from the Pattaya Mail about the bad apple there. Pete
________________
Norwegian restaurateur arrested on heroin, gun charges

Norwegian John Martin Johansen, who also owns the 'John in Pattaya' travel agency and Ingo’s Restaurant on Third Road, was taken into custody by Narcotics Suppression Unit officers Sept. 3 inside the El Paso Steakhouse restaurant in Pattaya.

That should be an automatic 5 years added to his sentence.

SJ

[Norseman]

Norwegian John Martin Johansen, who also owns the John in Pattaya travel agency and Ingo’s Restaurant on Third Road, was taken into custody by Narcotics Suppression Unit officers Sept. 3 inside the El Paso Steakhouse restaurant in Pattaya.

He's a well-known figure i Pattaya.

For those of you who can access the cable tv in that area might recognise his advertisement.
At the end of the page choose the "John i Pattaya - Promo".

http://www.johnipattaya.com/en/web-tv