Amidst the hype of Valentine’s Day, a Facebook page administrator found herself being stalked and verbally abused by men who claimed to be policemen. Activist friends who came to her assistance were also harassed.

On 15 February, Ray (pseudonym), 18, told Prachatai that she was stopped by two men on a motorcycle as she walked home around 21.00 last Saturday (12 February). The two told her to approach the motorcycle so that they could give her a note.

Terrified, she backed up and looked for a way to escape, at which point one of the men shouted “We are police. Why are you so scared of a little note?”. When Ray asked a nearby security guard for help, the men passed the note to the guard to give to her instead. As they left the scene, one of them told her to call the phone number on the note immediately.

The note had a mobile phone number and the name “Captain Decha, ”.

A photo of the note

Ray asked her friend to call the number and a drunken male answered.  He began flirting with her, saying that he found her charming and would be happy to send her home in a luxury sedan so she wouldn’t have to walk. When Ray took the phone and tried to confront the man, he said that he knew where she lived and was under the jurisdiction of Bang Mod police station.

Other than acting as an interpreter for her foreign employer in a recent trademark case, Ray said that she has had no contact with the police. She recalled that during the proceeding, one of the police officers asked for her LINE account. There was 

She said she was terrified by the whole situation.

“I never thought something like this could happen.”

She added that the men who passed her the note said that they had been ordered to do so.

Prachatai repeatedly called the Captain Decha number but received no answer.

Activist friend also targeted

At Ray’s request, her friend Tan (pseudonym), a student activist, also tried calling Capt Decha. A man answered the call and began harassing her instead, asking if she was single and inviting her out, declaring that he was stationed at Bang Mod police station. When Tan tried to reject his invitation, he threatened her, saying that he could easily find her whereabouts and personal details. The call was recorded.

File photo

Prachatai's call to the  Bang Mod police station was answered by Pol Sgt Satit Songthip, who said that there was no Captain Decha there. 

According to Tan, after the incident, ’Capt Decha’ has called her number repeatedly.

Tan told Prachatai that she has been engaged in political activism since the rise of the pro-democracy movement in 2020. She said that her involvement in the monarchy reform movement has resulted in her being monitored and followed by the police from time to time. She added that this was the first time she had been threatened in this way and that she found it very frightening.

Tan has been consulting with her lawyer about taking a legal measure.

Power corrupts

At Tan’s request, an activist, Phimchanok Jaihong also called the ‘Capt Decha’ number.  She was concerned that the harassment was for political reasons.

She told Prachatai that the man who answered the phone sounded drunk and told her that he was stationed at Khok Khram police station in Bangkok. He also invited her to eat with him that night. She later called Khok Khram police station and was told that an officer named Decha was about to move to the station.

When Prachatai called the Kok Kham police station in Bangkok and a similarly named Khokkham police station in Samut Sakhon province, both stations denied the existence of Capt Decha, however.

Discussing the incident, Phimchanok said authorities who abused their power to harass people sexually had been around in Thai society for a long time.  She added that such individuals were a real menace and should be dealt with strictly under the law.

“Otherwise, the authorities won’t just use their power to dominate politics, an incident like this makes it clear that they’ll try to use their power to dominate everything, even our private lives, our desires.  It is terrifying to think that there is no limit to what they can do.”

“If they tell us they like us and we don’t say that we like them back, if we don’t welcome their advances and say so, we have no way of knowing how much trouble we might be making for ourselves.”