gobbledonk Posted December 12, 2005 Report Share Posted December 12, 2005 Hi All, As a 5th generation white Anglo-Celtic Australian, the events of the last 24 hours in Sydney have bought out a range of emotions in me: - shame : that Australians would resort to the mob mentality we saw in Cronulla yesterday, attacking couples and lone individuals because they 'looked like Lebs'. - anger : that the cops seem powerless to stop this shit, and too stupid to realise what everyone else in Syndey must have known - that carloads of Lebanese would descend on the southern beaches looking for revenge. - resignation : that after 25+ years of 'integration', young Lebanese males and young Anglo Australian males remain on a collision course. It wouldnt be so bad if they restricted their violence to one another, but thats rarely the case. Soft targets are so much easier, arent they, tough guys ? For many of you, this wont seem terribly newsworthy - you live in countries where riots are all too common - for Australia, its devastating. I'm sure the media are playing it up (understatement isnt their strong suit), but the images broadcast into our homes last night were nothing short of sickening. 25 hurt in race-fuelled attacks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted December 12, 2005 Report Share Posted December 12, 2005 To me it just shows how skin deep all the racial animosity is. Doesn't take much to spark it off. Pretty scary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted December 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2005 Hi Chuck, Sydney has been a powderkeg for some time - I cant think of anywhere else in Australia where the gap between the very rich and the not-so-well-off is so vast, but the problem with most of these lads isnt extreme poverty, its completely skewed values. The whole 'gangsta rapper' thing really seems to have taken off in Sydney, and the testosterone levels have never been higher. The worst part is that the cops seem completely clueless, and vastly outnumbered - personally, I'd like to see them go in hard, busting heads and handing out 3-5 years for anyone who even looks like taking us down the same dark road that the rest of the world seems to be travelling. I know this sounds like the kind of right-wing talk that saw Hitler come to power, but seeing the cops just stand there and cop bottles etc really makes my blood boil - these fuckers clearly have no respect for authority (both parties - Lebs and the drunken Anglo Australians), and that cant be tolerated. If they want a war, the police have to be prepared to show them that there are consequences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted December 12, 2005 Report Share Posted December 12, 2005 Powder keg is right. Sooner or later the pressure builds and things explode. Like what happened in France and could easily happen again in LA or the UK. Throw in a bunch of yobs who enjoy smashing things up and fighting and that's what you get. The police can't give in to that stuff or society is doomed. On the other hand the cops have to be careful....violence begets more violence. I hope better minds than mine know how to handle it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted December 12, 2005 Report Share Posted December 12, 2005 I haven't been in Sydney in years, and remember it as a much smaller city I liked very much and felt quite at home in. My wife just returned from a visit there last week. I know Sydney has changed a lot, but this does comes as a shock to me. I'm finding nothing in the news yet. Had to look it up on the BBC. From what I see, this looks more like the race riots in America in the 1920s in places like Chicago. One elderly man told me he could remember seeing black and white gangs hunting each other in the streets of Chicago, armed with baseball bats and rifles. He was a boy at the time and was terrified. Hopefully, Sydney will outgrow this, just as the US did. Might take a long time to get over this though. Once things get started, they have a tendency to continue. (What the mayor of Chicago did was have the governor send in the Illinois National Guard in battle gear to put a stop to things!) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4519818.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted December 12, 2005 Report Share Posted December 12, 2005 Interesting to compare the BBC version with this.... Ugly descent into violent thuggery By Luke McIlveen December 12, 2005 CRONULLA'S day of shame began like any normal Sunday. Families enjoyed a morning swim and early cloud gave way to brilliant December sunshine. A warning of the events to come was the appearance of dozens of flags, including the Eureka flag, along The Kingsway leading into Cronulla. By midday the beachfront concourse at North Cronulla resembled a summer cricket match with thousands of bare-chested locals chanting and drinking. A group of mates ran a sausage sizzle from the back of their ute, blasting out favourites by AC/DC and Cold Chisel. But as the beer flowed the day began to turn ugly. Cries of "f... off Leb" goaded the crowd. Surfers young and old, bikies, white supremacists, and even families with young children joined in the chants. Just after 1pm (AEDT) the throng descended on Northies Hotel where a Middle Eastern man was rumoured to be hiding. The mob screamed for him to show himself, chanting "string him up". They eventually found three Middle Eastern youths in the park in front of North Cronulla Surf Club and the inevitable happened. One of the youths stepped into a sandpit in the children's playground, challenging the crowd to a fight. He did not have to wait long. Locals bombarded him with punches, kicking him when he went down. Bleeding from facial cuts he was led to safety by dozens of police. There was more beer in the sun and more trouble to follow. Two girls of Middle Eastern descent were the next victims. As they walked along the street another group of teenage girls pushed them to the ground and assaulted them. The baying crowd erupted again, this time with calls of "cat fight" and "kill the Leb b......". Police parted the crowd and pulled the girls out, rushing them through a side entrance of Northies Hotel. Riot squad police were out in force, but they could do little except stand and watch while the crowd whipped itself into a drunken frenzy. With the PolAir helicopter overhead, the crowd swarmed towards Cronulla station with talk of catching a train to Bankstown to "bash Lebs". Despite police resistance, several made it on to a train where they isolated and attacked one man. "This has been coming. It's not about race, it's about respect and pride," said local volunteer lifesaver Luke O'Brien. The mob nearby sang "I am, you are, we are Australian". It may have begun as a show of pride but by day's end it was a display of the worst side of humanity. http://tinyurl.com/85bg5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted December 12, 2005 Report Share Posted December 12, 2005 Gobble you reflect acurate sentiment in me also, I have many leb friends in NSW, however unlike many other cultures, they seem to have the most difficulty of settling in. Also within their "Leb" culture is a huge antaganism, between the Christian (Far larger group in Australia ) and the muslim lebanese. Very stupid sad day. DOG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosal Posted December 12, 2005 Report Share Posted December 12, 2005 chuckwoww said:Like what happened in France and could easily happen again in LA or the UK. T. What happened in France had NOTHING to do with racism, xenophobia or religious beliefs/belongings ; it was 'only' economic and social despair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sayjann Posted December 13, 2005 Report Share Posted December 13, 2005 just seen Film of the incident on UK TV. a lot ot Youths in the background laughing and joking in the background with Beers in their Hands. i may be wrong but i think some People just get carried away with the atmosphere and join in. Footage of Police protecting People and spraying Mace into 'Rioters' Eyes,which made me laugh as People were then shown complaining about the Police tactics. excuse me,but if a Policeman sprays you with Mace then you must be quite close to get affected. the only People i saw getting Maced were those attacking the Police and getting a deserved dose of the stuff. and then the 'Rioters' were complaining that the Police used dogs to try and calm the situation. if your not there in the first place getting involved then you won't get bitten by a dog.........whose fault?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted December 13, 2005 Report Share Posted December 13, 2005 Prosal said: chuckwoww said:Like what happened in France and could easily happen again in LA or the UK. T. What happened in France had NOTHING to do with racism, xenophobia or religious beliefs/belongings ; it was 'only' economic and social despair. Are you kidding us or just yourself here ? BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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