Lifeguards bashed, Race Riots Begin.. in Australia..?

[Alrowan]

well just some local news from my side of the world, last week a lifeguard was bashed by a group of lebanese people at the famour cronulla beach in sydney, this has suddenly led to huge outbursts form the locals and suddenly everything went pear shaped...


anyway, heres some news articles

Thugs ruled the streets, and the mob sang Waltzing Matilda

December 12, 2005

Damien Murphy describes what he saw in the middle of the Cronulla violence.
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A BARE-CHESTED youth in Quiksilver boardshorts tore the headscarf off the girl's head as she slithered down the Cronulla dune seeking safety on the beach from a thousand-strong baying mob.

Up on the road, Marcus "Carcass" Butcher, 28, a builder from Penrith, wearing workboots, war-camouflage shorts and black singlet bearing the words "Mahommid was a camel f---ing faggot" raised both arms to the sky. "F--- off, Leb," he cried victoriously.

It was one last act of cowardly violence on a sad and shameful day that began as a beach party celebrating a kind of perverted nationalism that was gatecrashed by racism.

A crowd of at least 5000 - overwhelmingly under 25 - took over Cronulla's foreshore and beachside streets. Police were powerless as 200-odd ringleaders, many clutching bottles or cans of beer and smoking marijuana, led assaults on individuals and small groups of Lebanese Australians who risked an appearance during the six-hour protest.

The horde swirled after fleeing individuals, sometimes sweeping past police lines and horses, chasing a quarry who sought safety in restaurants, shops, toilet blocks and ambulances and police vehicles. Some were snatched by police, who stood against the swarm and repelled the most violent with capsicum spray.

After a local man, "Steely", had led a chant of "F--- off, Lebs", a young man demanded the megaphone and told the crowd it was "racist". A bottle arced in from the audience and shattered on his forehead. He fled "like a bleeding rabbit", someone yelled after him.

Sometimes when a victim was cornered, the mob started singing Waltzing Matilda. Advance Australia Fair was similarly employed against obstructing police, and the usually good-natured "Aussie Aussie Aussie" chant in the mouths of the Cronulla crew assumed a menacing tone.

Cronulla was possibly Australia's biggest racist protest since vigilante miners killed two Chinese at Lambing Flat in 1860.

Yesterday's violence had been brewing for months. It came to a head last weekend when some Lebanese Australian men attacked members of the North Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club after they asked the visitors to stop playing soccer because it was disturbing other beach users.

"Steely" - who did not want to identify himself "for fear the Lebs will come and shoot up my joint during the week" - said his children had been scared by Lebanese Australians coming in from the western suburbs.

"I've got a four-year-old girl and a boy who's 11, and they see these bastards come here and stand around the sea baths 'cos their women have got to swim in clothes and stuff, or they see them saying filthy things to our girls," he said. "That's not Australian. My granddad fought the Japs to see Australia safe from this sort of shit, and that's what I'm doing today."

The word went out last week that the Shire boys would not take it lying down any more. Yesterday was shaping as a giant clash if Lebanese Australians came to run the gauntlet.

Cronulla has been an iconic surf suburb since the early 1960s, when the surfboard craze hit. It has a tribal surf culture shaped by violence and substance abuse.

Its first surfing hero, Bobby Brown, died after being sliced by a beer glass in a hotel in 1967.

Cronulla was the setting for Puberty Blues, the brutal book and film about girls growing up in the surf culture. Many of its surfing heroes have had difficult lives, not the least Mark Occhiluppo, who came back from virtual career oblivion to take the world surfing title in 1999.

Cronulla has long been the scene of battles with outsiders. The early 1960s saw pitched fights between "westies" and "surfies". Then, the media portrayed them as wars between teenage subcultures, but they always had an economic if not class element to them. It was a time when the White Australia policy still existed and nobody thought it was based on racism.

Things have changed. So yesterday "Da Boys" - the Cronulla locals - turned up early, and by 10am a party atmosphere was already evident.

Two-storey apartments were bedecked in bizarre bunting ranging from Australian and Eureka flags to "Merry Christmas" signs and Bundaberg Rum polar bear cut-outs.

On the streets, Australian flags fluttered on most cars, Cold Chisel and Men At Work boomed out of stereo systems and there were patriotic T-shirts with kangaroos, swear words and puns. Beer soaked everything.

Todd Russell, a concrete pourer from one of the apartments up the road from the riot site, was among the first to arrive and was giving away sausages cooked on a barbecue on the back of his ute, "to get everyone in the mood to be a real Aussie". He had put up a sign saying "No tabouli".

He was enthusiastically handing out brochures headed "Immigration out of control" and "Your teachers are lying to you" to passers-by."Don't know what this shit is, mate. It's just stuff. I agree with it, whatever it is," Russell said. "Look, these Lebs are coming here and giving us shit and we're not going to take it any more."

Behind him, John Moffitt of the Australia First Party was smiling to himself. He had been handing out political pamphlets to some of the flag and beer can-bedecked teenagers most of the morning and they were merrily distributing them to the committed, the curious and the repulsed. "This is a great day. Australia is now seeing what the policies of the last 30 years are reaping," Moffitt said.

Paul Wilson, a local accountant who wants to start a political movement he has called Sons of Anzacs, led the mob with a couple of megaphone chants but said he was disgusted at the abuse of Lebanese immigrants.

He said the protest was really just an extension of the sorts of things Pauline Hanson was warning about when she entered national life in 1996.

"Nobody listened to her really and look what's happened. Mind you, it's a shame that it came to this. I don't agree with the racist stuff. It frightens a lot of people off but it still a true reflection of what being a real and proud Australian is to many of us. You deny that, you're mad," he said.

The crowd's first likely target was sighted just after 11am. He copped a punch from a local before fleeing to the safety of the Northies hotel sports bar, where a police line stopped the hunters in their tracks and he was whisked from the building.

Over the next six hours there were sporadic outbreaks when the mob thought it spied a Lebanese Australian intruder.

Many in the melee took photographs on mobile phones as they contacted people to join the fray or just to check out the fun. "It's a pisser," said Michael Bedford, of Sylvania. "Shire forever."

As police tramped in quick-time from flashpoint to flashpoint, many in the crowd ridiculed their efforts. "Hup, hup, hup. Left, right, left, right. Sound off - that's right, dudes, go get 'em," a group yelled in unison, before showering police with beer.

At one point, thousands rushed up the hill to the Cronulla Mall and headed for the railway station, nearly a kilometre away, where two men were taken and beaten. Sated, the crowd returned to the beachfront.

While bedlam ruled, the North Cronulla SLSC did its best to ignore the unlovely spectacle, calmly continuing with the launching ceremony of a new surfboat, the Graham "Cashy" Cachia.

Meanwhile, down the beach, the Lebanese Australian girl's three male friends were being chased through apartments as her headscarf was being born off as some sort of souvenir. At the boat ceremony, a 13-year-old boy, a nipper with the club, turned from the boat to the noise swelling from the crowd north of the clubhouse.

"Get her!" he yelled. On his bare back were the words in black felt pen: "We crew here. You flew here."

-SMH

[Alrowan]

another article, same paper

Race riots spread to suburbs

By Les Kennedy, Damien Murphy, Malcolm Brown and Tim Colquhoun
December 12, 2005

RACIAL violence erupted in several Sydney suburbs last night in retaliation for a rampage by thousands of young residents through Cronulla that turned the seaside suburb into a battlefield.

Political, community and religious leaders joined stunned locals to condemn an afternoon of violence by a crowd that turned on people of Middle Eastern appearance and those trying to protect them, with police and ambulance officers also attacked.

As the violence spread, police cars raced through Sydney streets from Cronulla to Miranda, Brighton-le-Sands, Rockdale, Maroubra, Woolooware and Tempe. Police said they had received reports of firearms being "flashed" threateningly but not discharged. "So far we have had no one shot," an officer said.

A 23-year-old man was in St George Hospital in a serious condition after a fight in Woolooware about 10.25pm. A radio report said he had a knife embedded in his back. Police said the man was with friends when he had an altercation outside a golf club with a "group of males of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance".

In Brighton-le-Sands a group of people were reported to have taken down the Australian flag at the Brighton RSL Club and burnt it in the street. Youths were seen at a garage filling bottles with petrol in nearby Monterey.

Police closed Marine Parade, Maroubra, where people converged in vehicles on the beachfront and began fighting with locals including members of the Bra Boys surf gang. Police said 50 carloads of youths smashed more than 100 vehicles with baseball bats and other weapons. In the same suburb a young girl was punched in the face.

In Rockdale police gathered in riot gear following reports of youths armed with crowbars near the train station after 10pm, a car driver trying to run down a police officer, and items being thrown at police cars in Bay Street, Brighton-le-Sands. The street was blocked off.

Around North Cronulla beach and the surrounding streets, drunk teenagers communicated with each other on walkie-talkies about rumoured sightings of Lebanese gangs.

Commanders from the Bankstown and Campsie patrols were on alert amid fears of outbreaks of violence. Shortly before midnight police received reports of a convoy of up to 40 carloads of youths heading from Punchbowl Oval to the eastern suburbs.

By 12.30am today there were reports of 20 cars with men of Middle Eastern appearance at a BP petrol station in Cronulla, throwing rocks.

At least 13 people were injured during the earlier violence in Cronulla - including five police - and 12 people had been arrested last night.

The Premier, Morris Iemma, led a chorus of condemnation of the Cronulla attacks. "These hooligans have brought shame upon themselves," he said. "Some today tried to hide behind the Australian flag. The Australia that I know, and intend to preserve as Premier, does not support the sort of behaviour that we saw today."

The Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, said the rioters - many of them carrying the flag and even singing the anthem - were "clearly un-Australian". "I'm ashamed as a man and as the Commissioner of Police," he said. "Never have I seen a mob turn like they have today, particularly on … women and … the NSW Ambulance Service. That has brought a higher level of shame to those involved."

There had "clearly … been a level of racial vilification … and those who are found to behave this way will be prosecuted".

One bashing victim, 19-year-old Mustafa, said at Sutherland Hospital: "They threw bottles, broken bottles, food, anything they could get their hands on. And what were we doing? We were there for a swim."

Another victim, who gave his name only as Moot, said: "We are going to have the last laugh. I got beaten up by 50 people. I am half Lebanese, part-Aboriginal. I am more Australian than the Anglos."

The Assistant Commissioner, Mark Goodwin, who co-ordinated the riot response, said a taskforce would review video footage.

The violence followed a week of simmering tension after an attack the previous Sunday on two lifesavers. Appeals by text message for "Aussies" to descend on the beach to reclaim it drew a crowd estimated at 5000 people, but a carnival atmosphere in the morning gave way to an ugly mood as a hard core of about 200 turned violent. Thousands chanted them on.

The trouble began with scuffles about midday. As the crowd moved along the beach and foreshore area, a man on the back of a utility began to shout "No more Lebs" - a chant picked up by the group around him. Others in the crowd yelled "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie … Oi, Oi, Oi". Members of the mob set upon their prey with fists, feet, flags and beer bottles. Two paramedics were injured as they tried to get victims out of the North Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club, where they had fled to escape the rioters. One of the women had fled into the clubhouse for safety after her headscarf was ripped off.

The crowd broke the windows of the ambulance and kicked its doors as the officers attempted to get the group out. Police, who used capsicum spray and batons in their battle to quell the rioters, were also pelted with beer bottles, and in some cases their cars were swamped and stomped on as they tried to move from one violent flare-up to the next. They sometimes appeared powerless to keep up with the moving mob.

An 18-year-old man who had ventured to the beach for a dip just before 11am was the first to be targeted. He was chased by 200 people to the Northies Hotel, where 20 bouncers joined police in holding back a crowd that swelled to several thousand.

Many people were drinking in a nearby park - some clearly underage. Late yesterday hotels and bottle shops agreed to stop takeaway alcohol sales.

One man was taken by police into Northies, which became a "safe haven". Police also set up a safe house in the North Cronulla clubhouse.

About 7.30pm a young man of Lebanese appearance, arms held out imploringly, sprinted south on a footpath towards the protective shield of the police stationed at Cronulla Beach, hotly pursued by a drunken mob numbering hundreds. He outran the mob and was saved by police, who placed him in the back of a police van, which was then surrounded by the mob.

As the van drove away, one young Caucasian girl laughed and said to a male companion: "That was sick. I've never seen a dumb Leb run so fast. How good was that?"

Earlier a man was cornered in Mitchell Street and had several bottles smashed over his head while he was punched and kicked by dozens of screaming people.

He had been walking with two other men when he was hit by a young man draped in the Australian flag. A bystander tried to stop the assault, saying "He's not a Leb, he's not a Leb".

A lone policeman came to his aid, spraying a canister of capsicum spray to try to disperse the crowd until more support arrived.

Many shopkeepers closed their doors as the crowd converged on Cronulla station. Two men who had just stepped off a train were bashed by about 50 people after they were forced against the carriage. Police said the invasion of the station appeared to have been prompted by a bogus text message saying a trainload of people was due to arrive from Bankstown.

Sarah Id, 17, and her sister Amy, 15, from Sutherland, who were both born in the area and whose parents are Lebanese immigrants, found themselves under the protection of police and transit security guards as they waited for their train while 1000 people stood opposite. The pair had gone to Cronulla Beach, as they had done most weekends as children, "just to get a tan".

"We had to get out because everyone was telling us to go home. Both girls and guys were shouting at us and a woman told us to watch our backs," Sarah said.

"They were saying, 'You don't belong here'. We were born here and went to Jannali High."

Neither the Prime Minister nor the federal Opposition Leader wanted to comment last night.

-SMH

[Alrowan]

the links

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...235951313.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...235951620.html


personally coming from the area i find the whole affair disgracful, on one hand you have the small minority who have caused trouble in the past, but now those who are coming out against those who started it are just as bad... who knows how long this will continue, but i think its absolutly shameful

[Alrowan]

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/2...02.html?page=3

some pics as well (none are very violent, most show the sheer numbers)

[Shadow]

Why do they hate those lebanese so much

[Alrowan]

well just some quick background info on Cronulla and its attitude, its not without reason too. For the last 10 years the area has seen a large rise in lebanese and other middle eastern peoples in the area, coming from other parts of sydney to go to the beach, though with these people some few undesirables came as well, that being the gangs. so over the last 10 years theyve seen beatings and such by these gangs, and yet the locals never really united against them, the police never did much either. It had recently gotten so bad that i even refused to go to the beach there for the last 2 years, ive had several mates actually been victims of these gangs as well.

anyhow, the straw that broke the camels back was the beating of some lifeguards, and the polices inability to act, then through the week text mesages were sent calling for all locals to come join in "leb bashing day" Now my guess is most people didnt know a thng about it, but the media being who they are had to show the rest of the country the text message, and basically invited the rest to happen. It then snowballed into what you read, and my guess is this is FAR from over. If i know these gangs, they wont give up, i expect to see some horrific retaliations in the coming days, and to be honest im quite worried as to how much this could blow out. Especially with the media blowing things out even more

[Fragony]

I am just dying to hear the words 'social exclution', or maybe 'low prospects', or even better the creme de la creme 'racism'. I thought Australia was a pretty fun place after hearing Papaweio's praise but it turns out to be a normal country after all.

[Proletariat]

I remember going to school in Paramatta for a year when I was sixteen. The tension was pretty thick between the Lebanese and Aussie kids. Fist fights were fairly frequent but I just assumed it was normal high school stuff. We later moved to Manly and it was much nicer.

My cousin who lives in Greystanes was attacked by a group of them coming out of a bar one night. There were about six of them and he ended up having to get his jaw wired. He probably mouthed off to them, but still. Six on one is pretty cowardly.

I'm starting to agree with Fragony about the difficulty of mixing cultures. You can't really blame the Lebanese for banding together, but it's a big problem when you have a large group of immigrants refusing to try to adapt with the host's culture.

[Devastatin Dave]

When, oh when will JAG and Adrian show up and start spouting self-loathing comments about how its not the criminals fault but the fault of the society in which they are attacking? Should be soon now, lets watch...

[Strike For The South]

Riots...

Advocating violence not allowed - Kukri

[Fragony]

Riots...

Or why do we call them minorities when there are so many of them

Edited disallowed quote - Kukri

[Strike For The South]

Or why do we call them minorities when there are so many of them

Hell I should start a riot Im a minorty in my city. I can see the hadline now. "White minorites start riot taco stands burned el caminos overturned"

[Fragony]

Hell I should start a riot Im a minorty in my city. I can see the hadline now. "White minorites start riot taco stands burned el caminos overturned"

Ahh patience, soon we will be minorities and we will get the spoils of affirmative action. Our evil plan has worked.

[Adrian II]

I'm starting to agree with Fragony about the difficulty of mixing cultures.

You want to disband the United States? Now there is a surprise.

[Proletariat]

You want to disband the United States? Now there is a surprise.

No, it works fine with us. We're as culturally vain as the next country, but ours is a unique cultural vainity that doesn't conflict quite as much with immigrant populations. Everyone who can make somebody some money is welcome here.

[Blodrast]

well, it's sad to hear about this, of course.
lots of cliches about both parts trying to adapt and live together have been said before, so I won't reiterate them. But it still seems strange to me that there's parts of the world where things work, and other parts where they don't, when it would be in everybody's best interest to try and make them work...

[Tribesman]

Racism and race riots are nothing new to Australia , you will find mindless idiots in any country .
The levels in Austalia of anti immigrant sentiment are strange though , considering that less than 2% of the population is indiginous , 23% are immigrants themselves and a further 20% are children of immigrants .

What it might be is that lebanese immigrants are something new , oh ...it cannot be that since they have been moving to Australia for nearly 130 years . Maybe it is because they don't fit in , don't contribute to Australian society and there are too many of them , oh ...it cannot be that as Australias government is extending their eligibality for migration due to the great contribution they make and is in the process of funding schools in Lebanon to encourage more of them to come over .
So that means that it must just be brainless fools suffering from too much beer and too much sun wanting to hit people because they are different .

So at the moment it is the Lebanese , it isn't the first time they have been singled out by the morons . I wonder which way their mindless cycle is going to go next , perhaps the Vietmanese again , the Jews , the Koreans , or the Aboriginals , maybe the Greeks or the Italians , the Indians , the Afghanis .
Hey racist gobshites don't mind , they can always find someone to rant on about or attack , that is the beauty of being a mindless git .

[Alrowan]

the thing is, australia always bills itself as a multidcultural society, saying we accept this culture and that culture, but the problem is just that, by saying we accept the different cultures is asking for trouble, because what most people dont understand is that in reality the mentality of people comes down to "them" and "us". What i mean is that we have the majorty in this situation seeing themselves as the "true australian" culture, and the others are diferent, and not australian, which rings true somewhat, because these other cultures DONT want to partake in the society that has existed for the last 200 years, instead they band together, exluding everyone else from thier culture, and it creates the underlying tensions that we saw erupt in the violence. I remember at school there were two groups of violent people: the lower class who lived in govt housing AND the "wogs" (greek, lebanese, egyptian etc). The thing was where the lower class guys were violent from thier backgrounds, the "wogs" were violent because to them it seemed cool. Now not all of them were violent, probably about 30-40% were, but the thing was that most trouble that got lumped on them only re-enforced thier image as thugs, and instead of trying to do otherwise they embraced it, and made it thier self image, afterall thats the image theyve been given for the last 50 years. After 10th grade most of the violent guys left, leaving those who were actually a bunch of great guys, some of my best mates are "wogs", but the thing is, that its the small minority that clinged to the violent image, and formed gangs that ruins thier image to everyone.

Anyway, all that said, one of my workmates is probably the most sterotypical greek guy, hes a riot to hang arround, but on the other side he actully agrees that people who migrate to australia should learn english, and try to be a part of the society that exists here instead of exluding themselves and creating thier own sub-cultural communities that are EXLUSIVE (reverse racism from immigrants is actually pretty rife in oz). And with that statment i AGREE 100%

[KukriKhan]

Cultural/language note: the term 'wog' used by our esteemed Aussie member above, does not carry (in his culture) the negative slur connotation that exists in British english. We'll allow its use for awhile, providing it does not become 'code' for non-white people. If it does so, we'll outlaw the term.

Thanks for your attention. Back to the thread on this sensitive subject.

[Kralizec]

It sounds mostly like the result of police's failure and more importantly, unwillingness to deal with these gangs for an extended period of time.

[bmolsson]

It seems to me that it's nothing more than a white trash gang against an immigration gang. Looks cute with those bicycle cops interacting....

[Alrowan]

just an interesting thought on the idea of "reverse racism" where the immigrant cultures maintain thier old way of life, exluding members of the nation they are now a part of because they dont share the same race. This in turn is tollerated by the established culture, but in truth its just racism in reverse

[Tribesman]

just an interesting thought on the idea of "reverse racism" where the immigrant cultures maintain thier old way of life, exluding members of the nation they are now a part of because they dont share the same race. This in turn is tollerated by the established culture, but in truth its just racism in reverse
Yep , look at some of the Irish immigrants in Sydney for a prime example .

[Adrian II]

Sounds like a surfing community that didn't want to be policed for decades, and now that they have a problem they complain of a lack of policing.

[Fragony]

Sounds like a surfing community that didn't want to be policed for decades, and now that they have a problem they complain of a lack of policing.

But of course. See AdrianII, this is what you get with indifferent police who's only job is to prevent escalation(ie doing nothing). People feel helpless, people are angry, and then there is that little spark that ignites the hidden fuel depots.
Instead of mocking the rioters, try to understand them. You did such a great job with that when mobs were torching Paris.

[Adrian II]

But of course. See AdrianII, this is what you get with indifferent police who's only job is to prevent escalation (ie doing nothing).

Exactly my point.

[Fragony]

Exactly my point.

Between the lines the point you make is: 'we ought to be better then them'.

How is that for racism.

[Adrian II]

Between the lines the point you make is: 'we ought to be better then them'.

I don't understand what you mean. You probably don't understand me either.

Did you read up on the history of that beach? And on the history of Lebanese in Oz?

My point is we shouldn't let communities go without policing. The weaker they are socially, the sooner law and order break down. And when different cultures are involved, suddenly people have a tendency to go 'tribal' and blame skin for their problems. That's when the Fragonies have a field day or two. I bet you wish you were there and could join the fight -- good guys versus bad, black and white, the simpletons in control on all sides. It's a Fraggy-Frag world, eh?

[Alrowan]

just listenin to a hack of the NSW police radio, seems like its happening again, though this time its the retaliation, mainly cars being smashed up at cronulla

[Prodigal]

I'm amazed so few people were hurt. Course the whole bloody thing could have probably been avoided if the people who beat up the life guards had all been nicked in the first place.