Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question: "Is Crackdown sort of the "new normal" for expats to get used to here in Thailand?" I thought about making this video after reading a recent and very nice article by StickmanBangkok, stickmanbangkok.com; I was actually mentioned in there. We had done a video back a couple of weeks ago regarding an ALERT because of something I had read on that blog about possible changes to visa fees associated with visas being processed outside of Thailand, so we are talking about Embassies and Consulates, I think that went up a week, 10 days ago from the time of this video. And as I said at the time, kind of tip of the hat to Stickman, Stickman has been around forever and he was certainly kind of the voice of Expat Thailand when I first got out here some years ago, so tip of the hat back to him again for his very nice mention of me in that article. 

That said, in this article that I am quoting here, 6,000 Baht, Please, is the title, again StickmanBangkok, stickmanbangkok.com, and quoting directly; there's a lot going on in there and for those that are interested in the state of play with regard to the nightlife and everything, there's some interesting insight but sort of buried in there, not buried but toward the very end of that posting, I came upon this paragraph. Quoting directly: "On this note, there have been many reports in the mainstream press recently of Thai immigration and the Royal Thai Police cracking down on foreign lawbreakers. You get the feeling that there have been so many high profile cases of farangs behaving badly that the Thai public have had a gutsful and the cops want to be seen to be doing something. The separate cases where two Swiss men assaulted Thai females made many Thais angry and was the lead news item for a couple of days. That was followed by the two New Zealanders and their moment of madness assaulting a Thai policeman and taking his weapon. Right now would be a really bad time for any foreigner to be caught doing anything naughty in Thailand. What I wonder is just how long will this Crackdown last. For that matter is it merely a Crackdown or is this the "new normal"? As always, time will tell."

And that is a really good question and one I have been kind of posing to myself because we deal with a lot of things having to do with foreigners. I mean obviously. We deal with Thai Immigration; we deal with Thai Work Authorization; we deal with foreigners who operate in businesses that may or may not run up against problems with things like the restricted occupations here in Thailand. These are concerns that we have on a daily basis and I have been wondering if we are seeing a more permanent type of sea change here in Thailand. What I mean to say is as discussed in prior videos, during high season, it has tended to be my observation that during high season, immigration, I won't say they have a lax attitude but it's tourism season; it's the cool season here in Thailand, it's when the bulk of tourists come to Thailand throughout the year although it is not the only time. We get year-round tourism here but during that period especially over the winter holidays in the West, we see a large influx of tourists. Well no country really that is trying to bring in tourists, Thailand does not seem to want to be seen as being difficult or obtuse with tourists. So during the high season we generally see an attitude or a paradigm if you will of just kind of more laissez-faire regarding Immigration. 

As discussed in prior videos that tends to change going into the low season. Now personally I think what it is, is it is Immigration basically looking at folks - if you come into Thailand on a Visa Exemption in November and stay through December and then do an extension maybe do a Border Run and now look you are hanging around maybe in February here in Thailand - I don't think Immigration has any issue with that. You get it over to June and you are trying to stay in Thailand on Visa Exemptions or Tourist Visas or whatever, I think Immigration starts saying "hey this is somebody who looks like he's trying to live here", and for that reason you start seeing heightened scrutiny; you start seeing heightened enforcement just based on the general timing of the year. Going into this low season, I thought it was just going to be kind of par for the course. Then we had these incidents involving foreigners for lack of a better term, 'behaving badly' as noted by Stickman there and most notably the one involving the assault of the Police Officer I really think, the reverberations of that are going to be profound, I think long term and I think that is just going to be the case. I think that there is something of a paradigm shift not only in terms of the public perception but within law enforcement here in Thailand that "hey fun is fun, we like having tourists and we are a country that's pretty "Live and let Live". And Thais are not overly confrontational people on a general level but when you have got foreigners coming in and disarming Police Officers and things on the street that's a problem; in any country that's going to be viewed as a problem. So the question is are these clampdowns, crackdowns, heightened scrutiny of foreigners doing business here, is this something that's just a phase, even maybe a cyclical phase that happens on a yearly basis? Again, as Stickman points out, time will tell, but I have to say my personal opinion, especially in light of what's gone down this past month roughly involving all these incidents involving foreigners, I think we are seeing a more permanent shift here. I think we are going to see an enforcement paradigm that's not going to be the same as what we saw in the past. And again this sort of cyclical nature, that might not be there either. This may be something that okay we're seeing a shift in paradigm and that paradigm shift is going to stick. Again time will tell, but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.