A Youtube clip of Bangkok police allegedly extorting a cashier for selling counterfeit goods at a mall has evoked angry reactions online.
The clip (ตำรวจหรือโจรเรียกค่าไถ่) was uploaded by Youtube user Mild Pond on Thursday and posted on the Facebook page of Mild Love Jrt, who claims to be the victim.
She says that a copyright owner came to the stall where she was working in a Bangkok mall and found that she was selling fake products. Police then brought her to the station for interrogation.
Mild Love claims that Pol Lt Col Choosak Chankwarng told her at the police station that she was under arrest for conspiring to sell counterfeit goods and had to pay at least THB50,000 bail to go home.
The product distributor then arrived at the station and told police that the counterfeiting problem had been resolved, but that they hadn’t been able to collect all the fake goods from the various stalls around the mall immediately, Mild Love claims. She also says that both the product distributor and the mall management maintained that she was not involved.
Later, she says, Pol Lt Col Choosak wanted her to sign a document, but she refused and said she wanted to wait for the mall supervisor and her lawyer. Pol Lt Col Choosak also warned that if she did not giver her fingerprints she would be thrown in jail, she says.
Mild Love Jrt says that the police made her wait for her lawyer in a jail cell and that her lawyer ultimately had to pay her bail to get her out, the Bangkok Post reported.
Comments from netizens on the affair include:
“The shopping mall was wrong to be selling fake products, but the cashier was definitely not at fault. The police were trying to impose penalties on her. If this is not extortion then I don’t know what is.”
“I never want to be a police officer. My family is in the army and I won’t degrade myself so others can insult me.”
“True love is like a good cop because you’ll never find one.”
