Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the issue of insulting an Officer here in Thailand while on duty. I made another video contemporaneously with this one where I discussed the issue of recently of this person who basically damaged one of the automated kiosks at Immigration here in Thailand - this was a foreign national - and it resulted in a permanent ban; they have basically have been blacklisted from Thailand and they were subjected to deportation, or it seems like they are in the process of being deported if they haven't already been deported. But the reason for this video goes to the issue of this issue of insulting an official in Thailand, let's jump in here. 

Quoting directly from that article, Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Chinese tourist blacklisted after damaging Airport Immigration Gate. Again I made a video getting into the thrust of that article, which is the whole blacklisting and everything, so check that out for that particular point. This small excerpt though gets us into the data point that I want to discuss in this video. Quoting directly: "He also faces a separate charge of insulting a Public Official while on duty, punishable by up to one year in prison, a fine of up to 20,000 Baht or both. The case will be referred to the Provincial Court." 

Yeah, it's a crime in Thailand to insult a Public Official while they are conducting their duties; that's not good - I mean it wouldn't be good under any context - but this is something that I could thank you being utilized more and more moving forward as we have seen more and more incidences of, for lack of a better term, foreigners behaving badly here in Thailand. And what I am talking about is situations where foreigners get drunk, they get into fights or altercations with the Police. There's one piece of footage, I don't think I made a video directly on this one, where like this drunken foreign national tried to put a Thai Police Officer in a headlock in a 7-Eleven here. Now obviously that goes beyond insulting a Public Official, but my point is as we see the paradigm shifting within policymaking circles and law enforcement circles here in Thailand regarding the antics of foreign nationals, I could see this being utilized more, because quite frankly, especially when inebriated or when, for lack of a better term as my grandfather would say, "when someone's blood is up", they have a tendency to say things that they might not otherwise say. And I could see many sets of circumstances where foreigners are what we would call popping off to officers thinking, "well it's no big deal, I'm not physically in an altercation or anything, I'm just saying my piece", for lack of a better term. Look, again, quoting directly: "Punishable by up to 1 year in prison" and more importantly, at that point could be used as a basis for deportation as well in and of itself.

So that's the reason for the video because I've seen a couple of recent articles in a couple of different contexts that have brought this up more than once that folks have not only been charged with things like assault and things, but they have also been charged for what they have said to Public Officials who are engaged effectively in the line of duty, be it Police, Immigration whatever. So that is something to bear in mind when you are a foreign national here in Thailand, and something to watch out for because I think more and more, we are going to see this being utilized by Law Enforcement here in the Kingdom of Thailand.