police target falangs

[nevets]

I have been driving in Thailand for 5 yrs, and have a car and motor cycle ,both have only small marks put there by me and i have a cross of st George to the front and rear. As for being stopped , only long enough to Wha and say sawaddi krap , chuk dee krap and on my way.

[sargeant]

9 years and been done once for no crash helmet guilty as charged ma lud as for police targetting falangs never heard such crap

[Winkie]

7.5 years, and have been stopped and paid many times.

However, have driven more than 250,000 Thai Kilometres in that time, so it doesn't surprise me much.

Sarge, I don't think that the MIB specifically target farangs, that involves effort and planning. I think its more passive than that. simply taking advantage of situations when they arise.

Winkie

[sargeant]

I wont argue with that winkie the police in my street say to me farangs (my idiom) pain in the arse to much problem thai peops know the score and pay the going rate
The word target means aim which as you say implys policy/planning which some farangs actually believe in there paranoia about the MIB
and that is pure BS
I agree they will as will all take advantage of a situation

[redzonerocker]

me & my friend drove for 3 weeks from bkk to ubon, udon, phitsanulok, chang rai, chang mai,kanchanaburi back to bkk then hua hin.
we encountered numerous police road blocks & were stopped about 5 times.
usually a polite nod & a smile was enough to get waved through & on the times we were stopped, not once were we asked for any documents never mind money. only where we had come from & where we were heading. they were all polite in an official kind of way.
maybe in hua hin they do have purges but no different to any european country i have driven in. in france they hardly give you time to get off the ferry before they're writing the ticket.
the uk is no better, practically every street corner has a speed cam on it these days & it will cost you a lot more than a 100 baht fine too!!!

[Winkie]

Hey Redzone

I think you may have missed the point.

Speed Camera etc... this is no problem, your were doing something wrong, you pay the price.

Now... I too pay the price in Thailand, but seldom commit the crime, unless it is THB200 for 'Driving on a Tuesday' or THB100 for 'Going through Red Traffic lights, when clearly no traffic lights (of any colour) are presnet on the said stretch of road.

Recently I was stopped on Sukhumvit, after actually doing something wrong (I made a junction turn only permitted to buses.

No problems, I offered 200, he accepted. Then when he spoke to my Indoenesian Wife, realising she was not Thai he promptly gave me back the 200 and demanded 500.

Like a fool I paid it!

We should not knock legal processes such as the ones you mentioned in France and UK.

We should (and the Thais certainly should) be critical of voluntary donations to Police Social Fund.

Winkie

[redzonerocker]

point taken winkie,
i agree with what you say. nothing worse than being crimilised without committing a crime, whatever the circumstances.
here are a few examples about driving abroad & fines incurred that i have experienced.
germany; parking tickets on several occasions (illegally parked i agree) but so were german cars yet they received no ticket.
france / usa; speeding fines (guilty again) yet on the stretch that we were zapped, we were overtaken by numerous french/american drivers.
hungary; crime unknown, but fined anyway (probably cos of language barrier)
n africa; to many to list, just paid the fines.
the point i'm trying to make is i was just an easy target like most farang drivers in thai are.what would happen if you refused to pay the fine? & would it be worth the hassle?
i totally agree with you, its wrong but it will continue to happen, just because they can do it.

[nevets]

RZR. to use your words , a friend had his bank card cloned by his wife, when asked why she said " because i can ".

[redzonerocker]

nevets, now thats a whole new ball game!but thats been going in in the uk for quite a while now. an east european speciality i believe.
in one of my other posts i suggested that young people aren't interested in manual work these days. this type of crime, card fraud along with drugs & general thieving are the main reasons why. its easy money with minimum effort.
until the punishments are increased it will continue, because not only can they do it but they also get away with it.

[H2ODunc]

Last time in HH as I approached the big junction to either go ahead to the station or left to tescos a MIB waved me down. Now I have several bikes and have ridden all over Thailand, I had a helmet on and my lights on. I produced my license and he checked the rest of the paperwork I produced to him. With each piece of documentation I gave him he was getting more flustered. In the end he said exhaust too loud 200 baht. The ONLY place I have ever had money EXTORTED from me is HH. Just payed up and went on my way. TIT after all

[bozzman101]

bought an old honda shadow enjoying my first day out and about
the mib were stopping just past tesco at the school
as i had just got the bike an hour ago was getting the treatment exahust too loud from ajunior mib 1000 bath for over 80 descibles he kept quoteing i kept quoteing go to bike shop where i got bike 1 hour ago
eventually 3 striped guy came ove to take some interest in what was going on as i kept refusing to pay anyhhing
so 3 stripes got on the back of the bike and off to the bike shop where all was sorted out then he asked me for alift back to the station so i dropped him off no fine given but took 2 days to fix exhaust to a quiter purr

[H2ODunc]

Bozzman 101 I just find it easier to pay up the cash than spend time argueing about a few hundred baht. I joined the local bike club here in Chumphon and the local police chief is a member. Hes told me to phone him and pass the phone over to MIB if I ever need to and if getting serious hassle would. Its nice to have a get out of jail free card to use in emergency

[SuperTonic]

Targetting falangs? Utter crap. More like a few falangs with chips on their shoulders. I've not given the police an excuse to pull me over and the end result is I've not been pulled over, while Thais have been pulled over in front of me. If you act the prat, no helmet, driving like a loon, and in some cases pissed as a fart, you'll get pulled. Just don't whine about it.

[H2ODunc]

I thought that disney land had not arrived in HH. Supertonic seems to already live there. As for giving them an excuse??? Only place I've ever been screwed is HH. Certainly no chip and no reason for them to stop me, my friend who is the chief of poice here says exhaust is OK and that the ticket the MIB gave me says I was riding withut a helmet and I had no numberplate on bike? Maybe the poice chief has got it wrong then?

[Winkie]

Have to say, I think you're not facing reality square on also SuperTonic.

Perhaps you don't drive/ride so much. Its the numbers game, the more you travel around, the more you'll increase your chances.

I've driven well over 300,000kms in Thailand and I've been stopped for both genuine minor infractions (in a small number of cases) and pure fantasy crimes such as going though red traffic lights, on roads with no traffic lights! This has happened to me in many parts of Thailand, including Hua Hin.

I'd agree though that they don't 'specifically' target farangs, as often they have you in their sights before they can see your skin colour, I think they simply target opportunities to get the most beer money. Once they see you're farang, they simply know that it'll be party time that evening!

As others have posted, it makes life much simpler to pay up and be on your way.

I guess I do carry a small chip on my shoulder, as I guess most would when constantly making voluntary donations to the Police Drinking fund, but it doesn't stand the way of anything, and certainly cannot be noticed, other than to type the odd bit of truth when such topics are brought the front as in this thread. Other than that, I get on, pay up, and don't dwell on it. It certainly doesn't mean anything to me apart from minor annoyance, and to make me realise that you should avoid any form of contact with the MIB if at all possible.