Boys will be boys…

Manly erupts in violence on Australia Day
Justin Vallejo
The Daily Telegraph
January 26, 2009

…In Manly hundreds of youths draped in “Aussie pride” livery wore slogans declaring “f–k off we’re full” as they smashed up to three cars and ran up the famous Corso. A 18-year-old Asian female in one of the cars was showered with shattered glass, giving her numerous cuts to her arms. She was treated on the scene by ambulance officers. Groups of men jumped up on cars chanting race hate to the terrified passengers within. What started as chants of “Aussie Aussie Aussie” at 1pm had in an hour had developed an ugly overtone. By 3.30pm Manly police called in the public order and riot squad and PolAir in an attempt to control the crowd, made up of a core group of troublemakers estimated by police about 80 drunk teenagers from out of town… By the end three cars were damaged, one 16-year-old boy was charged with assaulting police, two 16-year-olds were cautioned for offensive behaviour and one cautioned for jumping into the water in front of the ferry… [SMH: police “arrested five 16-year-old males before the mob dispersed nearly two hours later.” Further: ‘Supt Darcy said the incident was just “exuberance” gone wrong by a handful of people. “The assaults were not racially motivated and police had observed people of all different ethnic backgrounds walking past this group and not being challenged,” he said.’]

As Manly narrowly escaped the potential of going off like a cracker, police were being called out all over NSW to break up brawls between Australia Day revellers. Police were called to a report of a 30-person brawl on Shelly Beach Road at Port Macquarie while another 30 people were reportedly fighting on Towns St in Shellbarbour. Ambulance crews were called to a fight at Sutherland train station with reports of a 10-person brawl, with a glassing and a female with a fractured finger. One person was taken to Sutherland Hospital while another has been arrested.

…on the other hand…

Manly mob rampages through Corso
Geesche Jacobsen
Sydney Morning Herald
January 26, 2009

Police are investigating reports that a mob of 80 youths ran amok in Manly on Australia Day today, jumping on car bonnets. The youths were seen running up and down The Corso this afternoon. The group of teenagers, many of whom appeared to know each other, ran down the pedestrian street, hitting overhead shop signs as they went. Once they reached the western end, they were seen jumping and climbing over car bonnets near Manly wharf, damaging several cars. They appeared to have been drinking, but it did not seem to be a fight, “perhaps more like high jinx”, a witness said.

That a group of drunken, obnoxious, teenage boys jumped on a few cars, waved flags, and shouted xenophobic and racist slogans @ strangers does not mean that ‘Manly erupted in violence’. Instead, what this suggests is that, given the opportunity, some boys will act like bullies. That an incident such as this took place on Australia Day is hardly surprising. Nor is it unexpected that one target of these ‘youthful hijinx’ should have been an Asian girl.

The Cronulla ‘riot’ has not been re-enacted, and one of the key reasons why is the absence of a campaign to resurrect it on the part of the corporate/state media.

Alcohol + adolescents = dickheadedness. Who knew? Doctor James Saleam thinks their efforts are praiseworthy — ‘Australia First Party Praises Youth For Australia Day Mass Action In Manly’ — but the convicted criminal — ‘Cautions Against Breaking Criminal Law’.

http://ausfirst.alphalink.com.au/manlyaction.html

Row Down Under: Australia Day or Invasion Day?
The Associated Press
January 26, 2009

SYDNEY, Australia: An Aboriginal leader named Australian of the Year on Monday said the government should consider changing the date of Australia’s national holiday because many indigenous people view it as celebrating the invasion of their homeland…

As for the Australian Army Southern Cross Soldiers, I think Roger Franklin may have joined Liam Houlihan on their shit-list…

No soldiers in fool’s army
Roger Franklin
Herald Sun
January 27, 2009

THERE are all sorts of words for a group of soldiers – troop, platoon, squad, take your pick.

But not one of them works for the strike force of simpletons that set out from Flinders St station on Australia Day to invade Mordialloc beach.

Public nuisances, obnoxious adolescents, big-lunged buffoons – they all do the trick. But the very best way to describe the self-styled patriots who call themselves the Southern Cross Soldiers is the simplest of them all.

Fools, every single one.

You could tell it would be an exercise in idiocy from the moment the first little troopers arrived under The Clocks and began casting anxious eyes over the Australia Day parade rolling down Swanston St.

Chinese marchers with their dragons, Turkish dancers, new arrivals from Africa – the sort of people your typical Southern Cross Soldier wants to send back where they came from.

But outnumbered as they were, there wasn’t a peep out of these heroes, whose ranks swelled gradually to about 30.

That was enough for the smarter ones to find the collective courage to stand in line and buy their tickets.

The defenders of White Australia behaved themselves on the train too.

And at Mordialloc’s multicultural melting pot, well you just had to laugh. They congregated for a while at the foot of the pier like virgins at an orgy, glancing anxiously down the beach and at all those non-Anglo faces, who paid them no heed whatsoever.

When a couple of brawny Pacific Islanders ambled past, their silence was deafening.

And then, perhaps because even nitwits understand that discretion is the better part of valour, they shuffled quietly back to the station, where the platforms were deserted – where it was safe to be offensive because there was no one around to offend.

They tried singing the national anthem, but that petered out after a few lines.

The pint-sized patriots evidently have a hard time remembering the words, so they settled on a few choruses of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie – Oi! Oi! Oi!”

When a Herald Sun photographer tried to snap their pictures, that was the moment to demonstrate courage. Fifteen on one, those are the sort of odds cowards like best.

There was a bit of pushing and shoving and lens-blocking, and one big kid struck a boxing pose and offered to punch some heads.

He didn’t and they drifted away on a cloud of obscenity to have another go at remembering the words to Advance Australia Fair.

Then a single, solitary copper strode into their midst and you should have seen them look the other way when he booked one of their members for drinking in public.

When the train came they piled aboard in a hurry to escape that solitary walloper, who wasn’t even all that big.

An army in retreat?

Not on your life. More like a flock of very silly geese.