Australia: Race warfare divides city

OK & good luck, but I think we should get back to the thread topic here.

Just about every "Ozzian" I know is repulsed & disgusted by what happened at Cronulla, Lash. Same as the sentiments expressed on radio talkback & in the media. Very ugly & distressing.

Wikipedia has an frequently updated article about these events - don't know, though, how accurate it actually is.

Wikipedia looks reasonably accurate, though, as I have no doubt it is based on the same news reports I am reading, it WOULD look the same!

The talk back radio thing is nasty...I have no idea if it is true.

Sydney (and Melbourne) have O'Reilly type extremists (though without his pretensions to accuracy) called "shock jocks" on some stations.

They are listened to by lots of uneducated and angry people....and sometimes stir up **** about various things...I have no idea if they were **** stirring re Islamic gangs, or not, but it sounds reasonable. It is the type of thing they WOULD do, but the prepared t shirts stuff sounds like there has been real preparation of gangs for a drunken rampage.


That plus booze and young testosterone....yecccchhh.

Really looks a lot like what happened in France...and they seem to have borrowed tactics from there...


Gangs of kids crashing parties and such, spreading info to each other by text message, has been around for a while.....but this...

Racial Unrest Spreading in Australia:

Sydney Erupts in Second Night of Riots
Sydney Erupts in Second Night of Riots
By Simon Freeman
Times Online
Monday 12 December 2005

The Sydney suburbs have erupted in a second night of racially-charged violence which has exposed ugly tensions beneath Australia's good-humoured exterior.

Local media reported a "terrifying escalation" in the conflict, as 70 car loads of Lebanese youths arrived in the predominantly white suburb of Cronulla - the flashpoint for yesterday's running battles - intent on revenge.

The Sydney Morning Herald described how the youths began smashing up shops and cars with baseball bats and threatening passers-by. There were more disturbances in the neighbouring suburb of Brighton-Le-Sands where bricks were thrown at passing cars.

Around 600 people, some armed with pistols and crowbars and summoned by mobile phone text message, gathered to confront one another on Maroubra Beach, in a mainly white suburb to the south of the city.

Around 30 people were injured, including a man of Arab appearance who was stabbed in the back during the fighting. At least 16 arrests were made as police fought back with batons and pepper spray.

Elsewhere, about 300 people of Arab descent demonstrated against Sunday's attack outside one of Sydney's largest mosques, Lakemba, amid tight police security. Surrounding roads were blocked and iron bars seized as police tried to prevent the protestors from making their way to the fighting on Maroubra beach.

Politicians and community leaders were appealing for calm and struggling to explain how the worst instance of race violence in Australia's modern history has broken out in a city which considers itself a cultural melting pot.

Triggered by attacks on two volunteer lifeguards on Cronulla by a Lebanese gang, the tension has now escalated and police fear further clashes in coming days.

Australia has long prided itself on accepting immigrants - from Italians and Greeks after the Second World War to families fleeing the Middle East and Southeast Asia. In the last census in 2001, nearly a quarter of Australia's 20 million people said they were born overseas.

Tensions between youths of Arabic and Middle Eastern descent and white Australians have, however, been rising in recent years with anti-Muslim sentiment fuelled by the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, in October 2002.

John Howard, the Prime Minister, called the violence "sickening" but denied it was symptomatic of a vein of racism running through Australian society. He also dismissed suggestions that his own warnings over the threat of homegrown Islamist terrorism had contributed to the tensions.

"I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country," he said.

"This nation of ours has been able to absorb millions of people from different parts of the world over a period of now some forty years and we have done so with remarkable success and in a way that has brought enormous credit to this country," Mr Howard said.

This view was challenged by television footage of yesterday's, in which some of the 5,000 rioters had draped themselves in the country's flag to hurl racist abuse at any non-whites. A number of neo-Nazi groups have been accused of orchestrating clashes and fanning the flames of unrest.

Muslim leaders in the city have blamed the media, particularly some influential phone-in radio shows, for inciting listeners to riot. A white nationalist group, the Patriotic Youth League, was said to be attempting to trigger similar unrest in Brisbane.

Roland Jabbour, chairman of the Australian Arabic Council, said: "Arab Australians have had to cope with vilification, racism, abuse and fear of a racial backlash for a number of years, but these riots will take that fear to a new level."

Community Relations Commission chairman Stepan Kerkyasharian told Sky News: "What we have seen yesterday is something I thought I would never see in Australia and perhaps we have not seen in Australia in any of our lifetimes, and that is a mass call to violence based on race."

Christian leaders also expressed outrage. "There is no place in our free, democratic and civil society for racist and mob violence," said Sydney's Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen.

"We must look to the root causes of this social disharmony, seek authentic information about them, and deal with those matters."

Cardinal George Pell, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, said: "All people of goodwill should reject the extremists in both camps, and work together so that this is the end of major disturbances, not the beginning of something worse."

Sydney has declared war on all rioters.....

Police ranks boosted in war on riots
Nick Leys and Richard Kerbaj
14dec05

SYDNEY has declared war on all rioters after more than 48 hours of lawlessness and admissions from both the police and Muslim leaders that they have been unable to control the angry mobs of young men.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma announced a series of new police powers, including increasing the penalty for rioting from five years to 15, as the number of officers on the streets was trebled. At dusk last night, an extra 450 highly mobile police and 20 dog-squad units were patrolling the hot spots in suburbs across Sydney as communities braced for a third night of violence.

The additional police powers will go before a special sitting of parliament tomorrow.

They include allowing police to establish "lockdown zones" where officers can search people and vehicles at will; and powers to confiscate vehicles driven by those who are seen to be involved in rioting.

Mr Iemma, who was elevated to the top job five months ago, has vowed to "take back the streets".

"These criminals have declared war on our society and we are not going to let them win. I won't allow Sydney's reputation as a tolerant, vibrant international city to be tarnished by these ratbags and criminals who want to engage in the sort of behaviour we've seen in the last 48 hours."

Islamic leaders have warned that the race-related violence is symptomatic of a deep-seated racism in Australian society and could lead to the radicalisation of young Muslim men.

On Monday night, several thousand men met at Lakemba Mosque, where leaders urged them to keep the peace. Their calls were ignored, however, and 11 men were arrested after a second night of violence in Cronulla that left seven people injured, one of them a police officer.

Bats and iron bars were seized and police found a cache of Molotov cocktails.

Police are also now investigating bullet holes found in the cars of several staff members at St Joseph the Worker Primary School in South Auburn after a Christmas carols service on Monday evening. Parents and children were abused by a group of young men of Middle Eastern appearance and gunshots were heard during the service.

In the southwestern Sydney suburb of Raby, some residents woke yesterday to find their vehicles damaged and sprayed with graffiti.

One car was spray-painted with the words "See ya Sunday ya wog c...", and at least one other car was set alight, police said.

Waleed Aly of the Victorian Islamic Association warned that events of the past few days could radicalise young Muslim men and encourage them to adopt more extreme forms of Islam.

"It's really hard to predict, because young guys involved in gang-type situations are often not the same guys involved in mosques and religious communities," he told The Australian.

"But extremist discourse feeds on persecution complex, so any kind of event which feeds into that narrative makes things worse in terms of the security issues."

Rahman Fadi, an Islamic youth leader, agreed that the situation was feeding extremist agendas.

"This is giving the cutting edge for people of such ideologies to say 'we told you so, they don't want us here'," he said.

One 20-year-old Lebanese man, who was arrested on Sunday night after the Cronulla beach riot, told The Australian the violence was "not a religious thing but pretty much came down to the fact that you are a wog".

Asked if the race-related riots would encourage more men to take up radical forms of Islam, he said: "It could happen to a minority.

"If you keep getting bashed and bashed and bashed, of course you will get more and more violent, of course that will be the case."

Their comments followed further denials from John Howard that the attacks that have taken place since a riot at Cronulla beach on Sunday reflect a racist element to Australian society.

"Violence, thuggery, loutish behaviour, smashing people's property, intimidating people - all of those things are breaches of the law and I don't think the actions should be given some kind of special ... status because they occur against the background of this or that," the Prime Minister said.

Sheik Shady, a cleric at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's west, said Mr Howard was denying the truth about what was behind the violence. "If you want to deny this, you are denying yourselves and that's total ignorance of the situation. That's not a solution to it."

He said he had urged young men at Lakemba Mosque on Monday night to let authorities deal with the volatile situation.

Nothing really happened last night, except a few more arrests:

"Strong police presence curbs southern Sydney unrest

Police say there have been five arrests in Sydney's southern suburbs overnight but there have not been any serious incidents.

One man was arrested for carrying a knife in Cronulla.

More than 450 police patrolled suburbs including Maroubra and Brighton-Le-Sands and officers set up road blocks at the Kingsway.

Cronulla was flooded with police as they performed regular patrols of the suburb from their base at the North Cronulla Surf Club.

Many local residents believe the large number of police in the area last night prevented the violent clashes of the previous two nights.

A Cronulla resident says the strong police presence worked very well.

"It's good to see there isn't any hoons cruising around in their cars and that," he said.

"I think the cops have scared them off, yes, it's good to see. Should be able to sleep a bit safer tonight."

The NSW Parliament will be recalled tomorrow to pass tough new laws to enable police to crack down on rioters.

But another Cronulla resident says politicians may be too late in taking action.

"As a local I am scared, yes I am scared about local safety - the police don't have the power to do what they need to do," he said.

"And it's only now, on the radio and what's happening is, the politicians are starting to say 'yes, we need to give the police the power to do what they need to do' and I'm a little bit scared it's too late."
Police deployment

New South Wales Police Minister Carl Scully says hundreds of police will remain in parts of southern Sydney for as long as it takes to bring peace to the streets.

"I anticipate that this sort of activity, this level of commitment will have to either stay as it is or increase, depending on the reaction of the community," he said.

"Police will deploy where they believe they're needed based on intelligence and based on other factors we'll keep applying the pressure and the resources needed.

"We are not going to allow these criminals and thugs to take over Sydney so we'll do what it takes for as long as it takes to return calm and peace to Sydney."......"

Full story

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1530333.htm

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I'm a police officer - and I am scared

This open letter, from an anonymous police officer, was being distributed to locals in Cronulla yesterday

December 14, 2005

I AM a NSW police officer with more than 17 years' experience and I tell you that I am scared.

I am scared to do my job and I don't blame the community for taking the law into their own hands.

In the late '80s when I first joined the police force, I saw how the old school police did things. I agree there was corruption and things had to change, but what the Government, judicial system and ultimately society did to the police force was just disgraceful.

In days gone by, if there was a group of hoodlums hanging around intimidating people outside a pub, two 6'2" burly coppers would turn up in a big F100 truck.

The way they spoke, their stature, respect and how they dealt with these hoodlums gave them real power and not some weak piece of legislation given to them by some reactionary Government.

If these hoodlums hadn't already run off because they knew what was coming, they would cop a flogging, a kick up the bum, a slap over the head. The young kids were afraid of the police and that's how we controlled and protected the community. Fear is the only thing a young male understands. That real power is now lost forever.

Let's look at how the new police force would handle the same job.

Firstly, we changed our name to a "service" because it was aggressive to use the word "force". We send two small female officers, wearing silly little yellow caps.

If we want to move these thugs out of the area, we have a very strict procedure we must follow. We have to announce our name and place of duty. The thug laughs and starts calling us by our first name.

We have to tell them why they have to move on. We have to warn them that if they fail to move on, they may be arrested.

If there is more than one thug, we have to do this to each one.

They tell us they don't speak English, start stating their rights and call their friends by mobile phone to come to the location.

The process we have just started doesn't work with a drunk who wants to argue - it just makes it more confusing.

We have to make detailed notes of the conversation and caution them not to say or do anything in case it incriminates them.

Each time we use a power, we have to tell the hoodlum what it is and why we are doing it.

From the very outset, they have the upper hand and it continues. They have the real power ... we have pretend power.

If we do decide to arrest them, we have to be so careful not to grab their arms too hard or wrestle them to the ground because it may graze their legs or rip their jeans.

The thugs will allege we damaged their phones, took $50 from their wallets, swore at them, put the handcuffs on too tight.

When they get back to the police station, they complain to a supervisor who now starts to investigate us.

The whole charging process takes hours in a run-down police station with computers that don't work.

So we charge them with offensive language, assault police, resist arrest and put them before the court.

A local magistrate is presiding over the matter. After 30 minutes in court, the charges are dismissed and the recommendations made that the police should be charged with assault and sent to jail for six months.

We are told we should expect to be sworn at, called a pig and stood over by thugs.

The complaint and civil action lingers on for 18 months as it goes from the Ombudsman to ICAC and PIC. The thug has got off the charges, winks his eye and smiles at me as he walks out of court.

That's the justice that we have that goes on every day in many local courts in NSW.

Can you see why I am scared?

Do you think I am going to arrest someone, come next Friday or Saturday night, with all that rubbish going on?

I am going to take my time getting to the job, hope the thugs leave before I arrive and stand there and take the abuse. I hear my commanders saying we will uphold the law to the letter. Easy for them to say, but it just doesn't happen.

If we were fair dinkum, we would have hundreds of arrests and charges every day.

Have a look at the promotion system. Junior police being promoted in front of other senior police with 20 years' experience, because they can answer a question in an interview better.

Everyone is looking after themselves. We are no longer a team versus the thugs. It is me alone versus police management versus the thugs.

You have seen the quality of our senior police leaders. They wouldn't last long in private enterprise.

After the stuff-ups of the Redfern riot - an absolute disgrace in operational policing - we heard senior police say "we will learn from this".

Not a year later, Macquarie Fields. The same mistakes and stuff-ups.

Listen to the commissioner as he talks. It is all reactionary policing.

Why didn't Intel pick this up earlier? Why weren't measures put in place earlier? Because the problems have been going on for years.

The police out there have poor morale, equipment and training. We aren't united as a team - everyone has their own agenda and we are scared.

We have the weak, ambiguous powers the Government says we have to have and a judicial system that just defies logic.

I totally understand why young men feel they have to take the law into their own hands. I don't trust, and have very little loyalty in, the police service and the court system.

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,17560765-5001030,00.html

I've seen very similar letters .... from pre-1933 Germany.

Well, fortunately, despite this fella, it sounds like the NSW police (once notorious for corruption and brutality) are actually having to observe the law to some extent in their dealings with the public.

And dumb, testosterone and alcohol and racist bullshit men (Anglo or Lebanses) ain't gonna be taking "the law into their own hands".

As far as I can work out, a lot of this stems from Lebanese and Anglo gangs, doing the traditional gang warfare ****.

As far as I can see, both groups of dumb young males have taken their **** out on absolutely uninvolved women and guys....as well as on each other.

"Taking the law into their hands" includes attacking completely uninvolved women wearing headscarves? Utterly innocent "men of middle eastern appearance" going about their lawful business?

Harassing Anglo women for wearing bikinis? Having an organised gang of Lebanese males targetting Anglo women for pack rapes?

Get real. They are criminals. They aren't "taking the law into their own hands" they are thugs and bullies...taking their dumb **** out on others.

I hope the law takes THEM into its hands, and fast.

Not directly related to this thread, but ...

From the print version of the (London) Evening Standard (Westend Final, 14.12.2005, page 64):




The text below that photo reads:

I edited my post, but couldn't change it before Walter posted:

Well, fortunately, despite this fella, it sounds like the NSW police (once notorious for corruption and brutality) are actually having to observe the law to some extent in their dealings with the public.

And dumb, testosterone and alcohol and racist bullshit men (Anglo or Lebanese) ain't gonna be taking "the law into their own hands".

As far as I can work out, a lot of this stems from Lebanese and Anglo gangs, doing the traditional gang warfare ****, fueled, presumably, by young malehood, plus whatever grievances each side believes (legitimately or not) it has, and the usual hysterical rumour mill. (Wher a sideways look becomes an assault after a couple of retellings).

As far as I can see, both groups of dumb young males have taken their **** out on absolutely uninvolved women and guys....as well as on each other.

"Taking the law into their hands" includes attacking completely uninvolved women wearing headscarves? Utterly innocent "men of middle eastern appearance" going about their lawful business?

Harassing Anglo women for wearing bikinis? Having an organised gang of Lebanese males targetting Anglo women for pack rapes? (THOSE guys are in prison, where I hope some of the Anglo thugs soon join them)

Get real. They are criminals. They aren't "taking the law into their own hands" they are thugs and bullies...taking their dumb **** out on others.

I hope the law takes THEM into its hands, and fast.

Sorry.

"Coach rapped over 'commando' camp

Wednesday, December 14, 2005 Posted: 1623 GMT (0023 HKT)

An imitation pistol was used to stage mock 'executions'

MELBOURNE, Australia (CNN) -- A leading Australian swimming coach has been forced to apologize to his national federation after running a "commando" style training camp involving mock "executions."

Rohan Taylor's elite Carey Aquatic squad took part in the military-style boot camp as they prepared for next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

But Swim Australia chief executive Glenn Tasker told CNN that the use of such practices was "inappropriate" and he had ordered Taylor to call a halt.

The controversy came to light after pictures were published in Australia's Herald Sun newspaper showing youngsters in military uniforms forced to kneel before pretending to be shot with an imitation pistol.

World 50m butterfly champion Danni Miatke, 18, was one of several leading stars involved in the grueling two-hour session, with some as young as 16 taking part.

A Royal Australian Navy physical trainer supervised the camp which was held on parkland at Bulleen in Melbourne.

"Doing exercises and being tough is something athletes do every day, " Tasker said.

"What we saw in the paper, depicting weapons and shooting, is very inappropriate.

"My view is people who see it would be shocked."

Taylor, a coach on Australia's world championship team, maintained that the session was enjoyed by the swimmers but apologized for the distress caused.

"We were all laughing at the time, but the pictures did not present well," he was quoted in Wednesday's Herald Sun.

'It was a mistake and I would not do it again," he added.

The episode has echoes of the infamous boot-camp that South Africa's rugby union squad were subjected to before the 2003 World Cup and Tasker admitted to CNN that there were unfortunate parallels.

"I can only say that coaches in swimming tend to be extremely insular and would not have made this connection," he said.

Tasker added that Taylor was a highly regarded coach and that the incident would not disqualify him from a role with Australian teams in the future."


http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SPORT/12/14/swimming.coach/



Hmmmmmmmm....

As an aside - I wouldn't believe too much you read in the Daily Telegraph (Sydney newspaper) - it's been one of the less helpful, and, at times, down right inciteful, participants in this problem.

And what we're hearing now, on more sane media outlets, is that at least one of the "shock jocks" may be facing incitement charges. Everyone is watching this closely - and this particular drongo, Alan Jones, has the highest listening audience in the state, and is a friend of several high-ranking politicians.

I'm so irritated each time I hear him - I find it impossible to understand how anyone can listen to him. But...an associate of mine, who I had always thought of as level headed, intelligent, and ..just like me, really!... apparently listens to him regularly. Just knocked me over with surprise.

Shoot the bloody lot of them, I say - both the politicians AND the "shock jocks" - make it better for all of us!

On TV last night, the Police Commissioner was suggesting that people shouldn't go to the beach this weekend - and named a couple of popular beaches, where they have some intelligence about possible incidents to occur. Sheeesh! A week before Christmas, hot and steamy, lots of people on holidays (or in holiday spirit) and we're advised not to go to the beach!

We discussed a possible conservative demonstration - you know - all us middle class, staid, proper types, sitting on the beaches, with our glares and pursed lips (but no cardigans!) , and reclaim "our" beaches.

But..we decided to have another drink and go to another beach instead!

It is a sad state of affairs, though - and this weekend will be interesting.

Surf culture bridges the racial divide
Jonathan Porter and David King

December 17, 2005

BEACHES along a 200km strip of the NSW coastline will be locked down this weekend, with families told to stay away as the police attempt to stop gangs of youths armed with guns, baseball bats and knives.

There will be roadblocks from Newcastle to Wollongong, including Sydney's premier beaches from Bondi to Cronulla, with people told to avoid entire suburbs for their own safety.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma took the "extraordinary measure" after police told him there was credible evidence that gangs were preparing to storm beaches armed with knives, sticks, baseball bats and guns.

NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said the potential troublespots were beaches at Cronulla, the eastern suburbs, the Central Coast, Wollongong and Newcastle.

He increased the number of police on duty over the weekend, saying 1500 extra police would patrol the city's flashpoint suburbs on Saturday and 2000 would patrol on Sunday.

The commissioner said people would be allowed to proceed only if they established "their bona fides" and had a "legitimate" reason to go to the beach.

He said non-residents who insisted on going to the beach could expect long delays because their cars would be searched.

"I would urge people who do not live in these areas to stay away unless they have a good reason to be there," he said.

"Our latest intelligence tells us that large numbers of people are planning to go to these areas on Sunday to cause riotous behaviour. In the interests of public safety, it is my duty to warn the public that these areas have been identified as targets. "

Mr Moroney also refused to rule out closing Bondi Beach on Christmas Day, next Sunday.

Bondi has been the venue of Christmas celebrations for tourists for more than a decade.

While Mr Moroney denied police were barring people from going to the beach at the height of the summer, he called for people to "use common sense" and "pursue other activities".

"I would not allow my family to go to any of these nominated beaches this weekend," he said.

It was a remarkable turnaround from the Commissioner, who just one day earlier had called for people to go to the beach "in the Australian way" as a means of battling gang terror.

On Thursday, Mr Moroney had pleaded for the spirit of Christmas to return to Sydney, and called on families to visit the beach this weekend.

"I want people to enjoy the spirit of Christmas. I think in the last 10 days or so the spirit of Christmas rode out of this town," Mr Moroney said.

Riot police, special operations police and dog squads will flood the beach areas and will be supported by the Police Air Wing and the Marine Unit.

Road blocks will be set up at danger areas, and police can now use the additional powers passed by the NSW parliament on Thursday to confiscate cars and mobile phones from people deemed potential law-breakers.

The dramatic warning followed more unrest in Sydney on Thursday night, with 19 people arrested, an elderly man bashed with a crowbar, a Molotov cocktail thrown at police and one officer injured in a brawl.

Two men aged 24 and 23 were charged with making explosives after police found seven Molotov cocktails on the balcony of their unit at Cronulla.

About 5000 people converged on Sydney's North Cronulla beach last Sunday, sparking a race riot that set of a chain of violence.

Warnings of violence this weekend follow retaliatory "smash and bash" attacks in Sydney earlier this week, and since then there have been a wave of text messages and emails urging further race-based attacks.

John Howard yesterday said the violence that had gripped Sydney would not affect Australia's international standing.

"There are 4.5 million people in Sydney and the behaviour of a small number of lunatics is not going to dent the compassionate reputation of this city or the compassionate reputation of this nation," the Prime Minister said.

Source

Source

Sheeesh!