The (racist) far right has reacted fairly predictably to the shooting death of 15-year-old Tyler Cassidy in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote last Thursday (December 11). For those for whom The Jew is Public Enimy #1, the fault lies, of course, at the feet of The Jew.
Clouds
Stormfront, Dr. David Duke‘s online, Florida-based Mental Hospital for Racist Cranks, abounds with penetrating insights. Ten of the best:
- brude: “I hope karma comes back to these rotton [sic] barstard [sic] PIGS like it did in the 1980’s.”
Spinosus: “Police officers in the west are ZOG enforcers, that[‘]s why I don’t like them.”
303pugs: “It looks very much like an anti white manouver [sic] by our new order gov.”
Sam: “As much of a tragedy [as] it is, there is also a lesson to be learnt: Don’t touch drugs.”
Silverfern (CHURCH OF THE NATIONAL KNIGHTS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN): “I believe the cops were justified, if I was me [sic] the little toerag wouldn’t of made it two steps.”
Cup-of-Ruin: “If that had been a Muslim or an Abbo [sic] they blasted there would be an uproar…”
Patriot08: “I love that Brutal Attack song on his myspace page too.”
Etain: “Tyler Cassidy, another white victim of the final solution… Tyler Cassidy is quickly becoming a Ned Kelly. An Australian “outlaw”, fighting to defend what it meant to be an Australian, who tried to survive in a place where he was a MINORITY, and was constantly reminded of his white man’s burden.”
sixtytwo [SCS Sydney]: “The [SCS] are vowing revenge they are vowing to get together.”
firestone: “So SCS: stay strong and hold your ground. Know that your cause is a noble one, as is ours, and the enemies [sic] main weapons are lies and manipulation. Only the weaker-minded guys will fall away for good because they fear criticism too much. This incident will no doubt attract more attention from your/our enemies, so learn as much about who they are and why they do what they do as you can. They will try to manipulate public opinion against you, but understand that these antis are a bunch of pussies who only do such things safely hidden away behind their [computer]. The only time you may catch a glimpse is if they venture out for the latest anti-Nike or G20 protests.”
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=550686
Latrines
Also on the anti-Semitic far right, in typically florid prose, Dr James Saleam, Fuehrer of the Australia First Party (NSW), asks, If The Victorian Police Wrongfully Shot A Boy, Why Does The Media Now Wish To Dig A Latrine As His Grave? (Statement By The Australia First Party, December 14.) Herr Doktor — sentenced to three and a half years jail in 1991 for organising a shotgun attack on the home of Eddie Funde, Australasian representative of the African National Congress — blames The (Jew) Controlled Media for plunging headlong down a Super Fun “slippery-slope of untruth, building up a shadowy Internet discussion board, the Southern Cross Soldiers, into a racist, extremist, activist and criminal circle.” Further: “Australia First Party denounces the media line that the Southern Cross Soldiers, an ostensible “nationalist” group, existed outside of the Internet site – MySpace.”
Obviously, Dr. Jim doesn’t leave The Bunker often enough to understand basic Internet terminology, and apparently exhibits a profound Failure of the Will when it comes to actually reading its Pandora’s Box of mal-contents. If he bothered to read their numerous pages (Bebo / Facebook / Myspace / 4chan), he’d know that highly-trained units of the elite division of the volunteer army known as the Southern Cross Soldiers frequently met in meatspace ~ look it up Jim ~ to drink piss and talk shit. Most recently, and just a few days prior to Tyler’s tragic death, the Marvellous mob in Melbourne met to celebrate the White Civil Uprising at Cronulla.
Meaning AF and SCS have something else in common.
http://ausfirst.alphalink.com.au/vicpolice.html
Further out on the fringe, Nathan Clarke (AF, Hunter Valley) and Jim Perren (AF, Toowoomba) are also prepared to put their necks out: nafe blames The Jew, while Jim blames The Jew, The Media, and THE CRIMINAL, ANTI-WHITE, PRO-ZIONIST GROUP FIGHT DEM BACK for Tyler’s death. “Did The Criminal Anti-White Pro-Zionist Group Fight Dem Back! and The Media kill a 15-year-old Boy?” Jim asks himself. “Probably”, is his answer.
Mind you, Jim also thinks Hitler was a TOP BLOKE; on the OTHER HAND, his USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS makes for HIGHLY-ENTERTAINING if not COMPELLING arguments.
http://whitelawtowers.blogspot.com
Above the clouds
Self-described ‘transcendental fascist’ and notoriously bad filmmaker* Richard Wolstencroft writes: “Apparently Tyler was a member of the proto-fascist Nationalist group Southern Cross Soldiers… [SCS Myspace] pages lack ideological sophistication and use unfortunate language, but are still heart felt attempts at some form of political expression”.
Quite.
Much more interesting, however, is his claim to have discovered an SCS Melbourne leaflet. One in which, according to Richard, “the SCS accuse the Herald Sun of doing a beat up on their group. They claim Tyler’s death was uncalled for [and] that earlier that day Tyler Cassidy was attacked at a train station by a Lebanese gang, and that this is the cause for his crazed agitation, and subsequent death that evening at the hands of Police”. The leaflet itself reads: “Barely 15 minutes before Tyler’s death, he had been the victim of a racially motivated knife attack on a train by a Lebanese Muslim gang. This was not the first time. The attack left him traumatised and agitated.”
As Richard notes, this is an apparently novel claim. It would also appear to contradict such facts as are known. After catching a bus at Alphington station at about 7.30pm, according to his family, Tyler arrived home “bruised and scratched, and with his shirt torn… at 8pm… [Tyler was] without his backpack, which he’d lost in the fracas aboard a Hurstbridge line train”. He left home 15 minutes later, and re-appeared at the Northcote Shopping Plaza at 9.25pm. In other words, it’s possible that Tyler had some kind of confrontation on a Hurstbridge line train with a ‘Lebanese Muslim’ gang as alleged, but if it did occur, it must have happened several hours — not 15 minutes — prior to his death. (See also : Witness lament for teen, Andrea Petrie, The Age, December 16, 2008; Police pursue ‘suicide by cop’ angle in teen shooting death, Geesche Jacobsen, The Sydney Morning Herald, December 13, 2008.)
*”Pearls Before Swine—I’ve kind of always distrusted Richard Wolstencroft, filmmaker, Melbourne Underground Film Festival director, and tedious bore, partly because of his avowed fascist tendencies. Now that I’ve paid money for and sat through his fucking film, I just want to beat the cunt senseless.”
http://ideafix7.wordpress.com/
Boomerangs and woomeras
Finally, nutty Intertubes forum mathaba.net provides a detailed study and acute analysis of Tyler’s shooting:
Meanwhile, the assistant state police commissioner, clearly a deserving accomplish [sic] of his liar boss, has defended the police assassination of the youngster claiming the assassins “had only seconds to react” when evidently 3 grown men have many options to react to a youngster carrying 2 knives, including, but not limited to:
* Run away
* While backing off take off jacket and wrap around arm
* While backing off take off shoes and put on hand
* Attempt to calm the distressed teenager by maintaining a non-confrontational posture
* Seek to maintain a distance, while waiting for the arrival of a net to be cast upon the target
* Throw (chilli) pepper mixed with water into the face of the knife-holding target
* Countless other options including boomerangsMeanwhile the incident is being used by many misguided ‘experts’ to call for the use of tasers – electrical stun guns – as a solution, instead of better training and a reassessment of the role of police in Australian society. Mathaba has many times in the past highlighted the danger of the use of tasers in the hands of police. A far better option would be for Australian police to seek training in the use of boomerangs and woomeras.
http://www.mathaba.net/related.shtml?x=613543
Looks like @ndy is in damage control.
‘Ullo Jim got a new motor?
his USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS makes for HIGHLY-ENTERTAINING if not COMPELLING arguments.
Um… I’d like to take this time out to formally admit my shame for overuse of capital letters, I blame weekend beers, I don’t do it usually when sober, honestly.
THE CRIMINAL, ANTI-WHITE, PRO-ZIONIST GROUP FIGHT DEM BACK
Easy break down, first, what is criminal? Have the police charged Fight Dem Back for any crimes? I haven’t seen any evidence of this accusation. Anti-White? I saw plenty of white background on their website, they use other colours but the background is definitely white, so this is clearly a baseless accusation. Thirdly, Pro-Zionist, what is wrong with Pro-Zionist, if they are or aren’t, what is the problem with that, should I be shocked? What should I do? As an aside, I was Pro-Zion in the Matrix films, would this guy take issue with that?
There are standard definitions and then there is Jimspeak.
“Have the police charged Fight Dem Back for any crimes?”
No.
“Anti-White? I saw plenty of white background on their website, they use other colours but the background is definitely white, so this is clearly a baseless accusation.”
Indeed. But ‘anti-White’ is, again, a technical term with special meaning within ‘White nationalist’ discourse. Jim and his ilk want a racially-pure, White Australia. As one of the groups/networks which argues that this is a racist policy, and monitors the activities of some of the groups and individuals which promote it, FDB is therefore ‘anti-White’.
“What is wrong with Pro-Zionist, if they are or aren’t, what is the problem with that, should I be shocked?”
Jim believes in the existence of a Jewish conspiracy to control the world. Part of this conspiracy involves the establishment of ‘front’ organisations, of which he believes FDB is one. By a standard definition, FDB is not ‘pro-Zionist’. I myself, as an anarchist, am opposed to ‘the state’ — all states, including the Israeli. Given that Zionism is generally defined as that ideology which concerns itself with the establishment/defence/promotion of an Israeli state (frequently, but not always, based upon Biblical teachings) / Jewish homeland, I am by definition not a Zionist, nor am I ‘pro-Zionist’. On the contrary, I am an internationalist.
Jim’s criticism is also based upon the involvement of a number of Jewish people in FDB.
For an anarchist approach to the ‘Israel Question’, see (among many other sources), Uri Gordon, ‘Right of Reply: Anarchy in the Holy Land!’, Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2007.
Also, ‘A conversation with Uri Gordon’, Interview by David B. Green in Haaretz Magazine, November 2008:
Come now, Andrew… is there really any point in denying these charges still. He’s got us bang to rights.
@ndy what would you know of me? You have never met me or even spoken to me. All you know is what you have been [fed]. Even you must know by now that 80% of what Henderson has said about me is totally off the mark.
How about you give me a call and ask me? Better still let’s meet up and I can explain everything. After all these years you guys still have no idea what I believe or what I don’t believe.
I do know that everything you do contradicts all you say you believe. I also know that you are a hypocrite and a liar. I do know that it’s you and your core members that hide away from the limelight.
Actually there was a time when I almost respected you for [your] political beliefs. I nearly believed that you actually are an Anarchist and [were] fighting the state. Now I know you work for them and that everything you do and say is just a cover. I do wonder if you actually realize it or not. But I think we both know that you are aware of who you answer to.
If you ever come to QLD @ndy, in fact any of you FDB antifa people get brave enough to visit, I am more than happy to meet up and explain whatever it is you need to know.
If you feel that you would like to make the visit more of a confrontation I can help you with that also. Henderson has my number just drop me a line.
“@ndy what would you know of me? You have never met me or even spoken to me. All you know is what you have been [fed]. Even you must know by now that 80% of what Henderson has said about me is totally off the mark.”
What do I know?
I have never (to my knowledge) met or spoken to you.
Your name is Jim Perren.
You live in regional Queensland.
You are a member of the Australia First Party, and are involved in its Toowoomba branch.
The Toowoomba branch was formally established in mid-2006: “The new Australia First Toowoomba branch has been established at a time of smear directed against the party by Dr. Mark Copeland of the Catholic Social Justice Commission. This man has used the columns of the Toowoomba Chronicle to misrepresent the party.” On Saturday, June 14, 2008, at a mass meeting of truckers in Toowoomba, you addressed the meeting on behalf of AF and helped to distribute leaflets supporting a strike on July 28.
You were a member of Stormfront, which you joined in November 2004, and where you posted as ‘303SMLE’. Your account has since been closed.
You are also a former member of the ‘White Pride Coalition of Australia’ (WPCA). The WPCA maintained a website, which is archived on Pandora. The archive’s front page (October 16, 2002) reads:
“The White Pride Coalition Aust. site that you are about to enter may contain items that you are morally against. Some of the images within this site are associated with White Power organisations, such as:
* The Nazi Party (WWII)
* The KKK (America and Australia)
* Various other low key White Power Groups throughout the world.”
Clicking on ‘Enter’ produces the following message:
“Welcome, My White Comrades, to the White Pride Coalition Australia. Heil Hitler! Hail Woden! Sieg Heil! Stay White Comrades 88.”
The site itself is stuffed full of white supremacist, neo-Nazi and other fringe racist material. For example:
“Our Mission is to unite Pro White forces in Australia for the establishment of a BRIDGEHEAD for the fight back campaign against the global Anti-White Conspirators of the United Nations and their New World Order Slaves!”
The forces united by the WPCA included:
Australian Nationalists Movement (ANM);
Imperial Klans of Australia (IKA);
National Socialist Party of Australia (NSPA) and;
World Church of the Creator.
Later (October 16, 2004), the mission statement changed to read:
“The White Pride Coalition aims to provide White Aryan People with accurate and truthful information in relation to the treacherous acts of the Jewish/Zionist factions all over the World.
We intend on achieving a Globally United White Front to combat the lies and bring down the Jewish/Zionist Government and Media Establishments and restore Whites to the positions of power that they are rightfully entitled to.”
One of the individual contributors to the site is ‘(Kromlek of) Asgard’, aka Peter Campbell. His ‘heroes’ are Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Woden, George Lincoln Rockwell, Francis Parker Yockey, Vlad Tepes (aka Vlad the Impaler), Nathan Bedford Forrest, George Orwell, Julius Caesar, Alexander The Great and Ludwig Van Beethoven.
Your email address is anzac88 — that is anzac ‘Heil Hitler’.
You are a member of the Australian New Nation forum, a neo-Nazi forum maintained by a Kiwi (and ladies’ man) called Alex Fogerty. Originally established as a yahoogroup in 2001, following the collapse of the WPCA, and the purging of SF, it, along with your blog, has become your new online home…
In summary:
Your views are, quite plainly, those of a neo-Nazi. You are not a teenage boy, but a grown man, with a long record of adherence to such views. As such, you are fully responsible for your views, and have had a good deal of time to reflect upon and to develop them. Further, you do not merely hold such views, but actively seek to promote them, and to that end organise with like-minded individuals to do so. In other words, you are a neo-Nazi activist.
I have no respect for your views, or your person, and have no desire to meet, let alone speak to you.
You’ve already spoken volumes.
In summary…
I don’t know if you need to do that…
that is anzac ‘Heil Hitler’
Well let’s just burn our Aussie military history books! I got mine, should I light it? I mean that General Erwin Rommel was a real bastard. He didn’t get Tobruk though, and he won’t be getting Australia with a new Afrika Corps either.
Excerpt from the Siege of Tobruk:
“A party of Germans managed to get inside the wire, establishing themselves with two guns, a mortar and eight machine-guns, but were expelled by seven Australians who counter-attacked with grenades and bayonets.”
— The Encyclopaedia of Australia’s Battles (Dr Christopher Clark – Australian Defence Force Academy)
@ndy is that what you sent the Police and ASIO? In other words I scare you. Good. You have missed a great deal also. But I guess that stuff isn’t on the net. My offer stands agent @ndy.
Yeah Jim. ZOG too. You have missed a great deal also. But I guess that stuff isn’t on the net.
Haha… Jim cracked the sads.
White Power!
The thing that amused me as Aussies fought Nazism in WWII is that it was so obviously a jealousy issue with the biblical example of the Jews as God’s Chosen. I guess they thought they were Science’s Chosen. I was reading through how to troll Nazis online cause I’m a wanker and I enjoyed this one:
— Ask how the weather is in Russia.
And adding my own favourite:
— The bible says those who curse the Israelites will be cursed – why did the Third Reich last only, like, 13 years out of those 1000?
I concur. Dude needs to get his hands on a Cornetto, whereupon he should proceed to harden the fuck up.
TGI Friday here! Last time I made a dickhead of myself, this time, hey Cam, I know who that Jim is talking about, and it’s not the Henderson Kids, I loved that show! I was like hmm 7 when that was on, but what was I saying, oh yeah! I know who that guy is aiming his shit at, in reflection I realise I’ve not been aware of how infiltrated immigration and cultural critics are by freakin’ organised Nazis! Fuck me, my grandfather would be spinning in his grave, those cunts were terrifying enough in the 40s to fight, they weren’t easy to beat! To think they see some claim to Aussieness through a German Nationalist movement is at the same time both frightening and retarded. So yeah, I know who he was talking about and I used to visit that blog to see what was going on, because I thought he was a funny bastard, he had a knack for comedy, I actually was benefitting my own Wanker from reading him sometimes, I understand why he saw a fight worth fighting, but it’s not an easy one. Personally, I prefer the arena of Wanker. Sometimes I leave it and then I realise, “turn around dude, you’re out of your element.” So I do.
Anyways, Cam, I read your article comparing this shooting to the Greek one, you said it better than I did, ah yeah um surprise, of course you did, but hey I was pissed, like 12 beers man. I’m a libertarian so when I see cops shoot a dipshit nationalist teenager I’m like, government gotta go.
Anyways, this is already TL;DR, but give my love to Darp, that’s how I knew him, he may not like that name anymore, I once produced a song for him, ages ago! About a dude accusing him of shaving his balls in a church and shit, I thought it was hilarious, cause that church is f***ed up with Materialism and Jesus would rip it apart like the money-changers in the Temple and it was a neo-nazi accusing him of it haha.
I found it! It’s still on my comp, how funny is that, beer is like spinach, I’m so Popeye. Anyways the title I have here is called “Dr. Jim Saleam – Darp Me (Album: Shaving Testicles In Church — 2005)”. That’s not this guy though, anyway this was yeah 2005, so considered Old School now.
I remember that song. I’ve still got it on my comp too.
You’re pretty drunk, huh.
A bit. Corona Extra carton and 12 are gone now, 12 left. Oi, Darp fucking rocked. I was like, angry, he chose that path where he’d face such bullying, only cause it limited his talents. He can be anything, but hey I don’t know where he went, but I DO know his clown in charge was Cam. He was like in awe of you, in a non-gay ‘I’m from Sydney yeah Cam dude is from the GAYEST CAPITAL EVAH!’ sort of way. Oi, Cam, I heard Darp was like, not tall, even if he was a tough guy, but me and Darp can agree one thing, we’re not from Melbourne. You Melbournites, seriously. Seriously. I’m done. More beer here. If I concentrated… Oi Dean Jones told me not to run the single, so I’m stopping.
I’m running the single. Cam? Oi Darp? I know you’re goin’ for lawyer! Stay with it. You, simply, deserve it for the passion you’ve always displayed, head and shoulders above them all. But! We can hit this guy, he probably stays outside the Flinders Street Station and condemns Hey Hey! So…No Plucka Duck or Red Faces or Molly’s Melodrama! Ah the Packers, that was spelled “F*** Melbourne love Las Vegas!” Let’s do it again so it never never ends let’s do it again just never never let it end. Our ends.
You’re pretty drunk, huh.
I tend to rant after that. Oi, if I said you deserved to be like some Molly Meldrum, I was so fucked. We Adelaideans, we see people in fancy cars and ask which weet bix box fucking won it for them.
LOL! Fucking Melbournites.
Atheist Whine was me too, sowwy.
I thought I was smart and shit but seriously, I need to sleep now, like, badly. Slaeep! Schweet. PS Melbournites suck? I saw a Ferrarri. They should like, kinda, die?
Seriously Indy, that vid you posted, that’s what I love about Melbourne, your willingness to get in people’s faces about your art, fucking fantastic!
Still lost the capital city title though. Sucked in hey.
PS If that vid is NOT from Melbourne, it should be, no one else should own it, seriously no one in Adelaide or Sydney would do that, that is sooooooo Melbourne.
PPS I had a mate who decided to go work there in the IT industry, he came back and one time we were confronted by a freak selling energy drinks in the Western Suburbs of Adelaide (Regency Park) and looking like he took way too many drugs, I’m in the car and engine is starting and ready to roll, my mate? He hops in comfortably after speaking to the dude for like 5 minutes, I said, make friends easy much? He laughs and says, “In Melbourne I get that all the time.”
Okay, beers aside, I concentrated and saw that video was actually from Hamilton, Canada. So Melbourne is losing. Losing in the race to good modern art. Sucked in. You cunts are just not trying hard enough, thinking hard enough, and then you realise that Sam Newman is The Man. Sucked in.
People always try to formulate their beliefs to serve but who? That Jim has a chance to make mistakes and reply “I’m no longer that way everyone makes mistakes,” but he doesn’t. Let’s forgive those who make mistakes. We should. But an unrepentant neo-nazi is trouble, I’ve been called it by new immigrants just cause I represent for my father and grandfather, it made me angry, my family goes back to the original fleet, yeah, like old school bitches, Tassie and NSW! But I can put it so much aside, cause I see love in this:
AntifaAustralia (2 weeks ago)
“Hey fellow human i am for you, The Anti-Fascists are for you. Together lets fight our enemies.”
I’m taught to recognise truth, and neo-nazis have no place in Australia and if they think so, so… like my grandfather, I have to fight them to the death then, cause like AntiFa above, I am for you.
Also, beer rant…
I’d like to say that I do understand the left-wing shouts of exploitation by the richest even in such a system where wealth accumulates to a much greater degree, but in a perfect world, well in a perfect world the greatest and most successful amongst us would be the first to serve, not to assume that their position gives them royal-like privilege over anyone else, and by that I mean, take that success and give it back as private charity to people in the community, and there’s plenty of ways to do it, like just walking around at Christmas time, and seeing families out and spreading the love with the root of all evil or gifts you bought with it.
I sympathise with that on the left because I know that humans will be humans, and we don’t all humble ourselves in our lives for God – some Christians even make excuses for it with the prosperity doctrine and churches that look like a high tech tribute to Materialism. And the left know that many don’t humbly do it because they don’t, or most of them don’t.
So because it might have been an hour or two, as opposed to 15 minutes, the point that Tyler was attacked by Lebos now makes no sense?
Hmm, no offen[c]e, but you suffer from what is known worldwide as pussy disease. It[‘]s where normally intelligent people become massive bitches and think all men are born equal and everyone can adjust to [W]estern society, instead of realising that there is such a thing as a violent culture (for example, Lebanese culture) and there are groups of migrants who will never fit in to Australia (such as, for example, Lebs).
When you grow a pair, you should write another article, because you are a good writer who has a strong command of language. But please don’t argue the toss over whether something happened after 15 minutes [or] 1 hour, because it makes it really obvious how bad your argument is. I’m not racist, I just realise how bad immigration is, economically, socially and criminally, for our nation. Greeks and Italians? Irish? No worries, they all brought something because they’re Western European people who integrate easily into our culture. But people from Mogadishu or Beirut? No thanks, they won’t fit in. Bad luck to them because Australia is great, especially when our government ISN’T bringing in half a million immigrants each year without even asking the rest of us if we agree with it.
Democracy is a joke.
Sorry Aaron, but I’m Not That Kind Of Boy!
I was selling flowers by the side of the road
And you came to my flower stand
I was telling you about pansies and roses
But you tried to grab my hand
I’m flattered, but it’s my choice
Sorry, I’m not that kind of boy
You may see a heart as a toy
Sorry, I’m not that kind of boy
You think love is a game, whatever you wish
But for me it’s years till that magical first kiss
I’ll wait until my heart’s on cloud nine
Your lust-filled existence is far out of line
I’m flattered, but it’s my choice
Sorry, I’m not that kind of boy
You may see a heart as a toy
Sorry, I’m not that kind of boy
You dared to ask me for a date alone
I was shocked you didn’t want a chaperone
You were attractive, but way too fast
How could you expect this to ever last?
I’m flattered, but it’s my choice
Sorry, I’m not that kind of boy
You may see a heart as a toy
Sorry, I’m not that kind of boy
So because it might have been an hour or two, as opposed to 15 minutes, the point that Tyler was attacked by Lebos now makes no sense?
A few points.
First, according to the anonymously-authored SCS leaflet (according to Richard):
“Barely 15 minutes before Tyler’s death, he had been the victim of a racially motivated knife attack on a train by a Lebanese Muslim gang. This was not the first time. The attack left him traumatised and agitated.”
As I pointed out, this contradicts other claims about the period leading up to Tyler’s death — the SCS account and the other accounts cannot both be correct, and it would seem that the SCS account is at fault. What appears to me to be a fairly obvious error renders the rest of the SCS account less credible. This includes the claim that Tyler was assaulted by a “Lebanese Muslim gang”.
Tyler’s death was — perhaps still is — the subject of a coronial inquest. I would assume that one of the goals of the inquest is to establish the facts surrounding his death, and the nature of the events leading up to it. This would, presumably, also include some consideration of his mental state upon leaving the family home, and subsequently confronting the police. Further, the events that preceded this confrontation, and any altercation he may have had on a train.
I think that Tyler’s family deserve to know what happened to Tyler prior to his death, and I think that, if the ‘SCS Melbourne Chapter’ is going to make claims about what happened, it should do so with due consideration for the facts. Fortunately, nobody is relying upon SCS to conduct an investigation which it is neither able nor willing to conduct.
Do the facts matter? Yes, I think they do. Was Tyler attacked by a “Lebo gang” or “a Lebanese Muslim gang”? I don’t know. Assuming something of this sort did occur, does it explain subsequent events? No, it does not.
Hmm, no offen[c]e, but you suffer from what is known worldwide as pussy disease. It[‘]s where normally intelligent people become massive bitches and think all men are born equal and everyone can adjust to [W]estern society, instead of realising that there is such a thing as a violent culture (for example, Lebanese culture) and there are groups of migrants who will never fit in to Australia (such as, for example, Lebs).
The idea that ‘All men are created equal’ is actually kinda old — it’s contained, for example, and most famously perhaps, in the US ‘Declaration of Independence’ (1776). It’s also a concept that appears in numerous texts in the Western political tradition, from about the 17th century onwards, but with numerous antecedents.
In other words, you’re denouncing what is, in fact, a core principle of modern Western societies.
As for ‘Lebanese culture’, ‘Western culture’, and violence: I think you should spend less time engaged in juvenile abuse, and more time studying history, politics, and society. If you do, you might one day understand why making such assertions is simply daft. The same applies to the history of migration to Australia, including Greek, Italian and Irish, and the nature of liberal democracy.
Police must heed OPI message of retraining and restraint
The Age
August 3, 2009
THE Office of Police Integrity’s Review of the Use of Force by and against Victorian Police is not the first and probably won’t be the last report to make scathing findings about a force with the unhappy record of having shot more people in recent times than any other Australian state. Last December’s fatal shooting of 15-year-old Tyler Cassidy in a confrontation with four police officers revived the familiar questions about whether the force is properly trained and equipped to deal with such situations. These questions were already being examined by the OPI review, which was commissioned last November. Its findings are not reassuring…
Mother demands answers on son’s death
Julie-Anne Davies
The Australian
August 8, 2009
THE family of the youngest person to be shot dead by Victorian police is urging the state Coroner to intervene and have a Homicide Squad investigation into the shooting replaced with an independent inquiry.
Shani Cassidy, the mother of 15-year-old Tyler Cassidy, expressed anger that the independent police watchdog, the Office of Police Integrity, having repeatedly refused urgings to investigate her son’s death, immediately accepted a request from Chief Commissioner of Police Simon Overland to investigate the leaking of details of this week’s terror raids.
Tyler Cassidy was fatally shot by four police officers at a Melbourne suburban skate park last December. His family’s concerns are shared by three law agencies — Youthlaw, the Federation of Community Legal Centres and the Human Rights Law Resource Centre — who have sent submissions to Victorian Coroner Jennifer Coate expressing doubts about the capacity of Victoria Police to objectively investigate its own officers.
They argue that the OPI, which only last week delivered a scathing critique of Victoria Police’s gun culture, is the only body capable of conducting a truly independent investigation into the boy’s death.
The Coroner and the OPI have rejected the call. OPI director Michael Strong said he would “fully review” the police investigation when it was completed.
In a statement to The Weekend Australian, Mr Strong said the OPI was “actively monitoring the investigation and stands ready to assist the Coroner if there are particular matters of concern to the Coroner”.
The State Coroner’s Office said it was “not appropriate to provide details of the conduct of that investigation, nor is it appropriate to discuss legal issues that are currently being raised with the Coroner”.
On Tuesday, the OPI launched an investigation into how details of Operation Neath, a police investigation into an alleged Melbourne terror cell believed to have links to Somali extremist group al-Shabaab, became known to The Australian five days before the raids. Mr Overland said he had asked the OPI to investigate the leak. “I think it is really important that we look at this,” he said.
Ms Cassidy questioned why the fatal shooting of a boy by police had not been given the same priority.
“The OPI has taken on the terrorist leak investigation this week but refuses to intervene in our case,” she said. “We have been pushing for an independent investigation into why the police shot my 15-year-old son dead since March and the OPI doesn’t want to know about it.”
Ms Cassidy said she had no faith that the investigation currently being conducted by the homicide squad on behalf of the Coroner would probe all the issues she believes are critical to explaining why her son ended up dead in a deserted skate park in inner Melbourne a fortnight before Christmas. “We are especially concerned that the police have not investigated the violent incident Tyler was obviously involved in at the Alphington train station before he came home that night,” she said.
“They say it is irrelevant but something terrible happened to him and I want to know what because it triggered his meltdown,” she said. “Do I have to go and stand down there with a placard with Tyler’s photo on it and a caravan appealing for witnesses myself because the police won’t do their job?”
Ms Cassidy has spoken publicly about her belief that all Victoria Police officers should be given Taser stun guns, and her disgust at the recent decision to arm all members with semi-automatic guns significantly more powerful than the current .38 service revolvers used by the police to kill her son.
In The Weekend Australian Magazine today, she gives the first detailed account of what happened that night and in the months since her son became the public face of a much wider problem within Victoria Police — its abysmal record of training and equipping its members to deal with confrontation without reaching into their holsters.
She claims Victoria Police have treated her family with scant regard and no compassion since Tyler died.
They have not been offered counselling or any other support, although police have now agreed to pay for the funeral expenses.
In a news bulletin posted on the Victoria Police website recently, it was claimed that no offer had been made to the Cassidy family due to the “sensitivity associated with the incident and an understanding that the family would not wish to be contacted by Victoria Police”.
A police spokeswoman said police were in contact with the family “as to what practical support they would like to receive”. The family says that so far they have heard nothing from Victoria Police. The police would not comment on the Tyler Cassidy case because the coronial inquest is pending. As yet, the police brief of evidence, which was due in February, is still not complete, so no date for the inquest can be set.
It is understood the Coroner wants to hear the case under Victoria’s new Coroner’s Act, which does not come into effect until November.
The Cassidy family is appalled with the findings of the latest OPI report into the police force’s use of guns, which found officers were not trained properly to handle volatile situations and had a heavy reliance on guns and a tendency to “go in hard”.
The family believes that if only a fraction of the 55 recommendations in an OPI report in 2005 had been acted upon, their son would still be alive today.
Anna Radonic, the principal solicitor with Youthlaw, a community-based legal aid centre and one of a number of parties seeking leave to appear at the inquest, said it appeared police acted in a confrontational manner before Tyler’s death.
“As we understand it, the police continued to pursue Tyler instead of retreating and containing Tyler and calling for back-up,” Ms Radonic said.
“In this situation the boy was clearly agitated and allegedly saying ‘come and get me’. But is that what you do? Actually chase him?”
‘Did they have to shoot my boy’
Chris Griffith
The Weekend Australian Magazine
August 8–9, 2009