Boonlua Chatree
With peak season crowds converging on the city,
Pattaya’s Tourist Police staged another of its periodic sweeps to clear
homeless people and street vendors off the streets to paint a cleaner
picture of the city for the New Year’s holiday.
Tourist Police commander, Maj. Arun Prompan led the
after-midnight crackdown Dec. 15 with more than 30 officers and
volunteers clearing Pattaya Beach and Walking Street of vagrants and
hawkers. Arrested were 11 homeless and 30 vendors, including one
offering photos with a python and three selling obscene materials. Four
illegal aliens were captured.
The sweeps came after orders from ranking Tourist
Police officials to pretty up the city for Pattaya’s large New Year’s
celebration.
