The Sydney Beach Riots

I suppose many of you outside of Australia have heard about the rioting going on at a beach in Sydney over the last couple of days. I have read some of the media coverage in the US, Asian, and European newspapers. I've noticed that most of them have it all wrong and are totally misinterpreting the events. Even the Aussie media is screwing it up.

First. The riots have nothing to do with religion. It is the culmination of weeks of harassment between gangs at one Sydney area beach. There has been a Lebanese gang trying to strong arm their way into control of the beach. What started this is an incident last week when two volunteer lifeguards were attacked and nearly killed by this gang when they attempted to intervene and rescue a woman bather who was being harassed by the gang.

That attack on the lifeguards is what has set this off. The locals feel that this gang, who happen to be of Lebanese descent, not because of it, crossed the line when attacking an Australian icon of the volunteer life saver. That is like burning the American flag in the US. Lifeguards are highly revered and respected here. Attacking one like a pack of wild dogs to prevent him from doing his duty was too much.

The "problem" in the eyes of the Australians is that going to the beach, having a barbie, a cold beer, and relaxing in the sand and surf is a God given right and an institution. Everyone is welcome. Every looks out for each other. Everyone feels safe.

The Sydney beach where this is happening is the one where the train line ends. It is the quickest and easiest way to the beach from the Southwest suburbs.

In recent years a new element has been coming down to this beach. They are the young men from Sydney's southwestern suburbs. Most are of Lebanese descent. Others are Iraqi, Pakistani, Palestinian, and other Arabs. But instead of enjoying the beach and water, they hang around in large groups looking to pick fights, perv on girls in bikinis, and harass women. A lot of people no longer feel safe there.

The problem is not that this gang just sits there and stares. They openly call women in bikinis who walk by "Aussie whores" and threaten to rape them. If any "white" man walks by alone, they challenge him to a fight. This is not rumor either. I've met a lot of people from Sydney who have horror stories of their run ins with the Lebanese gangs over there. They have bad reputation as trouble makers. And to make matters worse, they seem to take a lot of pride in that fact.

This one gang in particular seems to have decided to start flexing their muscles at this beach. They seem to be intent on terrorizing the locals into leaving. This has been in the local news for a number of weeks now. As mentioned earlier, they almost killed two volunteer lifeguards who told them to leave a woman along.

Last night, gangs of young Lebanese men were driving over town in wolf packs armed with baseball bats, iron bars, guns, etc., going on rampages. The cops were chasing cars full of them at dangerous and reckless speeds. The gangs cars would come together and they would all get out and start attacking anyone they could see and wrecking cars and buildings.

Now here is where I see the press has been getting it wrong. They mention all these attacks, but they fail to mention who was attacking. They try to make it sounds like there are gangs of angry white Aussies doing this. Just the opposite is true, but the press doesn't want to say that. That would be considered un-P.C.

So instead they make it sound like there are a bunch of hardworking, law abiding, and innocent Lebanese immigrants just doing their own thing when they are randomly attacked by roving gangs of skin heads.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The problem is not all Lebanese. Most Aussies know this. It is a problem with violent gangs of young men between the age of 13 and 25. It is not religion either. These same gangs do lots of drugs, crime, rape, extortion, smuggling, and fraud. Those Arabs who are religious don't hang out with these hoodlums in their community.