A ‘Phu Yai Barn’ or village headman in Phayao province, just south of Chiang Rai, got into a row with other local officials last night, allegedly ending in a shootout, seriously injuring a local official at a checkpoint.

Last night at 8pm local police were informed of the shooting incident at Ban Na Nun Community Checkpoint Village No 2. They went to investigate the crime scene and found 56 year old Winai Wongyai, the local headman of Moo 2, surrendering himself to police.

The victim was identified as 52 year old Phrom Chumyen who was taken to a hospital by his relatives before the police arrived. His current condition is not known.

Winai reportedly confessed that he and Phrom, along with 8 other local officials, were tasked to look after the Ban Na Num community checkpoint following the state of emergency decree. Phrom, who is a member of the Subdistrict Administration Organisation, reportedly started taking photos of the checkpoint to show everyone that the headman was incompetent in his job.

This escalated quickly to a furious argument between the two. Winai got extremely angry and pulled out his 9mm CZ compact handgun and allegedly shot him 8 times in the side of his body.

29 year old Weerakorn Chumyen, son of Phrom who witnessed the incident, said that after Winai shot his father, he aimed the gun at him and told police he had to run quickly to save his own life.

52 year old Peng Chumyen, another witness, says that the two had a long aggressive argument.

Major General Thammasak Pinthong, from Pha Phor subdistrict police, Phayao Province is now investigating the incident personally.

Just yesterday another shooting incident involving a village headman took place in Surat Thani. Read about that HERE.

SOURCE: The Nation

Following up from yesterday’s report there has been no action taken to remove a Facebook page advocating violence against “shit tourists” stranded in Phuket. ‘Spotlight Thailand’, usually a ‘whistleblower’ for local corruption and fuelled by the admin’s political views, has nearly 600,000 followers.

Now this week’s posts are going viral, spreading a disturbing message from local Phuket vigilantes that is likely do irreparable harm to the holiday island’s reputation as a safe place to visit in the future. The posts advocate violence against tourists, the ones still stuck on the island, who have been venturing out during curfews or not wearing face masks, and asks followers to take matters into their hands. The thrust of the campaign is that the tourists are ‘partying’ whilst the local Thais suffer.

The posts, perhaps intended as a bad joke, incites local Thais, disgruntled with losing their jobs and being cooped up during curfew hours, to take matters into their own hands and use a slingshot and rocks to ‘pick off’ tourists if seen outdoors.

The disturbing posts, shared and liked thousands of times, started on Monday. The Facebook page posted photos of ‘farang’ tourists driving around or visiting Phuket locations in a ‘shame file’, and calling the page’s followers to shoot them with slingshots.

Followers responded with photos, armed and ready with their own slingshots. There was also, mostly, overwhelming support in the comments under the posts, for the direct citizen action. The general theme of the comments is that ‘white’ or ‘farang’ tourists are responsible for bringing the Covid-19 scourge to Thailand and, therefore, responsible for the economic pain and hardships they are enduring.

This makes me pity myself and my eight employees. We’ve been indoors since March 18, none of us going outside except to get supplies for the 9 of us at Makro. We run a massage shop at Patong, Meanwhile the tourists are having fun.”

Complaints have been made about the page’s posts to local consulates, the Phuket Governor, and copies of the posts sent to police and government officials in Bangkok. The Thaiger has received hundreds of messages from concerned local expats and worried tourists who have ended up stranded on the island.

One local hotelier called The Thaiger and said that the few tourists they have left at their resort (who were resident before the order to close Phuket’s hotels) said they were “very worried” and were astonished that the locals would want to fire rocks at them.

A consular official contacted us and confirmed they had made representations to Phuket’s Governor about the posts.

The localised outrage and suspicion against ‘farang’ (caucasian westerners) comes weeks after Thailand’s Health Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, was captured on video threatening to kick out “damn farangs” for not wearing facemasks (when offered to them at a PR event at the Siam BTS station in Bangkok).

He later described Western tourists as “dirty”, asserting that they “never showered” on Twitter. The tweets were deleted but not before they had been shared thousands of times and reported in media around the world.

Thailand, like every other country at the moment, is on ‘pause’ as it battles the Covid-19 gremlins but, at some stage, will re-open and want to welcome back tourists. Tourism accounts for up to 17% of Thailand’s GDP. In places like Pattaya and Phuket, it’s almost the sole driver of the local economies.

These posts, and the simmering anti-foreigner tone, calling on public outbursts of vigilantism will do little to help attract the tourists back to places like Phuket that survive on tourist patronage, and their dollars.

The Thaiger has reached out to the person behind the posts (we’ve interviewed him in the past) but have not yet had a response to our requests for comment.

Montri demanded that the officers take him to prison while he prepared all the stuff he would need while imprisoned which including a cutting board he uses to separate the seeds and stems from his marijuana (aka. ‘essential items’).

After he was all packed, he sat down in his pick up truck to enjoy some well deserved munchies. Baffled by the boldness, officers complied with his request but it was when officers took him to the police station that reality set in for Montri and he went berserk and had to be contained.

Afterwards, the police found that the alcohol level in his blood exceeded the legal limit and he was formally arrested and his wish was granted.

SOURCE: The Nation