Udon Thani Police Chief to be Fired

National Anti-Corruption Commission found that he had committed a grave disciplinary offence for failing to prevent the clash between the two sides.

Possibly true, but would hold a lot more weight in my mind if the committee had come up with a more appropriate course of action that he should have taken...No such thing mentioned though. The loss of a life is undoubtedly something to regret.
The actions of the Yellow shirts in coming to somewhere like Udon to demonstrate was foolhardy in the extreme.
The video footage did little good in showing Thailand as a democracy.
While the police force have a responsibility for maintaining law & order individuals also have a responsibility as well.

The dismissal is a purely political act that does little to enhance Thailand's reputation abroad...

I disagree Bob.

Part of being a democracy is allowing different political points of view to be expressed - openly, and without fear of being disrupted by a thuggish mob.

Part of being a senior police officer is accepting responsibility for the actions (or in this case, inactions) of your "troops".

Those who saw the videos could not be other than appalled at the lack of discipline by the police on the day.

I would have thought dismissal should be only the first step, and it can only enhance Thailand's reputation if it can be shown that appropriate action is taken when (as in this case) it is entirely called for.

Ah well we will have to disagree then Jack -
My idea of democracy certainly does include ordinary citizens taking to the streets to protest a certain piece of legislation which they consider untenable. Forcing the Government to resign & holding new elections to ascertain what the citizens as a whole believe.
Sadly that was no where near the case in this circumstances. Mobs protested about the result of an election & not legislation. The Government fell, no elections over the offending piece of legislation, just a new set of leaders.
That sounds more like mob rule to me, not democracy in action....
As I said before if the Police Authority had a more appropriate 'battle plan' for the circumstances that happened in Udon Thani & the Chief failed to follow them - yes, then he should have resigned & not even waited for a hearing. I still wait to see what that plan is....

I would have thought that riot control would be one of the most basic of any plans held by a police authority - anywhere.

If the same mob had been attacking the police headquarters, should we assume that Udon's finest BiB would have stood back and watched - because they had no battle plan?

Aa, where does the buck stop ?