I don't really have anything to do with the transgender conversation that is taking place in the United States or UK or wherever else. I am quite happy to sit that play out. Here in Thailand though, transgenders, ladyboys, or "katooey" have been an accepted part of Thai culture for possibly 100 years, maybe more. I appreciate this about Thai people as they are a people of "let people live however they want" and I agree with this notion... well, that is until they start to harm other people.
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Such is the acceptance of alternative lifestyles here in Thailand that they have had "most beautiful ladyboy" competitions for many years here and they didn't do this because of some sort of social justice scheme enacted by social media either. Either you are interested in that sort of thing or you aren't. For me, I know a couple of ladyboys and I'm just like "whatever." I refer to them as "she" and there isn't an ounce of politics in this. They are simply a part of society here.
Well that is until they resort to crime and it is revealed that they are considerably stronger than genuine women.
In Phuket recently, a ladyboy stopped by a Thai household high on meth and demanded a women who lived there hand over the keys to her motorbike despite the fact that the unidentified ladyboy arrived there on a motorbike. The motivation for this is unclear and honestly, this only made the news because it was a ladyboy. Petty theft of this sort happens all the time here in Thailand and I know quite a few people who have had their bikes stolen. It isn't often done where the perpetrator is clearly visible to the victims though.
According to reports, a ladyboy turned up at a Thai household in Phuket demanding the keys to a motorbike that was parked out front. As you would expect the owner of the bike refused only to have the methed up "woman" come back about 20 minutes later, force their way into the house and then steal the key to the bike. It was a 4-year old that spotted the raiding person and just said "what are you doing here?" The 19 year old relative of the young person called her brother in law and since he lived nearby he was able to get to the house before the ladyboy was able to get away. The brother in law pursued the fleeing ladyboy but kicked the bike over, crashing it.
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You can see the ladyboy fleeing on foot on the left side of the above pic.
Here is where things get funny and a bit disappointing. Unsurprisingly, the stoned out of her mind ladyboy returned to retrieve the crashed motorbike, which was the one they arrived on. By that time the police were there yet the ladyboy paid no mind to this. When the police told her that she needed to come with them to the police station the ladyboy jumped at the opportunity to get back on the motorbike that she arrived on and somehow get away. It was only through license plate tracking that they found out the bike belonged to the ladyboy's mother and what a proud mother she must have been to get that particular visit from the boys in brown uniforms.
Here's the thing about Thailand. I have never heard of a high-speed chase happening here. Most of the time the police have old and slow pickup trucks and when you do see them on motorbikes they are the same cheap 125 CC motorbikes that everyone has. One of the funniest ones I saw a copper on was pink and had Hello Kitty decals on it. It is just kind of difficult to take them seriously as law enforcement when this happens.
They ladyboy has not yet turned herself in but it is only a matter of time. For whatever reason, and despite the cops being damn near useless in this country, there isn't a lot of crime and even when there is crime, it tends to be mostly non-violent things like this. The idea of masked intruders robbing a bank and stuff like that which we see in western movies just really doesn't happen here and perhaps this has something to do with the country being primarily Buddhist and believing in Karma.
I would be willing to bet that this home invader doesn't spend a single minute in jail and the police will just file a report, award the victims a couple thousand Baht, and that will be the end of it. Is this an effective method of dealing with crime? Not at all, but for whatever reason, Thailand is still much safer than USA with our police officers ready for war in supercharged vehicles.
I was in Langkawi island for the past couple of days, and there's so many Thai tuned machines storming around here 😂 I have every reasons to believe the villain in Thai is so much faster than the cops(I was going to say good guys, but are they any?) 🤣
I like the way you sarcastically describe how the law "enforced" in Thailand, the most practical way to control the country, is probably control it loosely 😌 like, we have a system to run the business, we just forgot to turn them on sometimes(wait... Most of the time)🤣
There are a lot of criminals that turn themselves in after a crime is committed and this must be some sort of "dont make us look for you and we'll take it easy on you" sort of thing. I've never really heard of police genuinely chasing anyone, not even a fast moving police car responding to a crime. There was a time that a friend of mine witnessed people breaking into his house and he scared them off and called the police at the same time. The police didn't come to visit his home quickly like we see in tv or movies... they paid him a casual visit the following day long after the criminals had run away.
I hear you man. It's the exact same thing here. There's one time someone break-in to my computer kiosk and stole 20 laptops. Base on the lock disconnection time, I figured I arrived the shop just about the same time the thief had left, give it a minute or two difference. So I checked with the security and called the police at the same time to make sure I give them my info and guess what they asked. How many of them? Are they armed? Ok stay right there and don't act. They most probably will come back for more, find cover and make sure safety first, do not engage them.(I dont think i translate it right as i cant even remember clearly when i was having the adrenaline rush that time)
I even drove out and trying to chase down the thief. I broke the car, ditch the car and find my way back to the shop, the police still not there yet. I call them again, the operator said special task force in that area has been dispatched, and then again the scripted safety first warning message asking me do not engage the bad guys. And they came 3 hours later 😂 I guess they need to ensure everyone is safe(including themselves), before they start the investigation, rather than provoked the thieves if they come back 😂
As you have described, they came in pair with their mp-45 beneath their armpit unloaded 🙂 I don't think they even bring the clip together as their holsters holds nothing except a bottle of coke 😂
Police: Toretto! Stop right there!
Baldy guy: Yawn.... Yeah right
I think if you do end up in a Thai prison it would be quite harsh and why the crime rate is fairly low and not major crimes being committed. Also isn't it frowned upon to have criminal in the family or something like that where you bring shame to the family name?
it's probably frowned upon and considered a major loss of face to have a criminal in the family sure. Serious crime isn't really a thing here although there is a lot of petty crime such as theft. You almost never hear about murder and rape and really horrible stuff like that here though and I think it is largely due to the absolutely horrible prison conditions that inspire that.
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ