Useless Police

At some point back I wrote a post complaining about how I watched an astoundingly useless attempt by police not wearing body armour to arrest an amphetamine criminal in a car at traffic lights. Having approached with no weapon drawn, while halfway into the car the officer attempting the arrest was shot and later died, and the criminal fled.

My suggestion was that when police are trying to arrest someone selling a drug which some 2,000-3,000 people were extra-judicially executed for involvement with 5 years back and which at the best of times carries heavy jail time, and that drug is one which reportedly makes people go nuts and one can assume the criminal is using his merchandise, and one is in a country where firearms are widely available... they should TAKE CAUTION.

The nice explanation given on the news after this incident where army officers wearing body armour approached a vehicle with weapons drawn obviously hasn't filtered down. Today on the 19:40 news the  police had found a shop that was apparently being used for amphetamine distribution with a hostile criminal inside (though I didn't catch all of the info on that). With the crowd standing a safe 2 metres back, an armed policeman not wearing body armour approached the metal elevator-style grill of the shop and started trying to kick it open (Thai people are usually stronger than metal so I don't know why it didn't work in this case, which may just be an exceptional mishap). Doing this exposed himself the criminal who promptly shot him.

People like to have a good moan about how corrupt and useless the Thai police are, but look at the system they work in. Low wages, poor equipment budgets, (lethally) poor training, silly hats, and most importantly a deeply entrenched culture of financial corruption and lack of accountability and transparency that goes to the very top. This environment is undoubtedly going to attract people who are not aiming to be bastions of justice, and it's going to let them get away with it. This is at the expense of the average person and society and the nation as a whole.

I've always generally been a pro-police person (being anti-police in the UK seems an untenable position to me) but apart from discovering that large amounts of some sort of garlic mixed with chicken makes me vomit and that I actually like being sober, living in Thailand has made me appreciate the British police much more. They're not perfect and there is massive room for improvement, but they're a damn sight better than what you get elsewhere!

I won't be updating this blog any more - go to The Penang Blog to see my new and exciting Malaysia blog!