New overtly racist police policy in Thailand

I have lived in Thailand for a long time. If you follow my stuff you are aware of the fact that I have produced many real-life stories that i witnessed in my own life that were exceptionally racist. This was appalling of course, but it was the indoctrination of schools and the failure of the government to do anything about it that resulted in the way of thinking. However, this (to my knowledge) has never been the official policy of any particular branch of the Thai government, until now.

The man in the picture above is Smith Nnamadi, and yes, he is a terrible person and should be charged for what he has done because it is, in fact a crime to lure people into giving you money under false pretenses. It is also a crime to obtain a visa to any country under false pretenses. The fact that he happens to be Nigerian is relatively immaterial.

There was a police initiative recently that mostly focused on schools that offer easy access to education visas and upon investigation of these schools around 100 "students" were found to be in violation of the terms of having that visa. They were from a variety of nationalities but mostly they were Russians, Indians, Laotians, Burmese, and lastly, Nigerians.

However, following this investigation, originally called "Operation Black Eagle," the Thai police made an announcement that of the 1400 or so Nigerians that are currently living in Thailand, ALL OF THEM will be investigated to "prevent further crimes committed by foreigners."

I don't think i need to explain to you what is incredibly wrong with this statement and what it entails. What about the Russians? Are there too many of them and you are being lazy to not investigate that demographic? Indians? Burmese? Why just focus on the Nigerians? It should also be mentioned that in a recent sweep of one particular school, all the black people were arrested and taken in for questioning. Even if you are an a-hole and agree that all Nigerians should be rounded up it is important to note that most of the people that were picked up weren't even from Nigeria. They were from many places including the United State and Canada.

In a different raid the official statement was "Those arrested were mostly Burmese, Laotian and Cambodian, along with four African nationals," according to tourist police chief Maj. Gen. Surachet Hakpan. So are we going to target Cambodians now? Or still focus on Nigerians? It doesn't make sense if you look at this from any other perspective other than outright, government-sanctioned racism.

look at all those naughty Nigerians

I am quite certain that since this action (which is likely just the brain-child of one particularly ignorant police chief) is now getting international attention, that it will quickly be dissolved but in my mind anyway, the fact that it was ever allowed to be a policy in the first place is just mind-blowing.

Are there bad people from Nigeria coming to Thailand with the idea of breaking the law for profit? Of course, but insert the name of literally any other country in place of "Nigeria" and that statement will also be true.

This sort of thinking, although it is starting to be kept under wraps due to international pressure, is all too common in this country. Here is a suggestion, which i think is accepted by most decent people around the world. Your skin color does not make you better or worse than anyone else. It is exceptionally stupid of you to ever think otherwise.

I'm not trying to stir the pot here. I am quite certain this is just the idiotic statement of one person whose idea it was to initiate this and to be fair I sincerely doubt that it will ever take place now that the world is watching and Thailand depends so heavily on tourism to survive. However, the fact that someone that high up in the police force would publicly make such an obviously racist "decree," is completely inexcusable and borderline insane.