As crowds grow, police sweep streets of homeless, vendors

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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.