Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

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Re: Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

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OrangeDragon wrote:It's called a work ethic.
Spoken like a true wasp.
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Re: Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

Post by LTO »

OrangeDragon wrote:http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weeke ... etty-crime
• Signage: A similar rise in bag theft in Bangkok last year was stemmed when bilingual warning signs were placed in areas with previous incidents. Simple awareness of the danger, not to wear handbags within easy reach of the street, to avoid unlit lanes at night, can avert many cases of theft and injury.
Yeah, but it hasn't worked out that well so far in Sihanoukville and they would never want to give the admission that it's a real problem in the capitol by putting up signs.
• Media: The free tourist maps of Phnom Penh, and ad-heavy brochures and freesheets on what to do, see and eat, could include warnings on areas to avoid at night and how to secure belongings against would-be thieves. The official Cambodia tourism site could include a multilingual section on crime and safety rather than continue to avoid the issue.
See above.
• Local intelligence: As tourists and expats are often reminded by drivers, tuk-tuks and motos are omnipresent in popular areas. They also have “beats”, streets and corners they return to. In terms of local intelligence, no one is better placed to keep an eye open for suspicious activity. Except for the tiny fraction that is complicit in the problem, security is in their own interest. With so many streets already being watched, it might be useful to make use of this resource, by asking them to report their findings to police.
"tiny fraction"... seems optimistic and likely the reverse of the reality.
• Hotline. A telephone number or a website could be set up where people can report thefts, suspicious activity and suspected collusion.
So that the police can then charge the tourist and do nothing... which is what happens when they report them now.


I love how all of these suggestions avoid the suggestion that the police actually crack down and do their jobs...
Agree completely.

Have to wonder if the writer of the article has lived in Cambodia more than a few minutes.

The "free ad heavy brochures" (or at least one of them) does warn tourists how to protect their belongings against theft, in fact very close to verbatim of this article's comment on not wearing bags close to the street, etc. And warning tourists off areas where theft occurs would amount to warning them to warning them off the tourist areas.

The writer does not seem to understand the role of tuktuk and motodups in these crimes against tourists, where the crimes occur, nor the lack of interest by police and other officials in preventing/solving these crimes.

Honest tuktuks and motodup do sometimes try to tell the police about crimes and criminals they know about, but the police don't care. For example I hear regular complaints from tuktuk drivers about how they have tried reporting the Filipino scammers to the police and how the police simply do not care or act on the info. Further, people don't fail to report crimes because there is no hotline to report crimes to the cops but because the cops are not helpful when crimes are reported. The police know what's going on, where and probably who, but for whatever reason, simply don't do anything about it.

And as for online security information for tourists, back to the "ad heavy free brochures": http://www.canbypublications.com/cambodia/safety.htm

The main problems are that the police are corrupt and useless and tourists are stupid.
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Re: Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

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1. Signs: will get stolen if metal, or vandalised. Bad idea.
2. Media: maybe. Big maybe, but the denial/milk the cash cow crowd will block it.
3. Local intelligence; best oxymoron of the year. Why will they shoot themselves in the foot?
4. Hotline: A telephone number or a website could be set up where people can report thefts, suspicious activity and suspected collusion.

Hahahaha! Someone needs to answer the phone! Any volunteers/ Sorry, hammock-time!

The concept of the government actually spending money to put more people on the street...sorry, we are impoverished, look at our small houses...
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Re: Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

Post by OrangeDragon »

A "RobbedInCambodia.Com" website would actually be pretty funny. Let people report it there, then let others comment on them.
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Re: Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

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Stupid tourists or not in Snooky, it all comes down to the police not patrolling. Its the same with the traffic and stupid/crazy driving. It starts with the chief of police and the governor. If a little more money was paid to the police instead of going in someone's pocket and mandatory patrolling enforced on the police, the crime and accident rate would nose dive.

The police in snooky know who the thieves are, but its not putting money in their pocket so they don't care. The answer comes from the top. Make them care. If they set up a flying squad with say two cops and one on a cop-moto to patrol each tourist area to protect tourists at night things would change fast. (tourist police that speak English, German, Jap, etc and get a little more money because they do.)

With the influx of tourists with money in their pocket (stupid or not) you need to protect them from thieves. Sihanoukville will never be a major tourist destination until:
1) There is competent medical care (a major well run hospital with western trained doctors, as in Ko Samui)
2) Pressure is put on thieves to move somewhere else.
3) The tourists can walk down a street and not be killed for their money
4) The container/beer trucks are taken off the Hwy #4 (Death Highway from Hell) and put on the railroad

And last, but not least:
5) The government stops protecting Vietnamese owned Angkor Air and allows another airline to fly in Cambodia (Snooky. )People with money and only a couple weeks vacation are not going to ride a taxi or bus for 4 hours on the death highway to get to Snooky, but will fly directly into Snooky airport or into PP change planes and fly to Snooky. (At this moment, airplanes are setting on the tarmac in the Philippines ready to start flying in Cambodia and Phil/Phnom Penh, but the "paperwork" hasn't gotten past the powers that be/he.) When the doctors who own Bangkok Airways built the airport on Ko Samui, it was a game changer. You went from mostly backpackers with some money to international travelers with lots of money (but still places for back/flashpackers.) That's why Ko Samui has major hospitals (gets medical tourists), a mall, cinaplex, McDs, etc. (some of this progress is good, some not.)

If the Koh Pous/American-company/government of China/one Billion dollar projects gets started, some of this might come to pass. Think about this. Sihanoukville is the only town/city in Southeast Asia that you can walk out of a casino onto a natural white sand beach (not man made.)(I may be wrong, but I know of no other city like it.)
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Re: Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

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We (myself and a few other snooky expats) had a decent idea for some vigilante curbing of this behaviour. There's a small device called a squib used in movies to make the blood explosions from "bullet wounds" in real time. They're really easy to make, not dangerous, and cheap. Send out a few chicks as bait with cheap purses which have these in them, but are loaded with strong dye instead of fake blood, and are rigged to pop when the purse is opened. Much like ink packs in bank money... start tagging these jackasses so they stand out for a few days. Maybe even get lucky and have one open it while in transit and make his moto crash when it surprises him.

My idea was to mix in some pepper spray as well, but figured that could be potential more liability.

Shit like THAT would probably be a good step for curbing petty crime...
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Re: Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

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Sailorman wrote:The government stops protecting Vietnamese owned Angkor Air and allows another airline to fly in Cambodia (Snooky. )People with money and only a couple weeks vacation are not going to ride a taxi or bus for 4 hours on the death highway to get to Snooky, but will fly directly into Snooky airport or into PP change planes and fly to Snooky.
The government's relationship with Angkor Air is not the reason for the lack of regular PP-SHV flights. It's a money losing route and always has been. With the brief exception of the PMT debacle, there weren't any planes flying to SHV for 14+ years (from the time RAC dropped the route in 97 until Angkor Air picked it up in 2011 or 12) because it is such a loser. The government couldn't pay an airline to fly there. They've even tried threatening to pull other more lucrative routes in order to force the addition of an SHV route. With PP being so close by bus and SHV being a less than desirable SEA beach destination, airlines simply can't make that route pay.
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Re: Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

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OrangeDragon wrote:We (myself and a few other snooky expats) had a decent idea for some vigilante curbing of this behaviour. There's a small device called a squib used in movies to make the blood explosions from "bullet wounds" in real time. They're really easy to make, not dangerous, and cheap.
Friend of mine in HCMC got robbed, bought a cobra from a guy, put the cobra in a backpack, then made a big show of putting in (into the outside pocket) a cheap, broken camera that looked expensive. two guys pushed him over, took the bag and the one guy stuck his hand inside while they were still getting away...

A scream.

My friend laid low for a day and then flew out.
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Re: Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

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vladimir wrote:
OrangeDragon wrote:We (myself and a few other snooky expats) had a decent idea for some vigilante curbing of this behaviour. There's a small device called a squib used in movies to make the blood explosions from "bullet wounds" in real time. They're really easy to make, not dangerous, and cheap.
Friend of mine in HCMC got robbed, bought a cobra from a guy, put the cobra in a backpack, then made a big show of putting in (into the outside pocket) a cheap, broken camera that looked expensive. two guys pushed him over, took the bag and the one guy stuck his hand inside while they were still getting away...

A scream.

My friend laid low for a day and then flew out.
See... now if that happened 1 out of 3 times they snatched a bag I bet they'd be a lot less keen on snatching bags.
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Re: Four simple steps to crack down on petty crime

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I just hope the cobra was OK.
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