Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about a foreigner who has gone berserk here in Bangkok and got arrested. 

I haven't done a Foreigners Behaving Badly video in a while, not that there's lack of material, but part of it is frankly I don't like just making videos constantly talking about how foreigners are bad or something. That's not really the purpose here but I do like to make these because look at the end of the day, and we are kind of in the thick of high season right now or going into the real thick part with Christmas, New Year's and then the aftermath of that in January, we get a lot of people that have a good time out here and they go a little bit crazier than they would otherwise go. I also kind of had an affinity for this video. If you can't tell from the hair and everything, I've got some sort of Scandinavian blood in my background and when I heard this sort of a headline it got me thinking.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Thai Examiner, that's thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Norwegian man sent to hospital after he went berserk in Bangkok on Friday and tried to steal a Tuk Tuk. Hey, don't mess with Tuk-Tuks, okay? I'm not even kidding on this, like that's kind of a joke. Them Tuk-Tuk guys are not to be messed around with, okay? That said, quoting directly: "Norwegian man goes berserk in Bangkok, attacking a tuk-tuk driver and a woman on a bicycle" - come on, a woman on a bicycle; some Thai woman who is just trying to live her life. Really? Come on - "before fleeing through Sukhumvit. Police arrested him near a hotel after a brief chase. He showed violent behaviour in custody and was sent for a mental health assessment." - I am sure he enjoyed that ride. Quoting further: "Bangkok Police at Thong Lor on Friday moved to have a crazed 22-year-old Norwegian sent to hospital for a mental health assessment. The action followed a burst of violent behaviour in the busy Sukhumvit area. Firstly, (I'm going to redact this guy's name. I don't know if this guy had like an episode or something, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.) That said, "Firstly, (name redacted) assaulted a tuk-tuk driver after trying to steal the vehicle in traffic." So this guy like just ran out in the stream tried to like carjack a guy's tuk-tuk in the middle of the road. Quoting further: "Moments later, he shoved a woman off her bicycle and fled. When officers arrested him, he continued to display violent conduct in custody." Quoting further: "Bangkok Police arrested a Norwegian man on Friday for two violent theft attempts in the Sukhumvit area. The incidents involved an attempted tuk-tuk hijacking and the theft of a woman's bicycle.” And he failed at both; I mean that's also important to point out.  "The man displayed erratic behaviour,’ – well yeah, trying to rip off tuk-tuks and bicycles in the middle of the street - “erratic behaviour throughout the sequence. Officers said his actions escalated quickly as he moved between several Sukhumvit locations. Police later tested him for alcohol, but the results were negative. Toxicology results remain pending."  So, it remains to be seen if he was on some other drug. "The first incident occurred near Sukhumvit 25. A tuk-tuk driver identified as Wasan, said the suspect approached him as if seeking directions. Moments later, the man shoved him from the vehicle. Wasan fell to the ground. The suspect then tried to start the tuk-tuk. However, the driver managed to remove the key before the man fled on foot. Police were alerted immediately."

Yeah, that's the other thing, these tuk-tuk guys know the police. It's not like that there's some major disconnect between them and law enforcement. If you mess with them, you might as well in a sense be kind of messing with, it’s like messing with the police, very similar to the motorbike taxi drivers. Again, not guys who want to mess with on the streets of Bangkok. Meanwhile, look we also get people here in Thailand that are just, it's unfortunate to say, they are just having a mental problem, they're just having an issue, whatever, and they just flip out and they think they can kind of like I don't know manifest their emotions or whatever you want to call it here. Personally I'm not a real coddley person, especially to a guy who tries to rip off a woman of her bicycle on the street; not cool by any stretch of the imagination. That said, maybe the guy was, he has some sort of metal problem. Again the police are noting that they're putting this guy in for assessment, mental health assessment. That said I imagine he's going to be detained until being deported from Thailand, and I expect, whatever the outcome is, look if it's determined hey, this guy didn't have capacity, it's not his fault, you can't really blame him for what he did, he was having to kind of mental problem, yeah great, let's still deport him and blacklist him so we don't have that problem here in Thailand. Look, as a naturalized Thai, I have got no problem saying that, okay. I'm not trying to be lacking compassion but as long as they figure out okay, he's healthy enough, we can get him on a plane and get him out of here, I can completely understand the idea of hey, this this is a problem that Thailand doesn't need.

That being said, I think it's worth pointing out just to note the alacrity by which this person was apprehended and immediately detained, and now he's under basically review, under scrutiny for whether or not he has mental capacity. Again, I expect it will be a fairly efficient process of adjudicating his guilt on the matter and then adjudicating whether or not he should be deported and likely blacklisted. I would not presume that this person's probably ever going to come back to Thailand. Whether or not they could be deemed to be culpable for their actions insofar as if they can be deemed to have capacity to be able to form intent to do the things that they did or whether it's determined that they were either under the influence or something or just again had a mental incident that they again lacked competency and capacity. In any case, okay you may not be culpable for some sort of crime, and the Thai Authorities may not necessarily want to like punish punitively in terms of sort of like a penal punishment, like a penalty in terms of like jail time or something. They may not decide to do that. They may say, "hey, look it would be better if we go ahead and just deport this person." But I would not presume that this person is going to be allowed back into Thailand anytime soon, if ever.