Is Pattaya more violent?

It seems that not a day goes by we don't hear of yet another murder or mugging or drive by motorbike something or other. I have been coming to Pattaya quite regularly over that last 10 years or so and honestly don't remember so much reporting of incidents like these. I read the Pattaya Mail on line and this board regularly to get my updates. Any cause for concern when I visit again in June?

It seems that not a day goes by we don't hear of yet another murder or mugging or drive by motorbike something or other. I have been coming to Pattaya quite regularly over that last 10 years or so and honestly don't remember so much reporting of incidents like these. I read the Pattaya Mail on line and this board regularly to get my updates. Any cause for concern when I visit again in June?
Yes, I think so.
Avoid being too drunk in public, avoid walking alone on beach road at night, avoid walking on Jomtien beach at night, avoid walking on 3rd road very late at night, avoid Soi Buakow area.
Don't walk around with anything you can't afford to lose.
Don't take more than one friend home, and for extra safety, avoid freelancers, or take them to a short time hotel and don't have anything on you you can't lose.
I think it is getting worse.
I wonder what it will take for the police to effectively crackdown, a big decrease in tourism?

[American Teacher-old]

I agree with everything Thaiquila said. You must exert a degree of caution for sure. I am not sure if it is "more violent," or we are just hearing about it more now. Certainly, the local papers such as Pattaya Mail, Pattaya People and the like have been growing (and becoming more and more sensational). This may add to the problem. Let's be sure about one thing -- Pattaya is no stranger to crime, that is nothing new.

Bottom line: you should feel perfectly safe here if you are smart. If you are out late, pay the extra 50 baht for a motorbike taxi to take you door to door. But, wear your helmet -- some of those guys can be crazy too! <smile>

Really though, it's no different than traveling to New York City, London or any other major mecca.

Best of luck,
Chris

I have just arrived home from Thailand and was in Pattaya for 3 nights. On the second night there was a rubbery in the reception of Flamingo Hotel where I stayed. It should have been in the morning. I slept quiet. One from the reception was hurt from a knife, but not seriously. The police caught them. I did not hear it from the staff, but from someone "outside", who had heard about it. Don't know if is correct. Well I did not feel unsafe, even going from Sunee to the hotel in the night. But be aware. Don't behave like an easy victim.

" On the second night there was a rubbery in the reception of Flamingo Hotel "

[Doug]

A Rubbery is speciality shop where you go to buy condoms. Pattaya must have a mobile store.

A Rubbery is speciality shop where you go to buy condoms. Pattaya must have a mobile store.

Okay, okay :bounce:

[wowpow]

"Briton found suffocated in Pataya

Pataya, Chon Buri A Briton was found dead Friday afternoon, 12th May, with a plastic bag over his head and his wrists were locked to his ankles, police said Pol Lt Col Omsin Sukkankha of Pataya police station said John Rabet Nicholas, a Briton, was found dead at a house in Chon Buri's Bang Lamung district at 1:30 pm.

Omsin said the man left what appeared to be a suicide note. He said police believed the man cover his head with a plastic bag before locking his wrists to his ankles with handcuffs.His body has been sent to the Police Forensic Medicine Institute for an autopsy."

The Nation - breaking news

[Up2U]

""Briton found suffocated in Pataya".....here's the Pattaya City News story. I can understand why he did what he did.

http://www.pattayacitynews.net/news_12_05_49.htm

As a regular visitor over more than 10 years, it does concern me about some of the personal danger crime stories I read nowadays.

But the question comes to mind:

Is there more crime now?
Or
Am I better informed about crime now, due for example to the internet?

My suspicion is that the answer is yes for both questions.

But I still feel that Pattaya is fairly safe overall.

A Rubbery is speciality shop where you go to buy condoms. Pattaya must have a mobile store.

Okay, okay :bounce:

All I want is a room somewhere,
far away from the cold night air.
With one enormous chair;
Oh wouldn't it be rubbery?

curtesy Lerner & Loewe :geek:

To those who think its not unsafe or more violent in Pattaya, I can not agree with you.
The reporting is the same as years ago so thats not the reason.
Not all victims are intoxicated or wandering in bad areas.
Pattaya is known to most Thais as a borderline lawless town. Just not enough cops to cover the area. So the crime inclined come here.
Per capita it seems here its more violent than say N.Y. or London etc. I don't have figures but it SEEMS like it. Long time resident

[bucknaway]

I will come to Pattaya... but I will be armed with the knowledge of prior crimes most related to the small community of streets, bars, and hotels I tend to travel.

I do like to take chances and walk on the wild side sometimes but I think I may have to be a bit more cautious or just tone down my happy-go-lucky way of life while on the mean-smiling streets of Pattaya :3some:

I think it is interesting to look at what editors consider to be 'news'. Here in Pattaya I tend to get a glimpse of cable news from Pattaya Mail, BBC World and a smidgen of Fox and CNN.

Pattaya Mail, from what I have seen, seems to concentrate a lot on petty thefts, muggings, drownings, suicides and murders and does not take a back seat when it comes to showing pictures of dead bodies prone on the street next to a motorbike, hanging from a tree, washed up on a beach or lay on a blood covered bed. The only other news seems to be what meetings the mayor or other officials have undertaken, some international news and a host of what used to be called the 'and finally' items - normally cute and cuddly stories involving cats rescued from trees or dogs walking for hundreds of miles to find their owners.

If you watched Fox News you would think that all that was happening in the US was husbands killing wives, female school teachers having sex with their underage male students, pedo's online chatting up young girls, pretty blondes going missing and miilions of illegals swamping the country. With CNN you would get all this plus a whole lot of speculation about how a trial will take place and how guilty an arrested person is before the trial even takes place. Added to that with CNN, you get a whole lot of hypocrisy, I may have been mistaken the other day but I am sure I saw one news anchor shaking his head after an item about the paparrazi and saying 'can you imagine having the paparrazi chasing you 24 hours every day? Well, you don't have to imagine because we are joing one paparrazi for an amazing car chase as we go "Chasing Angelina". I switched over!

The other thing about US news is that it is increbibly US-centric, something which could not be said about the Brit's BBC World. At least for now BBC World covers the world news with a detachment that is admirable and for the most part unbiased, with only the odd slip of hysteria now and again.

So, I believe, where you are and what news you watch or read has a greater influence on what you believe is happening in the world and in your area than the actual 'crimes' taking place. Crime may or may not have increased, but the reporting of what is considered news surely has changed to evermore titilating, salacious and lazy news coverage.

[catawampuscat]

I think the biggest and most talked about crime in Pattaya/Jomtien recently was the farang who took home two boys from Jomtien Beach..
The security camera showed them entering with the soon to be deceased farang and later the two boys leaving..It was all over the newspapers
and the English language TV for a week..Since many farangs knew the two boys at least by sight, it really shook up the gay community...

I have been told that most violent crime is Thai to Thai and althou it is generally very peaceful in this Buddhist land, alcohol and yaba can
sometimes fuel violent behavior.. I am surprised that there is not a lot more crime especially when I see drunken farangs wearing gold necklaces
stumbling in the streets..I did hear about a mugging last year, in the market opposite Wat Chai late at nite..It is quite vast and dark and some use it as a
shortcut but I do not tempt fate and walk around it..It is probably safe 99% of the time but use your brains when out alone and it is late at nite...

I have sat in a bar here before and had Thais shooting at each other, then the police came and shoot at them and no one was hit.

It sounds as though someone needs to take some shooting lessons :cheers:

At least for now BBC World covers the world news with a detachment that is admirable and for the most part unbiased, with only the odd slip of hysteria now and again.

I don't buy that at all. Since the Kelly/Gilliagan affair, I perceive a subtle spin in reporting of Blair and New Labour, not the impartiality I'd expect.

Yesterday, a story I have been involved in was portrayed as the main story. well it's been going on for months so why is it the main story on SFA/FA cup day or quiet Saturday? At 7AM the figures they were using were out by a factor of three but did that stop Bill Turnball from calling it a generous offer. Not till 9AM was the misrepresentation corrected.

Also, yesterday, the glorious triumph in the SFA cup of the Heart of Midlothian FC was never represented as such. All we got was Gretna, Gretna, Gretna when we got anything at all. Hardly any reporting because West Ham were playing Liverpool in some other game and when there was repoting from Hampden it was completely focussed on Gretna who lost!

[Gaypattayan]

It is also being reported far more vigorously. The Pattaya People newspaper and television channel now has a crew on duty to go to the scene of any reported incident in a car with red lights (no siren) so they can be present and take video for tv and photos for newspaper of any titillating circumstance. With both TV and newspaper, and their ability to state that they can report virtually everything without fear, they are competing vigorously against the other newer newspapers which were making a killing with all their lurid photos and stories about virtually everything - - even getting photos in the emergency rooms of the hospitals. No privacy anywhere from the "newsmen" now.

I think there has been an escalation in crime, and particularly in violent crime, as young men find they can get away with so much more, at so little risk.

It certainly is necessary to be more cautious in Pattaya than was necessary 12 years ago, or even six years ago ... and probably more than just last year. But it is still safer in Pattaya than in Los Angeles, or almost any other major city in the US. I don't know how dangerous other cities in other countries are, but the degree of viciousness in crime in the Pattaya area is still far below that one can experience in US cities.

There is an increasing need to be cautious, exercise good judgment, and to avoid walking the streets in the Pattaya area alone when you are drunk (or appear to be drunk), or displaying obvious wealth, especially in the form of gold jewelry. But with proper caution, there appears to be relatively little risk of serious crime in Pattaya even now. Reasonable care makes for a reasonable degree of safety, in my opinion, even now, and even for me, a very elderly man.

G.P.

..for it was there that he was once called a "fat bald c**t"..but Melbourne was known for many years as the muder capital of the world.

they are usually Drug or Lover related or stupid guys wandering around with jewelry asking to be robbed, the odd robbery of the reception of a hotel who only have one member of staff are opportune robberies

This is called blaming the victim. Crimes are perpetrated by criminals, not caused by victims. Criminals should be punished even if they are hunky looking Thai guys high on yaba who love their mom.