FB users face arrest over street racing
Justice Ministry official wants PM to use Article 44 power against state agencies negligent in tackling this social problem
THE Justice Ministry has told police to proceed with taking legal action against administrators of Facebook pages who provide youngsters with street race times and dates.
Wisit Wisitsora-at, chief of the ministry’s Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection, said preventing street racing was one of the government’s key policies.
Wisit said if police did not seriously implement the measure, he would propose that the justice minister ask Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to use Article 44 of the post-coup interim charter against indifferent officers.
Under the absolute power Article 44 affords Prayut as head of the National Council for Peace and Order, he can force state agencies to follow instructions regardless of their existing authority or the relevant laws.
Wisit said an investigation had found that social media was being used to organise street races, which was inciting a criminal action.
He said that in the department’s capacity as secretary of the coordination centre set up to tackle street racing, it informed police to arrest people using Facebook to promote street racing.
Lenient police
Under NCPO’s order No 22/2015, inciting street races is an offence punishable with up to six months in prison and/or a Bt2,000 to Bt20,000 fine, Wisit said.
He said the centre had also contacted police who had arrested street racers in various areas, including Hat Yai, Nonthaburi and Bangkok’s Thon Buri-Pak Thor area, and told them that they were being too lenient with street racers.
They only faced the charge of illegally modifying motorcycle parts and were not charged with racing on public roads, he said, adding that although some youths faced the charge of possessing an illegally modified exhaust pipe, police did not expand it to include motorcycle parts shops.
“After being informed, police had proceeded, under the centre’s suggestion, to act against the involved shops and regularly set up checkpoints to conduct drunk driving tests,” he said. “However, this month, with many police on holidays and on other missions, there seems to be fewer checkpoints.”
Highway Police arrested a 15-strong street racing gang on Bangkok’s motorway route nine (Outer Ring Road, Kanchanaphisek) on Thursday and the minors appeared before the Central Juvenile and Family Court.
They were then sent to the Ban Metta Juvenile Remand Home for “positive potential development” from Friday until Thursday, Wisit said.
Their parents were also invited to acknowledge the youths’ law-breaking action, he said.
He said that while first-time offenders were warned and put on probation, the parents of repeat offenders would also be punished and could be sentenced to up to three months in prison and/or a Bt30,000 fine.
