Violent Aussies
Out of context: Reply #122
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- Cactus0
Random retaliation is never ok and should be condemned unreservedly. That said, these disturbances didn't happen in a vacuum. Here a story that may add some context to events leading up to Sunday:
"The Cronulla Mob's rampage on Sunday was a disgusting display of the very worst in people.
But this riot is not something that can simply have a full stop put after a ritual condemnation. I have lived in Sydney most of my life and the rise of the nominally Muslim/Arab criminal gang culture and the manifest failure of successive governemnts to confront them has gotten to the point where there is a very dangerous current of rage that will arc very easily. Sydney is a very tribal city to begin with, and it would be tempting to dismiss this as one of those tribal tensions that spill over from time to time, but I really have my doubts. From car theft to rape gangs, the gangs that identify themselves as Lebanese (many of their members are not Lebanese, and the far larger, and older, Maronite Lebanese community in Australia are not regraded as Lebanese by these gangs) are unusual amongst the old pattern of criminal organisations that sometimes flourish in dislocated communities of recent immigrants in that they do not prey upon their own community but direct their attentions outwards at both other ethnic communities and the more established Anglo Celtic host society. The scale of their impact, both anecdotally and statistically seems to be in a different class from other phenomena- Sydney now has the one of the highest car theft rates in the wolrd per capita, and this is know to be a virtual monopoply of the gangs who call themsleves Lebanese. The phenomena of pack raping with an overt religio/racial context has struck a deep nerve, and the attempted conspiracy of silence that finnally broke down when the scale of what was happeneing was appreciated (with estimates that hundreds of women had suffered these assaults and thousands had been threatened).
I know the the plural of anecdote is not data, but my own experience is suggestive of the scale of what is going on - I have been assulted twice by groups of toughs who openly identified themselves as "Lebs", both times while waiting for a taxi after work, in broad daylight. Acompnaying one's sister, girlfriend or even 9 year old neice to some shopping centres on a Saturday morning and putting up with leers and insults like tart, slut and the like by groups of toughs at coffee shops has become just another aggravation of the shopping experience. One knows not to react because their will be no restraint in the response, and it will be fast and furious. And these are centres far from where many of these people live. Parts of Sydney are simply no-go areas if you are not young, male and muslim.
I hate old style Australian yob culture, and the Cronulla mob's behaviour was a painful reminder that it has not disappeared, but I am afraid that things like having your 9 year old neice leered at and insulted does leave you shaking with a rage that is very hard to rationlise with, especially when that is simply regarded as below the threshold which the police will seek a confrontation over."
Seems to me to be a massive failure of policing.