Defending "Our" Cronulla

“an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”

-Ghandi

There are times when I shake my head and wonder why society is the way it is.

Luckily, Australia has been a tolerant, free and peaceful country to live in. We have been a country that has been free of war on home soil. However, while I wouldnt call what I witnessed yesterday as "war on home soil", the violence which i witnessed was completely and utterly unneccessary.

The Facts

Sydney has a number of inner city beaches. These beaches are some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and residents pay high rent and property prices to live nearby. If the residents arent rich, then they are die-hard surfers or beach attendees who love to escape the hustle and bustle of city life. The majority of my friends now live in Cronulla, one of the nicest beaches in Southern Sydney.

Along with Cronulla, these beaches however have become meeting points for large groups of young adults, mostly male, in high performance cars and the like. These areas are perfect for meeting, as the atmosphere is lively, there are lots of people around, and there are some reasonably good roads to drive very fast in their high performance cars. Unfortunately, the majority of these large groups are of Middle Eastern descent.

The city beaches have had difficulty with these large groups, or as they now call them, "gangs". Residents are sick and tired of the noise that their cars make, and local surfers and beach goers have had enough of the constant harrassment by the groups. In particular, the groups are allegedly very derogatory towards women in beach attire. The tension has been rising for some time. The locals have had enough. And the residents of other city beaches, like Maroubra, Brighton Le Sands, Coogee and Bondi have had enough.

The Catalyst

Last week, two Cronulla surf lifesavers were assaulted by a large group of men, of Middle Eastern descent. The media widely reported this event, and comments began to be made by local residents about something "finally needing to be done" with the gangs. An email was sent out a week ago for all people of the beach and "the Shire" (the area of the Southern Beaches) to come out on Sunday to show their support for the surf lifesavers, and to protest against the influx of gangs on the beaches. This email was then reported in the media, ensuring wide scale communication of the planned event.

Sunday's Violence

Sunday rolled on and unforunately, my friends and I had planned our Christmas lunch at a nice restaurant along the waterfront. We had heard that the email was going around, but didnt think that anything would happen, due to the high police presence expected (because of the email).

What we witnessed was a sad day for Australia. Given the communication of the email, it turned out to be a gathering of thousands of young kids from all around Sydney (not just the Shire) to protest against Middle Eastern people in general. Half of the people there were not even residents of Cronulla, or of the southern beaches. Instead, the email got circulated, the media published it, and it became a very violent situation. Large amounts of alcohol was consumed by already-drunk teenagers and young adults, and the police presence did not deter them from causing trouble. While 5000 turned out, there appeared to be a crowd of 200 kids that there out there to assault anyone of Middle Eastern appearance. It was disgusting.

A few questions:

1. Why did the media have to go and publish such an outrageous email prior to the event? Oh I know, so they can have something to report about over the weekend?

2. Why, when there was so much police presence, only 10 - 15 people were arrested?

3. Why, when there was so much police presence, did the police continue to allow the liquor outlets around the area to sell more and more alcohol?

4. Why has this argument become an argument about "race" rather than "gang violence"? Oh, I know why, because some Australians truly believe in an "eye for an eye", rather than realising that their actions are the basis of generalisations and short sightedness. There are plenty of anglo saxon beach gangs out there that now think they have a reason to "patrol" these beaches and inflict violence on anyone of middle eastern appearance.

And Sunday just showed that many australians are happy to let this happen.

I'm ashamed to be Australian today.

Approx 12 midday: Thousands of people converge along the beach in protest of "gangs" invading our beaches.

Approx 1pm - given the media coverage before hand, police were on hand of make sure the crowd didnt get out of hand.

Approx 1pm - Police were even in the water.

Approx 2pm - the crowd, fuelled by alcohol and soaring heat, decided to "target" anyone of middle eastern background.

Approx 3pm - it felt as though all the police and surf lifesavers were doing was sitting and watching.





Approx 4pm - the Police vans were ready to take the offenders away but clearly the Police were not making enough arrests.




More photos to come.....