Police under investigation in central Thailand after viral video
Police have transferred 2 officers to inactive posts in Thailand’s central province of Nakhon Pathom following a viral video of the officers kicking and stomping on 2 young men. A fact-finding investigation of the 2 officers is now underway.
The video first shows the officers pulling over on the side of a road in their truck, as 3 young men on a motorbike drive toward them. After the police and the young men meet up, the officers order the group onto the ground. When the men sit down, the officers then order them to take off their shirts. The police are then seen speaking to the young men before they restrain and handcuff one of them.
An officer starts kicking and stomping on the handcuffed man. While pointing a gun at them, the officers then handcuff the other two men, and an officer later steps on another mans head. He also whips one of them with a belt.
The popular Facebook page Yak Dang Diew Jadhai Return Part 2 wrote in the post that the 3 teens had asked for help from the police after their ‘rivals’ were chasing them, planning to attack. The page says the teens saw the police and tried to explain what happened, but the police didn’t listen, and instead made them get on the ground. The officers saw that one young man had a gun, according to the page.
The young men were later taken to Sam Phran station for questioning, and were charged with illegally possessing a weapon and carrying it in public without permission. One of the 2 officers under investigation has reportedly said he felt sorry for the incident and had to admit that he did not take good care of his subordinates, causing damage to the teenagers and the image of the police force.
Both officers have now been moved to the Nakhon Pathom police operations centre, and Police Major General Chamchawin said investigators would question them, and the young men. He said that if their actions exceeded the scope of their duties, charges would be filed against them.
This is not the first time Thai police have been caught abusing their power. Perhaps the country’s most infamous case in recent years has been the ‘Joe Ferrari‘ scandal, when 7 former police officers suffocated a drug suspect to death with a plastic bag.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
