Thai policemen - always on duty or not ?

[Nirish guy]

Just as I was posting on another thread re the gay area in phuket it reminded me of a situation I encountered that in hind sight has made me ask the following question : Thai policemen - are they ALWAYS "on duty" or not?.

What I mean by this is that i believe that British police Constables ARE considered always "on duty" from a legal point of view re their warrant allowing them to make arrests etc even when "off duty" i.e outside of from their normal station working hours ( so if they are out for a night out with their wife and witness a crime they can ( and would be expected ) to intervene and if required attempt to make an arrest etc.

The reason I'm asking if this is also the Thai police officers is after seeing the following while sitting in a beer bar in the Phuket gay street.

So, about 2am and me sitting in an outside seat of a beer bar there and I witnessed a reasonably drunk American girl getting ejected from a bar after causing some form of trouble. Then about 15 minutes later she was then ejected from the club across the Soi after she and her friends had gone there ( apparently for lifting / stealing someone else's drink allegedly).

Meanwhile whilst all this had been going on I noticed two policemen sitting parked up for quite a long time in a pick up truck at the front gates of the Soi. I asked my Thai friend why they were there and he said something like "ohhh they're not working police but just paid by Soi to stay here and be the "police" if needed / to be seen to be there", which I took to mean they were actually moonlighting, being in effect security guards but in their police uniforms but whilst actually "off duty".

Anyway, so the by now very loud and very drunk American girl came falling out of the club, after being physically and forcibly ejected out the doors but the clubs security staff, whilst shouting the odds and doing the usual "get your hands off me, you can't touch me, I'm an American you know, don't you DARE TOUCH me" thing etc.

This went on for a few minutes and the "police" HAD to go over. They then made all the noises about "ok you go home NOW" but she was having none of it and started screaming at them too. One of the policemen then lost his temper and took out his handcuffs and shouted "ok now you go to jail" BUT it was very obvious when watching that they had actually no REAL wish or intention ( or hence my question - legal right ???) to actually arrest her !

I then asked to speak to her ( as I was one of the few farang sitting about at that time and they were very glad to say yes to my offer) and eventually, after 15 minutes of her screaming and yelling I reminded her that "she wasn't in Kansas anymore" so to speak and quietened her down enough to get her to fuck off home. The police man then came up and shook my hand and thanked me.

So, it made me wonder - were they simply moonlighting and hadn't ( and dont have ??) the authority to arrest someone if it's outside their appointed duty hours, or perhaps like all people maybe it was just that at 2am the last thing they wanted was a loud drunk American girl to deal with back at the station ( or perhaps they KNEW they couldn't take her to any station as they were't on duty ??

So, just purely out of interest might anyone have ant idea as to which it might be, i.e " Can a Thai police man arrest you 24/7 and even if he's outside of his station area etc?"

I'm guessing being Thailand the answer is of course yes, especially if there's enough money to be made from it, but I ust wondered about the actual legality of his powers ( just out of interest as I've no intention of putting this legal point to the test any time soon I should add !

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[latintopxxx]

Nirish...u simply couldnt resist a dig at the americans...let me remind u oh ungrateful one that if it wasnt for those loud arrogant entitled uncouth americans that u would at the very best be speaking german...or at the very worst incinerated...

[Nirish guy]

I wasn't having a dig at all, it just so happened that that's where she was from - not my fault if she fitted a certain redneck stereotype I guess - don't shoot the messenger.

[Manforallseasons]

let me remind u oh ungrateful one that if it wasnt for those loud arrogant entitled uncouth americans that u would at the very best be speaking german...or at the very worst incinerated...

The worst tourists that I have encounted are:

Lower class Brits, all Australians, Russians and most currently mainland Chinese!

[arsenal]

All groups of tourists are horrible, all of the time and in all places.

And Latin. A brief look at the history of WW II might re-evaluate your opinion. Assuming you can read. Britain won the Battle of Britain before Pearl Harbour took place.

Getting back to the original topic. I suspect that all Thai policemen are considered on duty if they're in uniform. The easy way to tell is if they're wearing guns. A gun signifies they're real police and not the plastic ones we see (usually blowing a whistle) out and about sometimes.

[Captain Swing]

And Latin. A brief look at the history of WW II might re-evaluate your opinion. Assuming you can read. Britain won the Battle of Britain before Pearl Harbour took place.

Well shit! Why didn't you guys tell us that you didn't need us? What was that Churchill fella nattering on about? All those millions of Kansas farm boys could have stayed home, or better yet headed to the Pacific and grabbed ol' Tojo's nuts in a couple of months instead of resorting to all that "atom bomb" unpleasantness. I think we wuz had.

Actually, I think winning the so-called Battle of Britain ain't exactly the same thing as winning the war.

[arsenal]

Thank you G.I. Joe.

[Captain Swing]

Is that the book that the Richard Lester film "How I Won The War" is based on?

[arsenal]

I don't know.

I do know that after The Battle of Britain, the UK had air supremacy which it never relinquished and was thus, never in genuine danger of being invaded.

So in that respect, Britain didn't actually need to win the war, unlike France, Belgium, The Netherlands and all the other countries under Nazi rule.

I also know that until Pearl Harbour, the Neutrality Act prevented Roosevelt of doing anything meaningful to assist. It is said Churchill danced for joy at the news from Hawaii knowing full well it's repercussions.

[latintopxxx]

arsenal...stop maklng a total fool of yourself....without the yanks ...U (we!!) wiuld have been toast...like really badly burnt toast....
...and btw....in no way am I belittling the British effort....but it really was a last gasp...and just like in the movies...the calvary came charging in just in time...we may dislike trump...or at least the way he delivers his message....but we shouldnt dislike the country that saved the world.