So the buck stops at Pol Lt-Gen Veera Jiraveera, the commissioner of the 2nd Region Provincial Police Bureau overseeing the eastern region covering Rayong, Chon Buri, Chanthaburi and Trat provinces.
Pol Lt-Gen Veera was removed from his post and transferred to the operations centre of the Royal Thai Police by the national police chief, Pol Gen Suwat Jangyodsuk, after mounting pressure from the media and an angry public over police inaction allowing illegal gambling dens to operate in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The police chief and police commanders of the four coastal provinces who were abruptly axed before him were sacrificed, like cutting off bad fingers to save the body, to ease public uproar and at the same time shield the others higher up in the police chain of command and those in the government.
The incumbent police chief seems to have underestimated the foul mood of the people. He is wrong and somewhat naive to believe the people will be satisfied so easily.
Ask anyone in Rayong whether they believe the money trail from illegal gambling activity stops at the regional police chief? They will just laugh it off just as many others no longer take seriously the latest tough words about decisive crackdowns on illegal gambling dens from a serious-looking Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Too many broken promises have taught them who they can trust, as they are hard to find in the police force or in the government.
At the very best, only the small flies will get caught while the big-spending den operator in Rayong, widely known as Long Chu, the Chinese terminology for a rich man, and those corrupt men in the government will escape scot free and remain untouchable.
The Long Chu's name is well known, not only in Rayong, but in the eastern region and it was reported he has several senior police and politicians in his pocket. That explains why his illegal gambling operation has flourished and been untouched by police since long before the pandemic struck.
If it wasn't for Covid-19 the influential illegal gambling dens in Rayong and their police connections may never have been exposed. But we certainly can't be grateful for its adverse consequences on the economy and livelihoods of the people.
The Kasikornthai Research Centre has forecast the damage to the economy from this second round of pandemic at about 45 billion baht, and no one can realistically say how long it might last. There might even be a third round like in many other countries once people lower their guard.
Tragically in our case, it is the corrupt police and other officials who are the real culprits, not the people in general who stand to suffer most.
But people in government service from the prime minister down to junior officials will not feel the pain or the hopelessness of many factory or office workers. They may not understand why the people are so angry this time and will not forgive those greedy officials who have visited upon them such suffering.
Kittisuk Kitchokjalearnsagoon, a real estate developer and an adviser for Japanese investors in Si Racha of Chon Buri, offers a reflection on his Facebook of this cardinal fault of the police against Thais.
He said people in government services are not affected because they will receive their salaries in full while their fellow countrymen in the private sector will count themselves lucky if they keep their jobs with pay cuts.
The pandemic has turned the bustling Si Racha into a ghost town and dealt a death blow to businesses and tourism, he said, adding the desperate situation today reminds him of the former police chief, Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda.
At the start of the first round of outbreak early last year, he announced a crackdown on all illegal gambling dens with a no-nonsense warning to his policemen that they would face the consequences if the illegal activity was found in their area of responsibility.
According to Mr Kittisuk and other sources, the illegal gambling den owners have connections high up in the government that provide them with protection against arrests by police and harassment by others in exchange for huge payoffs that are sent to the men at the top first and distributed down the chain of command.
This top-down arrangement is unlike the previous bottom-up arrangement when police at each station collect payoffs from the den operators and send them to the station chiefs, then provincial chiefs, regional chiefs and then further higher up before they are distributed down the chain of command.
The new arrangement works in the same way as an open bid for a government contract.
The bidder who offers the highest payoff in a province or a district will be awarded the monopoly to run illegal gambling dens for a certain period of time with full protection from the police. That might explain why the police chief in Rayong unashamedly claimed there are no illegal gambling dens in the province when Covid-19 struck in mid-December.
Illegal gambling dens and police are like Siamese twins in the sense they are mutually dependent and beneficial. Believe me, sooner or later it will be business as usual. But should we, the people, accept that as a fait accompli and say "mai pen rai"?
Hell no!
Veera Prateepchaikul is former editor, Bangkok Post.