Australians finally revolt against the rapes, harsment, bashings and murders that they have been forced to endure.
Bluey,
are you a Sydney local? I’m in Melbourne and this is currently the biggest news story going to air. Anyway I think you need to provide more information for people outside of Australia, it is far from cut and dry.
Cheers Hriliu999
I am not from Sydney.
Forgive me for being ignorant, but could you please fill me in on some of the details surrounding this revolution?
Our local paper has the first few pages of everyday covering the university basketball team, and then adds an entire section on the basketball team in the sports section.
Side note: I had to find out about what has been going on in Darfur from looking at a political cartoon published elsewhere and reprinted in the local paper. (and then going to Yahoo)
Well I’m from Brisbane, and have no idea what this is about. Care to fill me in?
Are you refering to this?
This is about as close to the mark as the mainstream media dares:
“And it would be folly to airbrush away the reality that what started the Cronulla tensions was yet another provocation by the aggressive, repugnant Lebanese gangsta culture - itself an alien subculture within the Lebanese community - which has given Sydney dozens of shootings and murders, a spate of gang rapes, hundreds of sexual assaults, and thousands of deliberate racist provocations at Darling Harbour, the eastern and southern beaches and some of the big clubs in western Sydney, along with Canterbury Bulldogs rugby league matches.”
"Nasty reality surfs in as ugly tribes collide
Email Print Normal font Large font December 12, 2005
Page 1 of 2
The Cronulla brawls are more proof of a vicious underbelly in our culture, writes Paul Sheehan.
Illustration: Michael Mucci
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AdvertisementThe battle on Cronulla Beach yesterday requires more than a little context. What happened has been brewing for a long time, well beyond Cronulla, and well beyond the beach culture.
The first clear hint of the undertow pushing this along came three years ago at the Coogee RSL, in 2002. Upstairs, the police from Waverley station were having their Christmas party. Downstairs, there was a 21st birthday party dominated by a beach gang known as the Bra Boys (from MarouBRA). The Bra Boys are basically Aussie surfer white boys, but with Pacific Islanders and others in the mix.
A brawl broke out, one of the ugliest and most unacceptable recorded in Sydney in many years involving police. The police were the victims. Those who left the Christmas party were confronted and mocked by a mob at the Bra Boys party. Other police went to their aid. It became what witnesses described as a “sea” of fighting men, with more than 120 involved. One police officer had his eye gouged and his sight permanently damaged. Thirty police reported injuries. Two had broken jaws. Several had their heads rammed into tables.
One of the worst incidents, and one of the few to lead to a conviction, involved a first-grade rugby league player, Reni Maitua, who at the time was with the Canterbury Bulldogs. He was one of several men at the Bra Boys party who dragged Constable Tim Allen from a lift and attacked him. Allen told them he was a police officer. Maitua responded by laughing and kicking him in the face while he was on the ground, breaking Allen’s nose. Maitua was later arrested and fined $2000.
He served no time for the incident. The NSW Police Association described this decision by the magistrate, Janet Wahlquist, as a disgrace.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this ugly story is that it received only modest publicity. Yet it was far, far worse than what took place at Cronulla yesterday.
Context is everything. Cronulla will receive saturation coverage, which will balloon the events of yesterday into something more than they were - the actions of a minority of idiots. Just remember, this started small, then the media got involved. Thousands of people gathering on a beach singing Waltzing Matilda doesn’t materialise without a lot of media oxygen. But blame-the-media won’t do. This was and is a legitimate story that had to be covered.
Out there in Sydney, there is a huge cumulative weight of resentment and contempt at the constant provocations by Lebanese gangs - I’m not even going to bother with the simpering euphemism about “men of Middle Eastern appearance” when everybody knows what it means. It was evident on the beach at Cronulla yesterday.
As it happens, on Saturday, the leader of the Bra Boys bought into the Cronulla debate. Surf star Koby Abberton, who is facing a prison sentence for hindering a police investigation of a murder involving two other Bra Boys, called The Daily Telegraph to offer a view on why his home beach, Maroubra, was one of the few in Sydney not to have been trawled by Lebanese-Australian goons.
“The reason why it’s not happening at Maroubra is because of the Bra Boys,” Abberton told the Telegraph. “Girls go to Cronulla, Bondi, everywhere else in Sydney and get harassed, but they come to Maroubra and nothing happens to them … [Because] if these fellas come out to Maroubra and start something they know it’s going to be on, so they stay away.”
What has happened on consecutive weekends has been displays of two unpalatable subcultures, the yobbo beach tribes, and the Lebanese gangsta tribes. The reactions to the Cronulla brawl will be predictable. The disgusting behaviour of the Aussie yobs, behaving even worse than the original provocateurs last week, will prompt a great deal of ululating about Australian’s undertow of racism.
This will be countered by a demand for recognition that violent crime in Sydney is disproportionately dominated by Lebanese, Aborigines and Pacific Islanders and Australians have had a gutful of the pandering to these groups.
Both sides will be right. You only have to look at the events at Coogee RSL club in 2002 to know that Australian beach culture has its ugly underbelly. And it would be folly to airbrush away the reality that what started the Cronulla tensions was yet another provocation by the aggressive, repugnant Lebanese gangsta culture - itself an alien subculture within the Lebanese community - which has given Sydney dozens of shootings and murders, a spate of gang rapes, hundreds of sexual assaults, and thousands of deliberate racist provocations at Darling Harbour, the eastern and southern beaches and some of the big clubs in western Sydney, along with Canterbury Bulldogs rugby league matches.
At its worst, this culture had overtones of civil war, as the Kanaan gang sprayed the Lakemba police station with gunfire. One of those who took part in this attack was Saleh Jamal, now in jail in Lebanon on weapons charges. He has turned to Islamic fundamentalism and wanted to explode a terrorist bomb in Sydney before he fled the country.
The cops hate and fear the swarming packs of Lebanese who respond when some of their numbers are confronted, mobilising quickly via mobile phones and showing open contempt for Australian law. All this is the real world, as distinct from the world preferred by ideological academics who talk about “moral panic” and the oppression of Muslims. They will see only Australian racism as the problem.
Others will see only “Lebs”. Cronulla yesterday proved it is not possible to airbrush the yob culture out of the picture, but the problem is not the figment of fertile imaginations. This has been too real for too long.
As it happens, on Saturday, the leader of the Bra Boys bought into the Cronulla debate. Surf star Koby Abberton, who is facing a prison sentence for hindering a police investigation of a murder involving two other Bra Boys, called The Daily Telegraph to offer a view on why his home beach, Maroubra, was one of the few in Sydney not to have been trawled by Lebanese-Australian goons.
“The reason why it’s not happening at Maroubra is because of the Bra Boys,” Abberton told the Telegraph. “Girls go to Cronulla, Bondi, everywhere else in Sydney and get harassed, but they come to Maroubra and nothing happens to them … [Because] if these fellas come out to Maroubra and start something they know it’s going to be on, so they stay away.”
What has happened on consecutive weekends has been displays of two unpalatable subcultures, the yobbo beach tribes, and the Lebanese gangsta tribes. The reactions to the Cronulla brawl will be predictable. The disgusting behaviour of the Aussie yobs, behaving even worse than the original provocateurs last week, will prompt a great deal of ululating about Australian’s undertow of racism.
This will be countered by a demand for recognition that violent crime in Sydney is disproportionately dominated by Lebanese, Aborigines and Pacific Islanders and Australians have had a gutful of the pandering to these groups.
Both sides will be right. You only have to look at the events at Coogee RSL club in 2002 to know that Australian beach culture has its ugly underbelly.
And it would be folly to airbrush away the reality that what started the Cronulla tensions was yet another provocation by the aggressive, repugnant Lebanese gangsta culture - itself an alien subculture within the Lebanese community - which has given Sydney dozens of shootings and murders, a spate of gang rapes, hundreds of sexual assaults, and thousands of deliberate racist provocations at Darling Harbour, the eastern and southern beaches and some of the big clubs in western Sydney, along with Canterbury Bulldogs rugby league matches.
At its worst, this culture had overtones of civil war, as the Kanaan gang sprayed the Lakemba police station with gunfire. One of those who took part in this attack was Saleh Jamal, now in jail in Lebanon on weapons charges. He has turned to Islamic fundamentalism and wanted to explode a terrorist bomb in Sydney before he fled the country.
The cops hate and fear the swarming packs of Lebanese who respond when some of their numbers are confronted, mobilising quickly via mobile phones and showing open contempt for Australian law. All this is the real world, as distinct from the world preferred by ideological academics who talk about “moral panic” and the oppression of Muslims. They will see only Australian racism as the problem.
Others will see only “Lebs”. Cronulla yesterday proved it is not possible to airbrush the yob culture out of the picture, but the problem is not the figment of fertile imaginations. This has been too real for too long."
For those outside of Australia the most recent, and, most headlining grabbing incidents, occured last night, in what is being seen as a reprisal by gangs of ‘Mid-East appearance’ against Anglo-Australians living in Maroubra.
The whole racial tension issue goes back a fair while in Sydney, however, it came to a head several weeks ago when two Sydney life-savers were assaulted by an ethnic gang. Maroubra life-savers have traditionally policed their own beaches - and I mean ‘policed’ - I think the above article gives you a reasonable idea. Yet with the addition of some alcohol fuelled mob behaviour over the weekend we had anyone of even remotely ‘Mid-East’ appearance being attacked. Things escalated further last night with ethnic gangs perpertrating calculated acts of violence en masse in coastal Sydney suburbs.
The whole things has become particularly ugly, with rumours of white-supremacist groups further fuelling racial hatred.
I’m not really sure why Bluey is referring to this as an Australian Revolution, you can’t really extrapolate these incidents and attitudes as representative of the Australian populace. Perhaps you would care to comment.
This is very much a Sydney problem and has been there for a while. You won’t find this level of intense hatred and tribalism in any other city in Australia.
Pretty shocking stuff. A pack of thousands picking a fight with individuals of ‘leb appearance’ is hardly an australian revolution. Particularly when the one who was chased into the pub by the mob was all of a monstrous 60kg.
I guess they got their beach back though…
I used to live in Cronulla and there’s been middle-east people going down there for years. Most of the blame should go towards govenment. If the government gave the police powers to crack down on the gang violence and arrest them on the spot then none of this would have happened. But since nothing is done then you not only have the middle eastern gangs causing chaos but vigilante groups as well. Zero tolerance would get this done.
Australia has recently been putting shit on the Singapore government for executing an Australian drug smuggler but I guarantee you wouldn’t see these riots take place there!
Most reports I have seen are simply blaming racism without touching on the underlying problems.
Sounds like the Aussies need to get there shit together. Shooting up police stations and attacking cops? Holy crap sounds like goddam anarchy.
[quote]bluey wrote:
Australians finally revolt against the rapes, harsment, bashings and murders that they have been forced to endure.
[/quote]
Can’t say i’m surprised…01 when i went to australia i went to darwin, perth and then sydney of the 3 cities sydney was the one city I felt unwelcomed
this is all bullshit, whoever said it was the gov’s fault is on the money, they need to give the cops the power…also, a zero tolerance approach is needed, throw these fuckers in jail when they commit such horrendous crimes…im not from sydney but im sick of hearing about lebs raping and terrorizing women…also, its fkn pathetic that aussies chose to resort to such retaliatory actions. I dont condone it but the buck stops with the gov to give the cops the power…they are fkn heros cops, and they need all the help they can get but judges etc cont. fk em over
the media in the UK have reported it as being pretty much organised by neo-nazi groups. they mention nothing of leb looting or previous violence.
http://www.quadrant.org.au/php/article_view.php?article_id=581
there is definately a wider problem here. similar things happen in UK towns. some cultures intergrate well(in the UK it is the indian and jewish community) and some seem to conflict deeply (in the UK it is the pakistani and in particular middle eastern communities)
[quote]Chris Jayne wrote:
the media in the UK have reported it as being pretty much organised by neo-nazi groups. they mention nothing of leb looting or previous violence.
[/quote]
That’s pretty much how the Australian media is portraying it too.
It’s not that the police are toothless either. It just isn’t a priority. Half of what happened is property damage and personal assult. If you look up the crime stats burglary, vandalism, and theft (with assult very rarely securing a conviction unless someone is “seriously” hurt) are the least policed crimes.
There is plenty of media footage (I can just see them jumping up and down saying “YES!!!”) that the cops could use to convict the gangs involved, but they won’t even bother…
I don’t like racism being lumped on Aussies like this. It makes us seem like the complete opposite of what we are. But there is also much more to this story that isn’t being reported.
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Most reports I have seen are simply blaming racism without touching on the underlying problems.
[/quote]
Agreed, the only thing I read about was the Nazi mob attacking random coloured people, I think I need a better news source.
[quote]tim290280 wrote:
Chris Jayne wrote:
the media in the UK have reported it as being pretty much organised by neo-nazi groups. they mention nothing of leb looting or previous violence.
That’s pretty much how the Australian media is portraying it too.
It’s not that the police are toothless either. It just isn’t a priority. Half of what happened is property damage and personal assult. If you look up the crime stats burglary, vandalism, and theft (with assult very rarely securing a conviction unless someone is “seriously” hurt) are the least policed crimes.
There is plenty of media footage (I can just see them jumping up and down saying “YES!!!”) that the cops could use to convict the gangs involved, but they won’t even bother…
I don’t like racism being lumped on Aussies like this. It makes us seem like the complete opposite of what we are. But there is also much more to this story that isn’t being reported.[/quote]
Very much agreed. The media, however, has played duel roles in this whole scenario; on one hand reporting, and on the other faning the flames. The tabloid press and radio shock jocks essentially pointed the finger at Maroubra and said their local life-guards would be instrumental in clearing out Lebanese from their beaches.
This has been coming for a long time, Lebanese youths constantly go to Cronulla and harrass people of other backgrounds, this can involve the local girls, such as calling them sluts or physically harrassing them, or trying to provoke fights with local boys, this usually will involve a group of about 10-15 lebs ganging up on 1-2 “Skips”. People were sick and tired of this shit happening and it came to surface when a group of lebs bashed 3 lifeguards who asked them to stop playing soccer because it was annoying the other people on the beach. Sunday (the day of the riots) was supposed to be a show of force but, fuelled by alcohol, some people saw it as an opportunity to give back what they have been copping for years.
Retaliation attacks happened later that night at Maroubra and The Shire involving lebanese smashing cars and stabbing two people and Ive heard reports that they have threatened women of Anglo-Celtic Background with rape.
The authorities and lebanese representatives are sitting around saying race isnt involved but they are simply deluding themselves and trying to maintain the facade of multiculturalism. If the police and the authorities addressed the problem earlier then people would never had to take things into their own hands thus they are at fault whilst the media is also to blame for fanning the waves of hatred over the lifeguard bashing.