Australian angry crowd singles out and attacks middle easterners

Greeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaattttttttt! ANGRY crowds have singled out and bashed people of Middle Eastern appearance at Sydney's Cronulla beach as racial tension erupted into violence. And an ambulance called to the scene to treat five people injured in today's violence has been attacked by a mob who shattered its windows. Meanwhile, police have been pelted with beer bottles, and their patrol cars stomped on, as the outnumbered officers struggled [...] "What has been occurring on some fronts is that people of Middle Eastern backgrounds that have been seen in the Cronulla area – a swarm of the crowd has approached these people with vile abuse, in the most un-Australian way," Mr Goodwin said. "We have a number of reports of persons that have been assaulted." He said the bulk of the crowd had behaved but pockets of violence had broken out. "... we have sections of the crowd that have swollen towards young Arabic males and females, who have been using this beach." Three people have been arrested so far, with more arrests expected. Earlier today, police rushed to Cronulla train station where a mob ran there from the foreshore after receiving a text message saying a group of Lebanese people were trying to leave. Mr Goodwin said the text message was wrong, but sparked a scuffle at the station between the crowd and police. [...] It was not clear if any of the arrests related to earlier witness reports of at least three men being pursued and attacked as they tried to get away from angry members of the crowd chasing them on foot. At least two of the men took refuge at Northies Pub, where police gathered to protect them. Roads were closed down as the violence flared today, with mounted police trying to maintain control lines as a police chopper hovered over the beach. [...] One of the messages had urged "Aussies" to take revenge against "Lebs and wogs". Another urged locals to rally at a point on the beach today to take retaliation against "middle eastern" gangs. As the 5,000-strong crowd moved along the beach and foreshore area today, one man on the back of a ute began to shout "No more Lebs" – a chant picked up by the group around him. Others in the crowd, carrying Australian flags and dressed in Australian shirts, yelled "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie ... Oi, Oi, Oi". I guess that rules out any plans I had to immigrate to Ozzie, huh? Maybe I should just avoid the beaches! Hmm......... Update: Tim Blair has a round-up that shows the roots of this attack. Apparently there is enough blame to go around on both sides as shown by this timeline: * Last weekend some people, probably Lebanese Muslims, bashed a bunch of lifeguards at Cronulla Beach, including knocking one unconscious. They also harassed girls and women on the beach. * Residents, pissed off by the violence, got angry at the lack of police attendance and presence. * The anger morphed into a rage that the beach was being “invaded” by people from the western suburbs (i.e., a euphemism for Lebanese Muslims). * Some people started texting to incite others to “defend the beach” from thugs. * Today they did that by forming a violent, rowdy, mob. Fantastic. So some lebanese gang members started it, and 5000 australians responded by attacking anyone who even looks like they are middle-easterners. Idiots all around. Here is some more history on this "conflict" here. It's complicated. There's a long history of harassment by Lebanese Muslim street gangs at Cronulla. The weekend's events follow the attack last weekend by such a gang against two volunteer lifesavers (lifeguards). However, the actual rioters seem to have been attacking anyone of middle-eastern appearance, without regard to their particular religion. And there have been reports of white supremacist/neo-Nazi involvement, although that's via the MSM, so usual grain of salt applies. The destructive rampage in Maroubra where around 100 cars were vandalized was apparently the same street gangs who provoked the whole mess in the first place. So, for some of the participants, it was a race riot. Some of them were just drunken yobs looking for a fight. Some of them just came along to "take back the beach" and got caught up in the chaos. But it was specifically Lebanese Muslim gangs involved. There are a lot of Lebanese Christians in Sydney, but they don't seem to have the same tendency to form gangs and harass people. There is a joke that the Boondocks cartoon once made: It said that after 9/11, while Black people became the third most hated minority group in America amongst white people, Black people remained the most hated group amongst Black people. While I am not excusing the racist neo-nazi fuckheads who attacked those innocent beach-goers, I know what Aaron Mcgruder meant by making that joke! Update: Oh, Joy. The violence is spreading.