This pic was mentioned before by DJ - I think taken in Angeles City?
Nice one. As always folks - feel free to send in your content. Email on the about page.
So can someone who knows more than me explain what is up with the police on Sukhumvit Soi 22? Back in my mohawk days I was used to getting pulled over about twice a week. No matter what street I was on. So far with the dreads I have hardly been accosted - except for by the ladies.
Anyway so a few nights back in the early evening I was walking down Suk 22 from Suk on my way to New Cowboy. Wanted to try the burgers. About 5 mins away from walking in 2 cops pulled up on a motorcycle and decided to do the proverbial once over.
Where was I coming from?
What was I doing?
What was my plan?
I was like dudes is it a problem if I walk down the street to find some food? They patted me all over and let me go. Sometimes I think they just want to pat Farang men down but that will have to be discussed later.
Then this morning I am on my way to Cafe 22 to try some breakfast. This time I was walking from the other side of Suk 22 and I heard a motorcycle again and sure enough - stopped again. Different set of guys but same agenda. This episode took longer since they wanted to go through my backpack and search my pockets more thoroughly. Less patting down this time so I was relieved. I guess the dread and tattoo combo gets them salivating for the kill.
I understand they may just be doing their job but the Thais are terrible profilers so not sure what they are thinking that they will find. Drugs? That is always my thought but of course there may be other things. However I am sure the goal is not to enforce the law but to create a situation in which they might be able to pry away some of my baht to donate to some greater cause. Maddening.
Is this a Soi 22 thing?
Soi 22 is where a whole bunch of drug dealers live. The cops prefer searching their clients (endless revenue stream) to busting them.
View all comments by TAFKABBB
Multiple reports on multiple blogs of police patdowns on Sukhumvit between 18 and 22. Also a couple of reports of cash missing after a police search of wallet, backpack, etc. One cop keeps your attention with the questions while the other extracts the brown fun tickets.
View all comments by KamnanT
In the spirit of the post……
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11058580
View all comments by The Asian Badger
I used to live on soi22 for about 6months last year, and not once did I get stopped, although that was last year so things can change
Or maybe they thought I looked a bit gay and would enjoy the frisking? Who knows. Its probably the 1 time it works in my favour
View all comments by Young Penfold
k - just wondering why that area in particular? It must not really be related to the area but to the cops who work there?
ab - nice article. just shows u too that each person in charge is more worried about using the corruption to their advantage than they are about fixing it. The new goverment included.
yp - they so wanted a piece of your ass but were just too shy to ask how much.
View all comments by smitty
I had to move from 22 because I got so fed up with the police searches.
View all comments by Young Royal
Soi 22 = Soi Yabaa btw
View all comments by Young Royal
Smitty maybe its because my lycra jumpsuit doesnt have any pockets to hide anything
View all comments by Young Penfold
I lived on Soi 22 for 15 months, walked everywhere and NEVER had a problem. Since I’m aging, overweight and mean looking I imagine I didn’t qualify for either the drug dealer profile or the gay touch up.
BTW: that avatar is giving me bad dreams.
View all comments by werewolf
sorry… that’s young penfold’s avatar
View all comments by werewolf
It might scare you but thats actually me in the avatar, Just check the tatt on the right arm
I know what your thinking. Im a stud. Your right.
View all comments by Young Penfold
I’ve been a Washington Square regular since late 1994, and while I rarely have reason to walk along Soi 22, at least very far, I’ve never had the problem. I used to work in law enforcement and security many years ago in Texas, so have some familiarity with profiling (though no formal training), but I reckon there’s nothing about my appearance or behavior to set off any alarm bells in the local cops’ minds. Except for the fact I wear a hat and always lug a shoulder book bag around with me, there’s really nothing about me to attract attention from much of anyone, never mind the cops.
I have lived near the Rama IV Road end of Soi 22 for nearly two years now — well, a couple blocks down a sub-soi in a mostly Thai condo compound, and have seen the police only twice, once when there was a fender-bender right outside my compound, the other time when one of our neighborhood cops both I and my neighbor (a Thai lady) know dropped by her place then walked over to mine, just to say hi and to introduce us to a new cop just assigned to the Thonglor Station.
Several others have commented about the police knowing full well there is considerable drug trade around Soi 22, and that’s absolutely correct. So, whatever the cops real motive is — whether to genuinely enforce the law or to shake someone down — their antennae get all a-quiver when they hit the soi.
Something about the Soi 22 drug trade some may not realize is just how many of the local lasses are involved, on the user end, to varying degrees. A number of times I’ve been down right electrified to learn that some BG I’ve known a fair time has been busted for possession. This is especially true when the gal is one who would drink alcohol only if a customer absolutely insisted, and, sometimes, didn’t even smoke cigarettes. (So much for profiling, I guess!)
I am friends with a couple Thai police, one a colonel whose home is in Bang Na but who for the last several years has been assigned down in the south, so he’s not around here; the other is a senior sergeant major at Immigration on Soi Suan Phlu, and while he is a regular at a couple bars in Washington Square, just about the last thing he wants to do is get dragged into any sort of law enforcement when all he’s wanting to do is drink his beer and chat with his Thai and foreign friends. (He’s generally well-accepted in the Square.)
I will say that based on scores of anecdotes I’ve heard over the years from people who have been stopped and searched, if you have nothing to hide and cooperate politely, the cops almost certainly — but not 100% for sure — will let you go, unmolested and your baht intact.
Just as a side curiosity, do you know that Thai cops are absolutely loathe to haul in a foreigner who is exhibiting bizarre behavior, indicating a mental disorder? But they have a damned good reason: if they make an emergency arrest because some guy has gone berserk and is a danger even to himself, the *courts* almost never back them, and their superiors, when the courts chastise the cops for arresting the guy in the first place, wash their hands of the “offending” officers and leave them twisting slowly in the wind. I’ve been dragged into several such cases simply because I’m a well-known fixture in the area and a number of times the BG’s/mamasans/owners have called me in — but about as many times our two regular neighborhood guys, whom I don’t know *well* but have known for years, have asked someone to give me a bell to come to such-and-such a location to try to help sort stuff out with a drunk or mental patient (and I do know two of the latter — great guys, until they stop taking their medication). One and all realize I have no authority, of course, and certainly no stroke with even my own embassy, never mind others, but for the cops, at least, I provide some sort of cover (in their minds anyway) as they try to deal with a most unhappy situation without joining their brethren twisting in the wind.
Wish I had read this yesterday — bumped into our two neighborhood guys just last night, and had I known about this post, I would have asked them. They’ve always been straight with me, and I imagine they would come clean with me about anything in particular that’s going on. Never know when I’ll bump into them, but next time I do, I’ll try to poke around a bit.
View all comments by Mekhong Kurt
mk - thanks for the comment. I agree with you but let’s agree for the moment that they are practicing profiling and they are really bad at it. For sure they want to bust people because that will put money in their pockets. Any story I have heard about people getting nailed on soi 22 did NOT include a trip to the police station. That can only mean one thing.
On to the profiling though. They stop me all the time. I have nothing on me. I never do. They assume the way I look means I am a user or a seller. What is funny though is the people I know who might use or for sure those who I have met who might sell - look real normal. So the type of profiling being done by these guys is not working very well.
I will admit they never do anything to me or try for anything cause I did not do anything. So not saying they are crooked but for sure they are on the take.
View all comments by smitty