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Second night of riots hits Sydney

More than 30 people were injured in fighting on Sunday
Violence triggered by race tensions has hit Sydney for a second night, with youths damaging cars and shops.

A reporter in the suburb of Cronulla, where dozens were arrested after riots on Sunday, described scenes of "chaos".

Police said carloads of people had come into the area from other parts of Sydney and committed violent acts.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard condemned the weekend's attacks by thousands of young white men on people of Arabic and Mediterranean background.


I think that the rioters are using national pride as a mask for racist behaviour.
Matthew Iles, UK



A reporter from the ABC national radio network said some of the people coming into Cronulla had carried out attacks on property.

'Bricks thrown'

At the nearby suburb of Brighton-Le-Sands, "a smaller crowd has thrown bricks and other objects at police cars and passing motorists", the reporter said.

Earlier in the evening police had confiscated iron bars from parks and the roofs of buildings at nearby Maroubra. Police believed they had been stored there by residents.

The ABC also reported police were monitoring cars travelling through the suburb of Rockdale, and large groups of people gathering in Punchbowl and Peakhurst.

Thousands of young white men attacked people of Arabic and Mediterranean background on Cronulla Beach on Sunday.

The fighting injured more than 30 people, including police officers, and at least 16 people were arrested.

The clashes follow an assault on two lifeguards last week, reportedly by youths of Middle Eastern origin.

BBC

Seeing Red (Necks)

A JEALOUS look now at that laidback life Down Under.
"Ruddy foreigners"

Hold in your mind’s eye the image of Christmas on the beach in Sydney, picking over the bones of a stuffed, barbecued turkey and chucking back a few cold ones. Life is easy. Life is good.

Now let you mind wander to the sight of 5,000 slavering white specimens of Australian man and womanhood marauding up the beach on the lookout for anyone vaguely of Middle Eastern appearance.

In short, anyone without a red neck.

The Times says that the mob descended on Sydney’s Cronulla Beach, shouting racial slurs, wielding beer bottles and banging on about “100 per cent Aussie pride”.

Angry at an attack on two lifeguards by a gang of Lebanese youths, the locals ran amuck. “No more Lebs [Lebanese]” they chanted. As one white yoof explained by way of letters printed on his back: “We grew up here, you flew here.”

Although some of the Lebanese residents may have arrived by boat – like those patriotic invading whites of yore... anorak

Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:07 AM GMT
By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australians were warned on Friday to stay away from beaches in three cities this weekend with police saying they have credible evidence that racial violence was being planned.

Police urged people to avoid Cronulla Beach in Sydney's south, where racial violence first flared last Sunday, as well as eastern suburbs beaches which include Maroubra and Bondi, and beaches in regional coastal cities Wollongong and Newcastle.

"Our latest intelligence tells us that large numbers of people are planning to go to these areas on Sunday to cause riotous behaviour," New South Wales state Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said in a statement on Friday.

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

"It is my duty to warn the public that these areas have been identified as targets."

Racist text messages and emails have been circulating calling for violence this Sunday -- the one week anniversary of the unrest -- and media reported talk of Lebanese youths calling themselves the "lions of Lebanon" coming from across the country to fight this weekend.

Sydney's racial violence erupted at Cronulla when thousands of people, some yelling racist chants, attacked people of Middle East appearance, saying they were defending their beach from Lebanese youth gangs.

Police said white supremacists incited violence at Cronulla.

Lebanese and Muslim youths retaliated with two nights of violence in several different beachside suburbs.

A major police crackdown restored calm, but a Molotov cocktail was thrown at police, a stockpile of incendiary devices uncovered, and 19 people arrested in Sydney on Thursday night.

Police will launch the biggest security operation since the 2000 Olympics in a bid to halt further racial unrest.

Up to 1,500 police, triple the current number on the beat, will be on the streets on Saturday and 2,000 on Sunday.

"There will be lockdown areas. There will be areas where alcohol can not be consumed or purchased," said NSW Police Minister Carl Scully.

"There will be roadblocks and cars confiscated and people arrested. It will be zero tolerance. We will not put up with any nonsense," Scully told local radio.

A police command centre has been established on the same lines as if Sydney faced a "terrorist threat", said Assistant Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione.

"This is a long-term fight to ensure the hooligans, thugs and criminals who want to create trouble and disorder will not win," Morris Iemma, NSW state premier, told reporters.

Arab-Muslim leaders and beachside communities have held "peace talks" and called for an end to the violence. Invitations have been sent to 28 Lebanese leaders to attend the launch of a surfboat at Cronulla Beach on Sunday, while the Cronulla surf lifesavers club has launched a drive for Lebanese membership.

The Australian newspaper reported on Friday that Lebanese youths, calling themselves "the Lions of Lebanon", were talking about heading into Sydney, intent on violence.

"We're expecting about 30 cars and a couple of busloads of Leb, Serb, Italian and Greek lions to punch on with us," said a young Lebanese man in the southern city of Melbourne.

reuters
Sat Dec 17, 2005 6:01 PM GMT
By James Regan

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian police set up road blocks and searched cars heading for Sydney's beaches on Saturday to prevent a second weekend of racial violence between ethnic Lebanese youths and local surfers.

Australians have been told to stay away from beaches in three cities this weekend, especially Sydney where the checkpoints created traffic jams and left some of the city's summer playgrounds subdued on a sweltering day a week before Christmas.

"This is not a normal weekend," Deputy Commissioner Andrew Scipione of New South Wales state police told reporters, adding that about 1,500 police were deployed to trouble spots.

"If nothing was to happen this weekend, we would deem our operation a success."

The clashes erupted last weekend in Cronulla beach, in Sydney's south, where thousands of white Australians attacked people of Middle East appearance and Lebanese and Muslim youths retaliated with two nights of violence.

Cronulla was quiet on Saturday, with just a sprinkling of sun-worshippers and surfers, but Scipione said police had "strong intelligence" that some groups planned disruptions on Sunday, possibly including neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups.

By Sunday, there will be about 2,000 police on Sydney's beaches, Scipione said.

"We will be taking this very seriously," he said. "If you go there, you will be stopped ... We have never had to deal with a situation like this in the past."

Local media has portrayed the violence as a complicated clash of races and sub-cultures, starting with tension between Sydney's territorial surfing gangs and groups of Muslim youths using the same beaches. It then drew in white supremacists who used the tension to pursue a wider, racist agenda.

During the violence, beach-goers have been attacked with crowbars, kicked and punched. On Thursday, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at police. No one has been killed or seriously injured.

Racist text messages and e-mails have been circulating calling for violence this Sunday and local media has reported talk of Lebanese youths calling themselves the "Lions of Lebanon" coming from across the country to fight at the beaches this weekend.

Police also patrolled beaches north and south of Sydney along a 200 km (120 mile) stretch of coastline, though there were no reports of violence on Saturday.

"It's like a normal day with surfers out and people walking around in boardies (shorts)," said Dena Smith, who was at Bondi Beach, one of Sydney's most popular summer destinations.

Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:20 PM GMT
By Jim Regan

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian police "locked down" two Sydney suburbs on Sunday night, allowing only residents through roadblocks, fearing fresh outbreaks of racial violence after seizing Molotov cocktails.

Police said Australia's famous Bondi Beach and the suburb of Brighton-le-Sands near Sydney airport had been sealed off after people were arrested carrying Molotov cocktails.

"Only residents can come into Bondi. They have to show proof of residence, like a driver's licence," a police spokeswoman told Reuters.

Some 2,000 police patrolled Sydney's beachside suburbs on Sunday, screening cars at dozens of roadblocks, seizing knives, clubs spiked with nails, steel pikes, knuckle-dusters and bottles of petrol.

Police said they had found five people north of Cronulla on Sunday with a 25-litre (5-½ gallon) drum of petrol in their car, as well as condoms for making Molotov cocktails. They also found two men with bottles of petrol on a Bondi bus.

Police said the men arrested with Molotov cocktails were not local residents.

"We will continue this operation for as long as it takes," New South Wales state police commissioner Ken Moroney told reporters, adding 60 arrests had been made since Friday.

The southern beach of Cronulla, a mainly white beachside community, burst into rioting on December 11 when a large crowd stirred on by white supremacists, and fuelled with alcohol, turned on anyone of Middle East appearance.

The angry crowd said they were defending their beach from ethnic Lebanese youth whom they blamed for a recent attack on beach life guards.

Lebanese youths retaliated over two nights, attacking people and vandalising cars in several suburbs.

The unrest revealed tensions between Sydney's territorial surfing sub-culture, united in surfing shorts and wrap-around sunglasses, and ethnic Lebanese youths in gansta rap attire from poorer western Sydney who have become regular beachgoers.

Police on Friday issued an unprecedented warning for people to stay away from beaches in three cities -- Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong -- saying they had intelligence people were planning racial violence this weekend.

Police patrolled beaches on horseback all day on Sunday and set up checkpoints at city beaches, where a peaceful holiday mood was edged by fears of fresh violence.

"We got a text message from our boys to come down today, but we don't want any trouble," said a young ethnic Lebanese man, Ahmad, at Cronulla Beach.

"All Arabs unite to let the Aussies know we can't be pushed around," read the text message on Ahmad's mobile phone.

In Bondi, normally packed a week before Christmas, police prowled the beach and seaborne special forces the water.

"Bondi has never been this quiet. It's sad to see such an icon of Australia not being used because it's here for everyone," said Dave Byron, taking part in a barbecue and surfing contest.

White supremacists have added to the tension, though no one has been killed or reported seriously injured in clashes so far.

The violence has hurt Australia's image, rekindling old stereotypes of white Australians as racist, opposition Leader Kim Beazley said. "We are not a racist country," he told local media.

In central Sydney, almost 2,000 people held a "United Against Racism" rally. Some blamed Australian involvement in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq for a growing divide between whites and Muslims.

"I have lived here for a long time but now I feel very terrified and scared to walk down the street," said Sahar Dib, 44, wearing a headscarf.

She and thousands of other Lebanese fled to Australia in the 1970s when civil war broke out in Lebanon.

Sunday, December 18, 2005. 5:15pm (AEDT)

New South Wales police have arrested seven men for carrying petrol bombs in Sydney in two separate incidents.
Police say two men were caught with petrol bombs on a public bus at Bondi after a tip-off from the driver.

Five men have been arrested at Brighton Le Sands, in Sydney's south, after police searched their car, finding a drum of petrol and condoms, which they believe were intended for making petrol bombs.

They also found kevlar helmets, gerry cans and police scanners.

Police say the five men are of white or European appearance.

ABC.Net

There's always going to be a minority of people who will look for reasons to create racial divides. I lived in Bradford at the time of the first Bradford riots. After they kicked off on the Friday, there were people coming into the city from all over the country looking to use it as an excuse to kick off. Of course, they'll have justified it to themselves but too many people (on all "sides") are looking to exploit situations.

It's clear though that there is a lot of people unhappy around the world, and whilst it will suit the anti war brigade to blame everything on the Iraq war, in truth the real catalyst has been 9/11 and the Bali bombings will have had a big impact in Oz given that many of the victims were Aussies.

There is a perception that people are being treated differently, and in many cases the media are the biggest culprits. Every story about Baa Baa Black Sheep being banned in a school (as an example) adds to the feeling that there is an anti-white agenda and there are a lot of gullible people to ready to swallow it up. I guess there's a fine line between censorship and responsible reporting but it's no different really to all the anti-EU stuff you read in the paper. If you tell people something often enough, they will start to believe it.

I don't know what the answer is. But I do know that there's too many people with their own agenda out there.

I just wonder exactly who is producing all this propaganda and what their agenda is

Why is it OK to celebrate every other patron saints day ,but St Georges???I dont even regard myself as English,,,but acknowledge where we live and dont see any reason why we cant have a St Georges day at school.We have a St Patricks day..celebrating Irish culture(no bad thing),but in a rural location in England...?

imo..seems to be some kind of culture emerging where its not just'uncool' to be English...but something to be discouraged..

Is that right?

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. look at parliament, look at tv, listen to radio, white anglo-saxon males rule in this country, yet whine its all against them.

They whine from their directorships, their high-powered journalistic positions, their place at the top of political power, ******* pathetic

Yes there are PC idiots all around, but I'd rather have those extremist then the right-wing scum this stuff is festering, yeah attack a coloured coz the Sun, the Express and Mail say Asylum-seekers ae the source of all evil

When has St georges day been banned anywhere, celebrate the ******* thing if you want, will PC police jump out and put you in gaol, no, so shut up, whining gits

I've always found the far left petty, making silly rules or statements that serve no real purpose except to inflame middle England, but I can live with that because much more often than not their heart is in the right place.

But the far right I find contemptible, they often spout bile and flag wave..pander to peoples prejudices and that'll make you popular is the basic ethos.

It's strange we've had a centreist govt (with all it's faults) for the best part of 10 years now tho, The Daily Mail and it's ilk is not as powerful as it thinks it is.

the thing about the aussie troubles was that it was started by a gang of second generation middle eastern/asian scum, who went around attacking white AND black youths. yet the pinko liberal media have managed to spin it round and blame white racism. things like that breed resentment

I was watching the news about this the other day, and there was no mention of why it started to kick off, in such as way as it did. There's no smoke without fire, but all the media reported were white people fighting the police, all I can say was, there was a hell of a lot of pissed off people. So what happened to get them all this way, whatever it was, must have been pretty lousy to justify so many people being up in arms and acting the way they did. I thought the reporting of this incident was crap. also the Aussies are the least pc people in the world, are people from England living in Aus going to become upset for being called pomey bastards? No because we know that's what the Aussies are like, and take it with a pinch in salt, so I reckon people from other countries should learn to live with there nicknames as well, whoever they are

there's a difference between a nickname and if it is an offensive nickname. The obvious reference point here is the term "Paki" which despite all the arguments about it simply being a name for someone from Pakistan, it is an offensive term and I don't believe there is any argument for its use. This may have more to do with its historical usage rather than the word itself.

There is banter which takes place, and I made many a reference to Convicts when we were at the cricket in the Summer, and I had no problem being called a Pom back. I do appreciate that there are contradictions left, right and centre.

Well I hate the word 'Packy' and I hate the word 'Nooger' or words that sound similar... Normal people will laugh at a (mildly racist) joke as long as thats all it is - a joke. Sometimes, when my bf tries to kiss me I just jump away from him and pretend to dance around Bollywood styley. It's a joke, Bollywood heroes never seem to get to kiss the girl, everytime they try she jumps away and then they all start dancing and singing instead. It's just a joke and that to me is fine. I even imitate his accent, I say 'evurry vair' instead of everywhere. Mildly racist jokes (imo) are only offensive if you have something to hide or there is a nasty meaning behind them. Making jokes about someones origins are fine as far as I'm concerned. Just as long as the other person know where you are coming from. He teases me about being an Irish Catholic and I tease him about being an Indian Hindu. It's just for fun and I think if people get too pc then maybe they have something to hide and that ain't pretty at all! I can tease my bf about how come these Hindustani honeys never actually kiss the guy in the movie and he will respond with how come these potato-munching Irish tarts kiss anyone! my response is 'count yourself lucky! I kissed you didn't I?

If there isn't hatred or bad intent then (imo) mildly racist jokes are just funny and nothing to get stressed about.

Northern Monkey Wrote:




What I meant was the word Lebbo, being used as a nickname, that's all I heard them saying. I didn't hear anything on the the news broadcast about the word Paki, which I agree is a name that is out of order to use and not a word that could be taken as a bit of Aussie banter.