Give student gang members hope, not jail

Few doubt there is some truth to the allegation, but there is nevertheless concern that a young Army private will take all the heat for what is, in fact, a social ill that no one has yet managed to effectively curb. 

Police have accused Private Rapeepat Phothitanutch, 22, of training and organising a group of thugs, the self-proclaimed “Ayodhaya Warriors Army”.

Ayutthaya police have asked Army commanders at Adisorn military camp in Saraburi province, where Rapeepat is based, to investigate allegations that the young soldier applied his Army skills to train vocational students in combat techniques they could use against students from rival schools.

Police say his activities constitute a threat to national security.

Specifically, Private Rapeepat is accused of leading 18 students from Ayutthaya Technical College in a brawl with students from Ayutthaya Ship Building Industrial and Technology College.

Police also believe that Rappeepat provided training in firearms and fighting with knives. 

The clash took place at a busy fresh market in downtown Ayutthaya last Thursday. 

The two sides were armed with machetes, swords, axes, rocks and clubs. The clash left three students injured, one seriously. 

Surveillance-camera footage shows Rapeepat wielding a machete and chasing after students from the other college.

Police nabbed six of the combatants on the spot and arrest warrants have been issued for 13 others, including the Army private. They have been charged with, among other things, colluding to commit murder and illegal possession of weapons. 

There is no doubt that this incident was no mere after-school scuffle among wayward kids, the sort of thing most of us witnessed during our student days. 

Here we are dealing with the use of deadly weapons, planning and training, all of which suggest the culprits were “playing for keeps”. 

But to pin the blame on a single “rogue” soldier would be a grave mistake. Rapeepat was just one individual caught up in senseless cyclical violence not confined to vocational schools in Ayutthaya but afflicting institutions all over the country. 

 To uncover the roots of the violence we need to look beyond the alleged actions of an undisciplined soldier and focus on an ailing society unable to solve problems associated with delinquency and criminality among the youth. 

Such violence can crop up anywhere. The technical schools just happen to provide the right conditions: groups of youths seeking superficial collective identity and finding it in student gangs.

But the fact that so many youngsters give in so easily to peer pressure suggests that we, as a society, don’t have a better alternative to offer them. For many, being a member of a gang is attractive and glamorous, since it gives them status and a sense of belonging. However, in their desperation to outdo the other side – the “enemy” – violence can spin out of control, expanding until it engulfs the entire community. 

To hand this problem entirely to the law and its enforcers is to ignore the fact that youth violence is a social problem that can only be solved with a comprehensive approach. Schools, parents and community leaders all have a role to play. But they can’t approach these young people empty-handed. We must come up with something to offer them, to show them there is more to life than senseless violence that only begets more violence. 

Locking up the suspects addresses the symptoms of the problem, not its root cause.