A clip circulating this week shows security guards from a Bangla Road venue beating a foreign tourist in Patong. They drag him out of the door and into the street first.
The man is pulled out of the entrance and onto the road. The guards do not stop once he is outside. Several of them kick and punch him while he is still on his feet.
Someone who says they were there told Thai media the tourist had been drunk and causing trouble outside the venue. The guards moved in to break it up and get him away from the door, and it escalated from there.
The footage drew heavy criticism online. Even people who accepted he was drunk and disruptive asked the same thing. Did the guards go well beyond containing him?
There is a second problem with the clip, and it is not a small one. It is old.
A Thai news team went to Bangla Road. A local source there told them the incident happened a long time ago. On the day, three drunk tourists were refused entry, an argument started, and the scuffle followed. The guards’ side of it was that they were containing the situation before it grew.
Weerawit Kruesombat, a Patong municipal councillor, said he was shocked when he saw the clip going round again.
By his account both sides settled it privately long ago. The tourist and the people involved talked, compensation was paid, and the matter closed.
He questioned why anyone would repost the video now without saying when it was filmed. He asked news pages and social media users to check the date and the outcome before publishing a clip. Reposting old footage as if it were current misleads people and damages Patong’s reputation.
A second clip from Patong is genuinely recent. Two men fought outside a hotel on Rachautit 200 Pi Road in Kathu district. It started with shoving and ended in punches, until bystanders pulled them apart.
A tourist filmed it and put it online. It happened during the day on 13 August.
Nobody has confirmed what set it off. One version has it as a road collision, another as a dispute over passenger pickup routes. Neither man has filed a complaint.
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The story Phuket club guards filmed beating foreign tourist in resurfaced Bangla Road clip as seen on Thaiger News.
