How to take advantage of a coup

I think I've blogged about The General sometime in the past. The General is my friend's father that is a general in the Thai Army. I called her when I got home from work to make sure her family were ok only to find out that "of course they are. Dad's stoked!". While apparently her father knew nothing about it (he's in the process of retiring), it does take a majority of generals to approve a move like this and apparently it was 5 generals in particular that led the charge, according to The General. Hmmm... sure sounds like he knew nothing about any of this...

Anyhow, a coup generally gets people like me thinking. With a state of emergancy declared and an effective short-term dissolution of the constitution, the old laws no longer hold sway. Military law appears to be the standard for the next two weeks (which is the length of time my friend said it will take for the King to appoint a new PM). So in the meantime, there's no lengthy court processes. No hearings and appeals. Just the glory days of the immediate and irrevocable use of the death penalty.

Me? Well, if I was any of the other Thai law enforcement agencies I would be using this as an opportunity to take out some of the more powerful criminal elements. Who needs the insertion of undercover operatives into an organisation? The constant dead drops? Loss of operatives because their wife called, forgetting they were undercover, again? Lengthy RICOS (yes, I'm watching Sporanos again...)? Fuck all of them. A coup can be for more than just getting rid of corrupt politicians. Why not eliminate some of the seedier elements of society in the changeover period? Democratic rights hold no water right now so there's nothing to stop agencies, assuming they hold a high up military type in their pocket, from accomplishing some of their long-term goals.

I'm just sayin'.