The title of this thread would no doubt be regarded as wrong by many that don`t know what they are talking about. Some might believe that the Shire is full of racist violent people if they believe the comments by various police,politicians and asian leaders, they would be wrong as well.

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Australian state lawmakers were recalled from their Christmas break to give police extra powers to deal with riots after racial violence swept Sydney for a second straight night.

The parliament of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, would convene on Thursday to pass a raft of tough new laws, state premier Morris Iemma said.

Parliament would seek to grant police the power to force liquor outlets to close in times of social unrest and establish "lockdown zones" to allow them to take command of an area.

They would also have the power to confiscate vehicles driven by those involved in rioting, while jail terms for riot offences would be trebled from five to 15 years, Iemma told a news conference.

"These criminals have declared war on our society and we are not going to let them win," he said.

"I won't allow Sydney's reputation as a tolerant, vibrant international city to be tarnished by these ratbags and criminals who want to engage in the sort of behaviour we've seen in the last 48 hours."

On Monday night, seven people were injured and 11 were arrested as car-loads of men swept into the suburb of Cronulla in apparent retaliation for attacks by mobs of whites on people of Middle Eastern appearance at the beach there on Sunday.

Residents said around 30 to 40 cars full of young men armed with baseball bats and crowbars drove through the suburb, smashing shop-windows and parked cars. Gunshots were heard but there were no reports of casualties.

In the adjacent suburb of Brighton-Le-Sands, crowds threw rocks at police cars and passing motorists before dispersing as riot police converged on the area.

In the mainly Muslim suburb of Lakemba, about 500 young people blocked roads near the local mosque after evening prayers, believing an attack was imminent. They later dispersed, some hurling rocks at police.

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From here.

For some years now we have had young men from Lebanese background coming to Cronulla with the explicit intention of getting into fights, harassing females and generally showing they they have the manners, if not diets, of swines.

The locals are fed up with them and have simply done what the police should have been doing for the last few years, teaching the morons a few lessons.

I hate it that the residents of my area have had to take action and I`m sure most of them hate it as well but enough is enough.

So many news stories are emerging that paint a different picture from the reality.

Quote:

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However, Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar says the racial tensions in Sydney show all countries have extremists.

"Racism, xenophobia, these are the prejudices - it shows extremism is not peculiar to Muslims," he said.

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from here.

The Malaysian foreign minister has no idea what he is talking about and if he desired to learn the actual facts behind the causes of the riots he would discover that the Lebanese muslims coming to the Shire have been asking for a fight for years now and have finally got what they wanted.

I hope they have learnt the error of their ways and either keep out of here if looking for trouble or at the very least act like Australians and not ignorant uneducated mugs.

This is action at small community level. I can fully understand how these things can become a countrywide problem after watching it come to a head here where I live.

Roos, I don't think you can limit the frustration and anger that has brought about these events to the shire. This has been building up all over Sydney for many years. People (and I don't just restrict it to "anglo-saxon" but all people) have felt intimidated by just walking past groups of youths of "middle eastern appearance" for a long time. You see such a group and you don't look at them, for fear of being picked on. You know that you can't stand up for yourself, because if you do it's highly likely a knife or a gun will appear.

People have had enough of feeling this way in their own city and they don't like it. While I don't condone the way the drunken yobbos at Cronulla went about things, I certainly understand why it happened. I'm just surprised it hasn't happened long before now.

Yes Eraser sadly it is a Sydney, well worldwide, problem, and it is annoying to realise that if action had been taken at street level by "old time" coppers there is the distinct possibility that mob action wouldn`t have been needed.

The only "amusement" I get from this series of events is the fact that eastern suburbs chardonnay liberals have had a wake up call in the morning when they found their cars trashed by punks.

Howard is playing it fairly safe at the moment but a couple of his comments ["When they have settled down will be a time for people to think about the reasons why it occurred,"] have I believe shown that he knows who the cause of the current problems are.

Gotta agree with both of you just wish that alcohol hadn't played a large part in it all last Sunday - might have made it look a bit less ugly.

But when does it end? A lifesaver gets bashed, it's the last straw and there is retaliation against it and now we're hearing that there may be retaliation against the retaliation ...

And can someone tell me how a gang got called the "Bra Boys"???? SOunds like a gang of transvestites.

Actually there was something else I wanted to say about this. Last week on the John Laws show (it's all I can pick up) Peter Debman was on saying to keep clear of Cronulla on the weekend. Iemma comes on saying how irresponsible Debman was and that there would be enough police there to deal with anything and everyone would be safe and peaceful.

Who's the irresponsible one??

Maroubra boys.......`Bra boys. The name does sound sus` Copago but there is nothing sus` about the lads themselves. One of Sydneys only true life gangs really.

Ahhh. Makes sense. Still, I like my theory better.