We deserve better than Thai police’s bumbling bombing investigation

To reassure nervous tourists after Thailand’s worst terrorist attack in memory, Police Chief Somyot Poompanmoung went straight to the beating heart of Bangkok’s lucrative tourism industry and made an announcement.

“I suspect that he may have left,” he said about the main bombing suspect in a press conference at notorious Nana Plaza last Friday.

He then canvassed the redlight district assuring punters that they could continue their boozing and prostitution-mongering without fear of a deadly attack.
 

At one point in the evening he was aptly photographed in front of a girlie bar named Suckers.

In their relentless drive to “return to normal” (i.e. keep the tourist bucks flowing) after the bombing, police may have overlooked and contaminated evidence. Human remains reportedly fell from a tree near the blast site two days after the explosion. A BBC reporter found shrapnel across the street from Erawan Shrine days after the attack, and when he tried to hand it over to police they said their headquarters was “closed.”

Yet Somyot has publicly blamed mainly his men’s lack of “modern equipment” for the fruitless investigation so far. “We have difficulties with technology and data,” he added.

Perhaps it’s not modern equipment that they need, so much as basic modern forensic training.

The Thai police have taken their eyes off the ball with a public show of force and horses called “Operation Lock Down the City, Raid the Bandits’ Nests,” which saw 142 arrests totally unrelated to the bombing. Typically, their messaging is totally un-coordinated, with conflicting statements given to media every step of the way… often by the same police officer. And predictably, they’ve butted heads with Bangkok City Hall after accusing them of failing to keep CCTV cameras operational.

It’s easy to joke about how bumbling the Thai police investigation has been, but for the families of those killed and injured this is no laughing matter. 

We deserve better.

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