When reading the English language news in Thailand we frequently come across stories about foreigners doing really terrible things in public, normally they are foreign men, and normally they are living a life of excess and drunkenness. You don't have to walk around for very long in any of the foreigner populated cities in Thailand to realize this.
Now just to be clear, Thai people act out in public as well but for the most part they tend to be more reserved and when "one of their own" acts a fool in public I think it is just as frowned upon, perhaps moreso, than when a foreigners does it. Sometimes though, I feel as though every time some foreigner does something bad it reflects negatively on all of us that are living here, even the polite ones like myself.
A recent story emerged in Phuket about how a man became enraged when he saw a couple sitting on some beach-access stairs that he believed were his rented villa's private property. While the stories are different depending on who is telling it, nobody is denying that the Swiss man, who is known as "David" decided to resort to physical violence against a woman, kicking her in the back. Kicking someone might at times be deserved, I know I have seen some situations where someone really acted like they needed a beating to be sorted out, but when someone gets kicked in the back, it normally indicates that they were already leaving the scene anyway.
Well for David things got a bit worse when it turns out that the woman he kicked is a doctor and doctors are held in very high regard here in Thailand - as they are around most of the world I would imagine.
David doing this dumb shit isn't so surprising but what really got under my skin was the press release of the photos of him while he was in court defending himself with his lawyers.
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While a lot of the foreign community here in Thailand dresses down because of various reasons such as the country being too hot for formal clothes, or because bigger sizes are generally not available, I would think that the one time that you should suck it up and get a suit would probably be when you are the defendant in criminal court. This level of disrespect is just a bit too much for me and I wonder what is going on in this guy's head.
Things get a bit more 'meaty" in this story when it was revealed that the court case was actually dismissed by a local Phuket judge. Let me tell you what little I know about the court system here in Thailand: They are extremely corrupt. If you want to get out of something don't form a fantastic defense with expensive lawyers, instead just find a fixer that knows who to bribe and you will never get charged with anything. As sweeping and generalized as that statement might sound, there are a ton of people who are definitely guilty that faced little to no consequences for their actions, even murder.
In David's case, he seems very confident in the courtroom that he will face no consequences for his actions. The judge had some sort of reason why but I think we all know what is going on. Assault is assault and while I don't think he needs to go to jail for this, to not acknowledge that he did anything wrong at all is not justice.
The lawyers for the doctor are appealing this to the Supreme Court of Thailand, which isn't incorruptible, but might be beyond the bribe reach of someone like him.
Maybe I flew off the handle there a bit but the lack of justice in this country is a bit upsetting to me and the way that foreigners are portrayed in the news looks bad for all of us, even though we didn't do anything wrong. While I tend to enjoy the lack of police state in this country I think that they could do with a bit more of actually punishing people because as it is now, I think most people believe that they can get away with almost anything here and honestly, they are not wrong.