Talk:2005 Cronulla riots

References

"The violence then spread to Ashfield in Sydney's Inner West, as well as suburbs in Greater Western Sydney, with outbreaks in Bankstown and Punchbowl."[15] The footnote that this sentence points to mentions the suburb of Maroubra. Why are these other suburbs mentioned? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.218.4.26 (talk) 11:19, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Please reference correctly

When reading this article I checked the references cited and I noticed a distrubing trend. When the references, majority of them from Media websites, stated "people/men of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance" the author of the Cronulla Riots Wiki article had changed it to "Arab or Lebanese people/men". I asked all editors of Wiki that they stay true to their references or not add the references at all. RenziAu (talk) 02:37, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Referencing correctly for this subject is something of an oxymoron. What might help this article is the underlying causes of the riots, and that does not seem to be mentioned anywhere. The reigning ALP had instructed the NSW police to go easy on ethnic offenders as they were overly represented in gaols. Essentially the ALP became apologists for Arab criminal gangs. Increasing street violence led white militant groups to retaliate directly. We can see the same type of apologetic correctness emerging now in Europe, where the last series of terrorist attacks have been attributed to mental illness.203.221.157.17 (talk) 10:13, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

History

The article implies that the problems began with the bashing of the lifesavers. Not so. For many years, large numbers of "young men of Middle Eastern appearance" had been coming to Cronulla intent on causing trouble. This ranged from verbally harassing sunbaking women ("sluts") because they were not modestly dressed, taking over areas in numbers and roughing up any none-ME appearanced person who entered (turf war style), to just picking fights and solving them ME style - bringing in 10 mates to beat up one white Australian. This had been going on for several years. Most of it was unreported in the press because the State Govt was seeking racial harmony at any cost, and the police were asked to "play it down". I worked in the area in those years, and I also attended a gym frequented by local police. They knew what was going on. The locals knew what was going on. It had been going on for *years*. This didn't just come out of nowhere. --60.240.68.54 (talk) 13:52, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

That said I agree that there are holes in this article. There needs to be mention of 'racial' events leading up to the 'riot'(ie. gang rapes a year earlier?), the immediate aftermath ie. "Fortress Cronulla", and its' lasting effects, ie. the increased police presence on the anniversaries in the years following. There is very little (any?) mention of the hundreds of car windows, and shop windows smashed in the Dec 12 'revenge attacks'. One problem is that the many hearsay stories of 'incidents' cannot be included due to Wikipedia policies, as many were presumably never reported. There are some that were, but others may have been exaggerated or even fabricated.

As it is now the article doesn't even say, except quite vaguely, where the events actually occured. Little menton of the Cronulla Station train assaults. No mention that the guy attacked by about 30 on Sunday 12th was very near the Police Station. Maybe needs more mention of the 'political correctness' aspect. I will 'fix' some of these. Comments?
--220.101.28.25 (talk) 17:29, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Care to articulate -intelligently- and -logically- the relevancy of those gang rapes to this? I agree that the Lebanese boys responsible for those attacks are scum but if the motivation of the riot was to avenge victims of sex crimes why haven't these white trash bogans gone around indiscriminately bashing footballers who are also guilty of gang rape? The bikepath assailant in Brisbane was white so why didn't they go around bashing their own? Perhaps it's because these thugs don't give a s--- about the plight of girls. One only need to look at some of them to know they're as misogynist as they are racist. Even bogans wearing the flag as their own personal symbol of hate at the Big Day Out were reported to have made misogynist remarks to females passing by. So how are they any better than their Lebanese adversaries? They're not. Stop pretending that those who orchestrated Cronulla are somehow heroes who defend the interests of the fairer sex. They're not. And if 60.240.68.54 honestly believes that white men don't go around calling women "sluts" and dehumanising them at every opportunity then he is a brainless wonder. You clowns can spare me your infantile "leftie", "bleeding heart", "politically correct" or what the f--- ever predictable responses too. I am not some small l f------ liberal. I just don't like seeing intellectually-challenged criminals and misfits being lauded as heroes.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.18.34.5 (talk) 06:28, 23 November 2009‎

Good response. This article needs more attention from regular wikipedia writers, those who strive for impartiality rather then those with a point or goal to accomplish that is related specifically to the outcome of the event described in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Senor Freebie (talk • contribs) 05:39, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Article Tubala Rasa

I decided that The article was in to much of a mess to clean properly, so I decided to start again from scratch. I have now copy–pasted my version over the older version. The new version is a bit smaller (3,020 words/42,947 bytes) compared to the older version (5,455 words/57,952 bytes) but is CITEd a lot better, much more NPOV. Lets try and improve the article instead of getting into flame and edit wars. Sanguis Sanies (talk) 08:45, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Australian Flag Kissing

Thanks for all the great work on a complex article.I'm curious as to the reports of people being forced to kiss the Australian flag, under threats of violence for not doing it.Such a warped patriotism needs study and reporting.Thanks to Sanquis Sanies & all for good work. Should article be frozen by locking to save all the references etc?It's such a hotbed of controversy.Ern Malleyscrub (talk) 04:12, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Stacks [1] of references [2]

Just noticed [1][2] how many references [3] punctuate every sentence [4][5][6][7][8] in this article [9]. Is there not a better way [10][11][12] to present [13] these [14] citations [16][17]? Tim Bennett (talk) 05:34, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Generally references appear after punctuation, and a given reference can be assumed to apply for any preceding claims not specifically referenced that lead up to it. Thus, as an example, the line:

Two of the youths who attacked Jake Schofield turned themselves into police[22] and where charged with; armed robbery,[22] wounding,[22] malicious wounding with intent,[22] affray[22] and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.[22]

Can be better expressed as:

Two of the youths who attacked Jake Schofield turned themselves into police and where charged with; armed robbery, wounding, malicious wounding with intent, affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.[22]

and readers would be expected to assume that the reference (as it does) refers to all the claims in a sentence. Similarly, it isn't necessary to have separate references for every claim in the middled of a line, although there's nothing technically wrong with it - it is normally acceptable just to place multiple references at the end. So examples such as:

A 26–year–old mechanic[20] dubbed “Dan”[21] was stabbed in the back three times[20] and twice in the thigh[20] with a 9.8 centimetre blade[20] at approximately 22:25.[16]

could be simplified to:

A 26–year–old mechanic dubbed “Dan” was stabbed in the back three times and twice in the thigh with a 9.8 centimetre blade at approximately 22:25.[16][20][21]

Unless someone expresses a problem, I'm inclined to go through and simplify the referencing to improve legibility. - Bilby (talk) 21:35, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

The actual bad thing about this is the massive obfuscation of the wiki source code, potentially keeping editors from contributing. I think this is a well-meant attempt to cover a potentially disputed topic, but it takes a form that could be called "anti-wiki". Just look at this:

On December 12 rioters had written various Anti-Australian sentiments including; “Aussi [sic] to Die”, “Intifada”, “It’s war”, “Sunday cowards die, Soldiers rize [sic]”, “Never rest assie [sic] dog”, “Yous came by chains u convict dogs”, and “We fear no ozy [sic] pigs” before continuing destroying cars and local shops.

reads, in source,

On December 12 rioters had written various [[Anti-Australian sentiment]]s including; “Aussi{{sic}} to Die”,<ref name=patch/> “[[Wikt:Intifada|Intifada]]”,<ref name=patch/> “It’s war”,<ref name=patch/> “Sunday cowards die, Soldiers rize{{sic}}”,<ref name=patch/> “Never rest assie{{sic}} dog”,<ref name=patch/> “Yous came by chains u convict dogs”,<ref name=patch/> and “We fear no ozy{{sic}} pigs” <ref name=patch/> before continuing destroying cars<ref name=patch>{{cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/trouble-in-the-premiers-patch/2006/01/13/1137118970548.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1|title=Trouble in the Premier’s Patch|date=2006-02-07|accessdate=2009-12-15|work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|first1=Paul|last1=Sheehan}}</ref><ref name=freshvio>{{citeweb|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/riots-fire-debate-on-racism/2005/12/12/1134236003072.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1|title=Fresh violence rocks Sydney|date=2005-12-13|accessdate=2009-12-05|first1=Malcolm|last1=Brown|first2=Dan|last2=Silkstone|first3=Brendan|last3=Nicholson|work=[[The Age]]}}</ref> and local shops.<ref name=freshvio/>

where the very same thing could be written as

On December 12 rioters had written various [[Anti-Australian sentiment]]s including; “Aussi{{sic}} to Die”, “[[Wikt:Intifada|Intifada]]”, “It’s war”, “Sunday cowards die, Soldiers rize{{sic}}”, “Never rest assie{{sic}} dog”, “Yous came by chains u convict dogs”, and “We fear no ozy{{sic}} pigs” before continuing destroying cars and local shops. <ref name=patch>{{cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/trouble-in-the-premiers-patch/2006/01/13/1137118970548.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1|title=Trouble in the Premier’s Patch|date=2006-02-07|accessdate=2009-12-15|work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|first1=Paul|last1=Sheehan}}</ref> <ref name=freshvio>{{citeweb|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/riots-fire-debate-on-racism/2005/12/12/1134236003072.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1|title=Fresh violence rocks Sydney|date=2005-12-13|accessdate=2009-12-05|first1=Malcolm|last1=Brown|first2=Dan|last2=Silkstone|first3=Brendan|last3=Nicholson|work=[[The Age]]}}</ref>

Theoprakt (talk) 17:25, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Should be cleaned-up a bit better.Sanguis Sanies (talk) 15:45, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

References

Bias and balance?

It seems odd to me that in the section describing the initial riot that spawned from Cronulla, it offhandedly mentions 26 people being treated for injuries, including 2 who required hospitalisation, while in the section describing the "retalliation" the perpetrators are vigorously described and the victims noted individually. Often this can occur when media reports are limited on an event like attacks in Iraq. However I remember clearly hearing numerous articles quoting victims of the original white rioters, such as an Italian and a South American man confused for Lebanese and assaulted. The fact that these articles are not cited and that the articles describing the small number of assaults later that have been labelled "retalliations" seems to me to be deliberate soap boxing and bias intended to give people a certain emotive response to this article.--Senor Freebie (talk) 05:33, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Do you have these articles? I'd be glad to incorporate them into the article. Additionally in "Retaliation" I did go into extra detail based on the sources I had, I gave as much detail as was available into the police officer and ambulance officers that were injured. It's not a bias on my behalf (and certainly not soapboxing), just going on the information from the sources I could find. Sanguis Sanies (talk) 07:21, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

I agree that the article now looks more like a hit piece. There was considerably more "white" violence than the article implies. I deleted attacks that occured after the riots ended that had nothing to do with them. Wayne (talk) 18:41, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

You state that a Lebanese immigrant stole the flag from the RSL at Brighton and spent three months in jail as his sentence. He was under 18 so couldn't be indetified in the media (althought he was, repeatedly),Austrlain-born and his sentence was a Youth Justice Conference after he spent 3 months on remand waiting for his trial. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.30.1.92 (talk) 09:42, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

This article panders to the people who caused all the trouble and is far too politically correct; so much so that anyone who didn't already know what happened would be left totally confused and wouldn't be able to figure out what was going on. The article should make clear in the introduction that the life guards were beaten up by a Middle Eastern gang and told that the gang owned the beach from then on. The article should also mention the teenager who burnt the Australian flag from the RSL club, since that was an important event that many people would remember. (Huey45 (talk) 02:31, 15 June 2010 (UTC))

The article is accurately based on the sources. Your description - "the life guards were beaten up by a Middle Eastern gang and told that the gang owned the beach from then on" - is not an accurate reflection of the most reliable sources. It presents as fact what was a report or allegation, and implies the initial alleged violence was one-way, whereas the event apepars to have been an escalating exchange beginning with verbal abuse from both sides. I am not aware of a reliable source confirming that the eight men were a gang (which would be taken to mean an organisation, not just a group of friends), nor that they said that they "owned the beach from then on", though there may be claims that this was said. The article does a reasonable job of presenting a very controversial topic i think. hamiltonstone (talk) 03:09, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:2005 Cronulla riots/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: hamiltonstone (talk) 01:01, 17 March 2010 (UTC) I will review this. It may take some time, but I thought I would identify one significant issue up front: with the exception of the Strike Force Neil material, the article relies completely on news media reports. It is now over four years since the riots took place, and there are scholarly articles that either directly or indirectly discuss the riots, their media portrayal, the causes etc. I don't think an article about the riots can really be adequate unless it draws on this literature. One example of such an article appears to be listed in the (overly long and cluttered) external links section, but it should be being used as a source. There should not be any media articles listed under external links, nor unreliable sources or minor relevance. A link to a photo gallery is appropriate. hamiltonstone (talk) 01:01, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Examples of possible sources:

• TASA conference paper on media portrayal
• European Journal of Cultural Studies article - this is just the abstract - the full article will need to be tracked down.
• Australian Institute of Criminology paper on the subject
• Australian Journal of Anthropology article (abstract only) on the subject
• probably crucial People and Place article about the riots

And I expect this just scratches the surface. These peer reviewed sources should probably be preferred over newspaper reports if they cover the same ground. hamiltonstone (talk) 01:09, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for reviewing it. Due to the real world getting in the way I won't be able to fully go over the article until Monday at the earliest, but I'll certainly take a look at the above links, I also plan on adding the following links in: Strike Force Neil 1 Strike Force Neil 2 and Strike Force Neil 4 as 3 is already included in the article; these links are additional Strike Force Neil sources and will (if possible) replace any other links.

I have no problems butchering the external links section.

How about the article structure itself? Is that up to scratch? Does it flow properly? Do you think any sections should be moved together or split apart? Sanguis Sanies (talk) 04:47, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

I have one issue with this article. The lead paragraph is a bit ambiguous - Upon reading I gained the impression that the entire crowd of 5000 started out peacefully, then all got drunk and then all engaged in violence. The lead should clarify that it was a small subsection and not the entire crowd that participated. I'd also like to see more about the aftermath - nearly five years has gone by and I'd like to know what local/state/federal actions have occurred (my original motivation for coming to this article). Apart from that, the article is good. 59.101.22.163 (talk) 02:17, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Changed the lead a bit, I'll expand the police/government response part to include new powers (there are already several sources I can draw from). Sorry this is taking so long folks, but real life keeps getting in the way; normally I'd be done by now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sanguis Sanies (talk • contribs) 08:41, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Again, profuse apologies to all for the continued delay. I think that the article as it stands meets GA Standards, particularly the concern over 2b, if this was an FA article I would agree, but since it's "only" GA I'm not overly concerned. I've read and gone through the above sources and they add either; nothing new, or nothing that can be kept within NPOV. An "over-reliance" on media reports is not bad as they contain many of the raw facts that wikipedia strives for. I think that the article as it stands is GA compliant.Sanguis Sanies (talk) 22:48, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

My concern is criterion 3(a) ("it addresses the main aspects of the topic"). The riots were a critical social and political event of the period, extensively discussed in the scholarly literature, in terms of the evolution of Australian socio-cultural life at that time. Some articles tie the incidents back to race relations, but also to federal government policy on immigration and similar issues. I wouldn't be surprised if the literature also uses the events in analysis of Australian media regulation and defamation law (though i'm not sure). I'm just not clear how the main aspects of the topic are addressed if none of these analyses are considered. BTW I'm not sure about your point about the media reports and "raw facts" - they also may contain "raw errors", something later material hopefully sifts out. In this regard I'm glad you've been looking to make more use of the strike force docs. hamiltonstone (talk) 11:44, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

I think I'm done with this article. I'm not overly concerned about the "evolution of Australian socio-cultural life at that time." I tried to add info about what government legislation was passed, but the only ones I could find were not RS. I can't add anything more too this article, if others want too by all means, but my work here is done. Hamilstone can pass or fail this as is. Sanguis Sanies (talk) 08:15, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough. I can see arguments both ways; I'm asking for a second opinion. There are some prose problems in th article (which i din't bother to raise, as i saw the coverage issue as the main one). I'll work on some copyediting while we wait for some more eyes on the article. Cheers, hamiltonstone (talk) 03:31, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

3rd opinion

No progress is being made, no edits since 12 April. I recommend failing this nomination now. The nominator can ask for community re-assessment at WP:GAR or sort out the outstanding issues and renominate at WP:GAN, where the queue is down to less than 20. –– Jezhotwells (talk) 00:14, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

On closer examination...

Actually, there are other problems.

• There is excessive reliance on opinionated journalists (specifically Sheehan) for factual events - serious ones, that if true should be in other reports as well, and in court reports or the police report. Sheehan reporting a conversation with an anonymous local as though it was fact? That isn't adequate in such a contentious and serious event.
• There is confusion in the narrative - events that Sheehan appears to be attributing to December 12 are included in the WP article as occurring on December 11.
• The prose was poor. I've tried to pick up most of these problems.
• Why are just two "attacks" - Dan and Jake Schofield - included in the "attacks" seciton, when there were obviously other assaults (on both "sides")? And who is Jake Schofield? We have context for who Dan is, but not Jake.
• One of the last passages in the impacts section turned out to be about Terrigal, not about Cronulla at all. I have fixed this for accuracy, but the article offers no explanation of why Terrigal was involved, why there was a police lockdown etc etc.

Regards, hamiltonstone (talk) 04:15, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

2nd reviewer

At present I think the article is not quite GA standard:

• The Sydney Morning Herald is the only serious reporter I'm seen has. How good is the reputation of The Age? While ABC News Online may be good, the reports used here were "in real time", and therefore mistakes are likely. And official reports, beside with verbose, usually protect their politicians and officials.

(interjection from first reviewer) The Age is fine - same standard as SMH. I think the Strike Force Neil reports are OK, unless there is a contemporaneous reliable source contradicting them. hamiltonstone (talk) 11:29, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

• I agree with hamiltonstone that the article needs content from academic sources - not just to beef up the current sources, but because the academics have a longer perspective (e.g. on decreasing tension in the following period) and more depth of analysis.
  • I can send you Latta's Cruising: "'Moral Panic' and the Cronulla Riot" - if you email via WP, that will give me your email and I can send. I'm afraid I can't access Hartley & Green's "The public sphere on the beach"
  • Search for Cronulla riots at Scholar Google looks promising, and a few are free PDFs. --Philcha (talk) 09:22, 13 April 2010 (UTC)
• lead still ambiguous, and will needed to be updated from new points in main text. --Philcha (talk) 09:22, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

3rd opinion

No progress is being made, there have been no edits in 8 days. I recommend that this nomination be failed now. The nominator can take this to WP:GAR for community re-assessment or sort out the outstanding issues and re-nominate at WP:GAN. –– Jezhotwells (talk) 00:20, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

CRIME??

• THIS IS FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ONLY..!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.71.110.234 (talk) 06:31, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
  • Talk pages are NOT a forum for discussing the article's subject, they are for discussion about how to improve an article. Andrei.smolnikov (talk) 03:38, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Howard / Costello quotes

Note on this -

Australian Prime Minister John Howard condemned the violence describing it as “sickening and deplorable”[44] but denied any racial undertones saying the events were primarily an issue of law and order:[44][46] “The Sydney riots were an example of hoodlums who got out of control.”[45]

If you go to the article cited in #45, it appears that the quote about "hoodlums" actually came from Peter Costello. The way it's written is unclear and could be read as attributing the quote to John Howard. —Preceding unsigned comment added by FlyingSquirrel42 (talk • contribs) 22:21, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! I've reworded it to suit - that was a fairly significant error, so I'm very glad it was spotted. :) - Bilby (talk) 01:45, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Contreversy in sentencing

Hi all, I'm new to wikipedia, but I thought it was worth noting the very strange sentences handed down to multiple people involved in the riot. As stated in the article

Yahya Jamal Serhan was arrested over the stabbing of “Dan” on December 12 and charged with affray and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to 13 months jail but was immediately released after having already spent nine months in custody awaiting trial.[22][34] Dan was angered and disappointed by the sentence “I’ve got no feeling on the left hand side of my back where the knife broke off.”[34] A second person, a 17-year–old, was also questioned by police.[35]

Marcus Kapitza,[36] 28, was jailed for 12 months after pleading guilty to one charge of riot.[36] On the day of the riot Kapitza wore a singlet with the words “Mohammed was a camel-raping faggot.”[36] He was also involved in the attack at the train station shouting “Fuck off! Fuck off the Lebs.”[36] Brent Lohman,[37] 19, was also charged over the train station assault was sentenced to 11 months in jail.[37]

I'm sure it's worth noting in an encyclopedia that words and writing are considered worse crimes than stabbing someone. Like I said I'm new to this so please go easy but I thought this should be included thanks =)124.176.145.205 (talk) 13:04, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Dead link

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

• http://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/publication/PDF/other%20reports/review%20of%20emerency%20powers%20to%20prevent%20or%20control%20disorder.pdf
  • In 2005 Cronulla riots on 2011-05-25 07:56:52, 404 Not Found
  • In 2005 Cronulla riots on 2011-06-12 00:55:04, 404 Not Found

--JeffGBot (talk) 00:55, 12 June 2011 (UTC) fixed, replaced with current link on NSW Ombudsman's site WotherspoonSmith (talk) 09:47, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

removing citations, tidyng text

Based on he above comments, I have tidied many of the citations- but it still has a long way to go. Mostly, to improve readibilty, i shifted the citations ot the end of sentences or paragraphs,but have actually removed only one- an opinion piece by Paul Shehan, which only repeated and editorialised coments provieded in other places. There are still around 19 citation of the sixty minutes article- not sure if we actually need any of them... WotherspoonSmith (talk) 04:37, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

Erm...

Why is this not in the category "racism in Australia"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.224.17.99 (talk) 00:10, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

Because it's already in Category:Race riots in Australia, which is a subcategory of the racism cat. Graham87 15:32, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Recent source

This largely relates to the guy who was stabbed near Woolooware Golf Club. [1]. dailymail.co.uk, but may also have other details not currently covered in the article. 220 of ^Borg 11:47, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Poor quality of article

I'd like to compare this article to the 2005 Paris riots article in order to show its many shortfalls. In particular, I came here looking for background and aftermath of this incident, but the wiki article is basically useless in both regards. There's no mention of Lebanese gangs being a growing source of concern of the previous decade, but for some bizarre reason there is a mention that 'westies' often get in to fights at the beach. For those unaware, that's the equivalent of an American saying "rednecks sometimes get in to fights at the beach". It is a very strange thing to put in an encyclopaedia. There is also a lot of use of language such as "a media report states" and "the claim was made" when speaking of things that might damage the image of one ethnicity, but anything in their favour, or damaging to the other ethnicity involved, is merely stated as fact. The talk page talks at length about using good sources - but the article quotes Alan Jones at length. This is a man that made a living from saying stupid things for the purpose of creating controversy.

The background needs to mention the previous growing concerns, particularly in light of resistance from police to admit that gangs were related to ethnicity, suppressing reports to the contrary, leading to policing failures such as the gang rapes that terrorised Sydney for so long, a refusal to work with Police Commissioner Ryan who warned of Lebanese gangs, and the belief that police would not help people if the perpetrators were of a particular ethnicity. Sydney from the late nineties up to this point were terrorised by gangs such as the DK boys; the drive by shooting of a police station; the gang rapists that used taunts such as "you're not human, just an Aussie" and "we wouldn't do this to a real muslim girl, just white sluts"; attempted terrorist attack on the nuclear plant shortly before; actual terrorist attacks by muslims in Bali; and other worldwide events showing the radicalisation of those from the middle east. The aftermath needs to mention the formation of the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad, and its current focus on Australians fighting for ISIS and other terrorist organisations. I mention their current focus because of the ignorant statements elsewhere on this talk page that 'bogans' are just as bad as the Sydney gang rapists, and that macho surfies are as bad as middle eastern gangs:

"a suicide bomber who killed three people in Baghdad in July. The Islamic State named the bomber as Abu Bakr al-Australi on its Twitter feed. It also includes two men from Sydney, Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar, who have posted images from Syria on Twitter, showing them posing with the heads of executed fighters, holding guns and standing over bloodied bodies."

Frankly, all I got from the wiki article as it stands is "there was a fight, then a riot, because Australia is racist." It's exactly the sort of response that allowed the fear to fester to begin with, and directly led to people believing a violent protest was the only way they could respond. I write this here, and not in the article, because I know it will be deleted. That's Wikipedia - more biased, more irrelevant every year. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.178.26.167 (talk) 15:08, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

I find it ironic that you conclude with 'Wikipedia- more biased, more irrelevant..." when you mostly wanted more biased and irrelevant things added to the article. If you have citations/ sources supporting your claims, put them here or in the article. I can't find anything on the web with your quotes about raping white girls, for example. If you know of background (etc) that can be shown to be relevant, we'll add it. This is not a page of the history of all (real or undocumented) Lebanese or Muslim interactions in Australia- it's just about the riots.

I:If you can be specific about the sections that are biased towards/ against specific races, though, I'll happily change them for you.WotherspoonSmith (talk) 14:16, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Well i've just looked at it right now and this article is hogwash. It mentions westies whatever that means and makes only 1 reference to some muslim organisation giving a speech or whatever tripe. So why is a muslim organisation half way down the page if this was all about these mythological westiess' ? It was clearly a riot started by australians getting pissed off by the years of muslim aggression in the area. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.255.207.164 (talk) 22:24, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

Biased framing of the introduction

"The riots stemmed from tensions between youths from Sydney's Lebanese and white populations. A crowd gathered at Cronulla on the morning of Sunday, 11 December, and, by midday, approximately 5,000 people had gathered near the beach. The gathering began peacefully, but later in the afternoon a man of Middle Eastern appearance was surrounded outside a local hotel and attacked by members of the crowd"

While a later section does mention the bashing of volunteer lifeguards and the 40 year old anglo male by Lebanese gangs, it's completely absent from the introduction, while the attack on a middle eastern appearing man is highlighted. Anyone reading just the introduction would certainly interpret this as meaning that locals or Anglos threw the first punches, which wasn't the case. There was more than "tensions between youths", assaults against lifeguards and other locals had already started immediately prior to the riot. 14.200.91.233 (talk) 04:03, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

I disagree. Remember, this is an article about the riots, not the history of race relationships in Cronulla. It is appropriate, in my opinion, that the intro gives a line or so about the precursors, then describes the riots, then a line or so about the aftermath.

RE: "Anyone reading just the introduction would certainly interpret this as meaning that locals or Anglos threw the first punches, which wasn't the case." As far as the riots themselves are concerned, that was the case, and this is an article about the actual riots. The later article sections make the whole setting clear, in my opinion. I'm happy for anyone with no historical connection to Australia or the riots to chime in with an opinion. WotherspoonSmith (talk) 05:56, 18 September 2016 (UTC)

I think you're choosing an arbitrary time and date to say 'the riots started here', to suit a particular narrative, when in fact the affrays and mob violence against locals had already commenced immediately prior. 5000 people didn't just turn up from nowhere to start attacking Lebs, as the introduction implies. 14.200.91.233 (talk) 12:49, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

The origin of the riots

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/signals-of-jihad-in-australia-have-been-building-for-years-20140924-10lhon.html

If this is a valid source, it explains and justifies the riots. The events also followed the,

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_gang_rapes

This is the context for the violence. No wonder the crowd was so angry. Harassment of women is completely unacceptable. It explains the violence. What I understand is that Muslim men had been harassing western women, almost irrespective of what they wore for years, calling them sluts and whores. I am sorry. In my brief search, I have not been able to find good references for this in Australia, although I have read and heard this is what led to the riots. Overseas, there are clear references to unrelenting harassment of non-Muslim women, along with rape "on an Industrial scale".

Other related incidents

• http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/police-would-not-have-met-numan-haider-had-officers-known-of-facebook-posts-20160315-gnjju4.html

The article, as written, seems narrow. It does not describe the actions that led up to the Cronula riots.

Thepigdog (talk) 13:10, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Thepigdog, I tend to disagree. See 2005 Cronulla riots#Background "There is also a history of conflict between Cronulla locals and those visiting from the Western suburbs ("Westies") with "bashings" common since the 1960s as part of a turf war between Westies and local surfies." It could be more detailed. As you said, lot of stories are told about 'anglos' esp. women being harassed, but are not reliably verifiable.
Nb. I lived in Cronulla very near where this occurred, for 16 years before the riot, and 10 after. I saw some of the rioting, and especially observed the aftermath where literally hundreds of cars were smashed up on Elouera Road in the revenge attacks. That doesn't seem to have got much media coverage. I don't think the police Strike Force Neil after riot reports eg even mentions it, IIRC. 220 of ^Borg 05:13, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

You're clearly clueless or have an agenda. I'm betting on the second. This westies nonsense is shitty as coverups go. Try harder. It was muslims acting a fool for years and they got swiped. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.255.207.164 (talk) 22:27, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

My girlfriend lives in the Shire, is Asian and reckons she's never experienced racism from any of the locals there, in all the years she's lived there, either before and after the riots (and she interacted with MANY). It's also very well known that non-local gangs were regularly harassing women, to the point where many would avoid the beach and certainly avoid it without protective escorts. I think it's very racist against the local that the riots have been painted as primarily about race, rather than about the behaviour of a particularly group people, who regularly attended and happened to be of a particular race. 14.200.91.233 (talk) 12:58, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

2002 gang rapes

I've removed the text:

Events prior to the riots such as the Sydney rape gangs, executed by Lebanese-Australians, created a withstanding infamous reputation for the Lebanese community. And thus carved the potential for racism and rejection from the greater Australian community. The disorderly behavior of some in the Lebanese community particularly the rape gangs, was still ripe in the minds of people. As Michael Mohammed Ahmad states the concept of the infamous 'Leb', was still around by 2005. And by the time of the Cronulla Riots, the community had hit its flash-point against the 'Leb'; it had reached its 'violent zenith'.

One of the most notorious and widely reported offences by Lebanese-Australian individuals. The Sydney rape gangs were a series of racially motivated gang rapes instigated by Lebanese-Australian youths which occurred prior to the Cronulla Riots, between August and September of 2000. Centered around the South-West region of Sydney, one incident occurred in the suburb of Bankstown, 18 km away from Cronulla. Involving a group of 14 Lebanese-Australians, with the specific intent of targeting and raping Anglo-Celtic, white Australian women and teenage girls. In one case a female victim was as young as 14. Described by officials and commentators alike as being a series of explicitly racially motivated attacks against white Australians. Evidence pertaining to racial motivation were asserted by the Lebanese-Australian youths during the gang rapes, whereby they divulged several racial slurs aimed at white Australians. Including: "You deserve it because you're an Australian", "I'm going to fuck you Leb-style" and "Aussie pigs" during their assaults. Alongside the racial motivation for the rapes, also came an apparent religious motivation specifically aimed at Christian and/or Catholic peoples. As evident by text messages left by the rapists such as, "When you are feeling down... bash a Christian or Catholic and lift up". The aggravated racial and religious motivations behind the rapes were of such considerable extent, that Judge Michael Finnane presiding over the incidents, described the rapes as events that "you hear about or read about only in the context of wartime atrocities".

References

I think that there might be something in it - the Sydney gang rapes were a possible influence on the riots, and we may have sources that connect the two. My problem is that they haven't been presented yet. The nearest is the Patrick Wood article but the connection it draws is the concept of lebs, rather than saying that the Cronulla riots were more directly connected to the 2000 gang rapes. Do we have any sources available which will connect the two more directly? - Bilby (talk) 11:11, 26 June 2018 (UTC)