What happens before the arrest?

[PattayaMale]

I received an e-mail yesterday that said one of the bar owners whose bar looks like he has very young employees (underage) is being pressured to name or confirm that certain customer frequented his bar. Some might not have offed these below legal age boys but sat with them in the bar or sat beside them when other customers called the boy over.

 

The owner apparently had cameras in his bar as required by law, but he kept the tapes....who knows why.

 

The email said that he is cooperating with police to save his skin as a purveyor of under age sex.

 

If this rumor is true, more people than suspected may face trouble

[Gaybutton]

I received an e-mail yesterday that said one of the bar owners whose bar looks like he has very young employees

 

Don't believe everything you read in an Email. ONE of the bar owners? That doesn't even narrow it down. Those cameras are a lot of hogwash too. Yes, there is a requirement to have the cameras. Nothing in the requirement says that they have to even be turned on or what direction they have to face, and several venues are in full compliance with the law. They have the cameras. They're not hooked up, but they have them.

 

Second, I know of no law against having a boy sit with you in a bar, even if he is under-age. If he's under-age, but working in a bar, then that's the bar's problem, not the customer's. I know of no requirement for a customer to check a boy's age simply when calling him over to sit. The law prohibits engaging in sex with under-age boys. I know of no law that prohibits sitting and talking with a boy. Now, if some farang is sitting there publicly fondling the boy, I suppose in a stretch, legally that could be construed as sex. To my mind, that's in very poor taste, but I am not aware of any arrests, ever, for that. The only arrests I am aware of are when a farang has an underage boy in his room with him and is engaging in sex.

[PattayaMale]

You maybe correct but I read that a search warrant was issued when a boy said he had sex with someone 3 years ago.

[Gaybutton]

You maybe correct but I read that a search warrant was issued when a boy said he had sex with someone 3 years ago.

 

If a search warrant was issued on the basis of a boy saying he had sex with someone three years earlier, you can bet there was a hell of a lot more to the story than just that.

 

I'm not so quick to buy into the idea that NGOs or anyone else is out there trying to set people up . There is obviously plenty of genuine pedophile activity going on around here to keep them busy without having to resort to virtually creating pedophiles. I know of no evidence whatsoever that such a thing is occurring.

 

Again, as far as I know there has never been an incident involving a farang being arrested simply because he patronized a bar and called a boy over to sit with him, and the boy was under age. Not one. And I don't expect there will ever be such an incident. Caution is one thing, but people are becoming needlessly paranoid. There are also people out there who get their jollies by making up bullshit and trying to frighten people with it.

 

Sitting with an under age boy is one thing. Having sex with him is quite another. I'm all in favor of trying to clear out the pedophiles, but I also see no reason for people to be needlessly afraid. It is not incumbent upon a bar's customers to check the ID of a boy who is simply sitting with them. If anyone is ever arrested for that, then it will be the first time in the entire history of gay bars in Thailand.

 

In my opinion, the law enforcement people who are going after the pedophiles should also be going after the venues that employ under age boys in the first place. I'm not going to start getting paranoid that deals are being made with the owners of these venues to get them to start setting up people who are not breaking any laws until and unless there is some solid evidence that such a thing is actually happening. So far, there is none that I know of.

 

Once again, the vast majority of these pedophile arrests have nothing to do with farang taking boys off from bars. That may happen rarely, but the vast majority of these cases are farang messing around with the neighborhood kiddies.

 

Other than when raids occur, I never see any police presence in Sunee Plaza, Pattayaland, Jomtien Complex, or anywhere else where there are gay venues. If people want to start convincing themselves that something sinister is going on, that's their prerogative. I see nothing of the kind and it will take a lot more than people simply insisting that it's true before I'll buy into it. I also have never heard of a single case, ever, in which a farang was sitting in a bar, had a boy sitting with him, and the next thing he knew the police were leading him out in handcuffs or he was arrested later.