Officers' failure to act as one of their own was beaten at a police station shows the power of 'dark influences'
It would have been beyond belief in many countries, but what happened at a Yasothon a police station a few days ago represents so much that is true about Thailand's law-enforcers and "dark influences". According to news reports, a local godfather and his men stormed into the station after his son had allegedly been assaulted by one of the officers. That officer reportedly was made to prostrate himself before the man but was still beaten unconscious by the gang while two of his supervisors looked on. After an uproar in the media, four senior police officers in the northeastern province, including the provincial chief, were transferred to inactive posts.
There were two sides to the story regarding what had happened. The man who sparked the controversy, Sathiraporn Naksuk, president of the Yasothon Provincial Administration Organisation (PAO), claimed the assaulted officer had slapped his son during a minor incident at a concert. The officer, Sergeant Athit Daengdee, insisted he had not mistreated the teenager, although some witnesses claimed there could have been physical contact as a result of a scuffle.
No matter what actually happened during the concert, what followed was an absolute disgrace. Athit was reportedly made to apologise to Sathiraporn in the most humiliating way, yet followers of the Yasothon PAO chief kicked him senseless in full view of the policeman's supervisors. The incident triggered a protest by scores of police officers on Wednesday, touching off a wider reaction in the media and throughout society. Officials at national police headquarters took action on Thursday, and one doubts whether they would have reacted had it not been for the protest and public outcry.
It's not every day that police are at the wrong end of abuse, yet what happened in Yasothon is symptomatic of the malaise plaguing one of Thailand's weakest and most corrupt institutions. The action taken by Sathiraporn and his men, while undoubtedly a gesture of extreme hostility towards the police, also underlines deep-rooted close relations between law-enforcement and "influential people", some of whom operate outside the realm of the law.
We see all the "extremes" in this case. A police assault on an innocent pedestrian would have gone unreported and unnoticed. Within more just law-enforcement systems, charges would have been filed to protect that citizen's rights and punish the wrongdoers. We can't expect that to happen in Thailand, where just a few years ago thousands of suspected drug-peddlers were shot dead in a sweeping campaign against the amphetamine trade.
Men like Sathiraporn could have filed charges, but he chose to take matters into his own hands. Yet while we were amazed by his audacity, we were more dumbfounded by the action - or non-action to be exact - of the assaulted officer's supervisors. Were they afraid of Sathiraporn? Why? Or did they owe him some gratitude? If so, why? But the most relevant question is the one which has been asked resoundingly: if a policeman whose duty is to maintain public order and suppress crime is beaten unconscious at his own station by thugs, who can members of the public rely on for their safety?
If Sathiraporn deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law for assaulting a police officer and trampling upon the dignity of the police force as a whole, how should Athit's supervisors be penalised? If we are correct about the depths to which the police institution has sunk, here is what is going to happen: the PAO chief will escape legal action, and Athit's bosses will remain on the force, the dignity of which they have failed utterly to protect, and it will be business as usual as soon as the public's attention subsides and the media's focus turns elsewhere.
No matter how many senior officials try to portray this incident as an exception, there's no escaping the fact that it's nothing but the tip of the iceberg. And no matter how outraged the public may feel, there is little doubt in the minds of the people that something nastier must be going on somewhere else. A police officer may have been the one on the receiving end this time round, but the force may have brought it upon itself. A system with any semblance of integrity would have held the likes of Sathiraporn back. The Yasothon incident, on the other hand, is a desperate cry for help from a system in a coma.
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