Aussie Day disgrace - Riot squad called to calm Manly crowd
news Crime 26 Jan 09 @ 03:44pm by Chelsea White and Rebecca Woolley
HUNDREDS of teenagers, some intoxicated, turned the Australia Day celebrations ugly yesterday as they stormed through The Corso causing chaos amid chants of “Aussie Pride’’.
Youths caused minor damage to some stores, cars and a taxi, with one attack leaving a young girl cut by glass and in shock. It is not known if the 18-year-old was specifically targeted because she was of Asian appearance.
Police played down any racial motives behind yesterday’s unruly behaviour, with Manly Police Commander Dave Darcy saying it was a group of about 80 individuals, many intoxicated, who created problems.
A group of teens jumped on the car in which the girl was a passenger outside Manly Council Chambers in The Corso before punching through the windscreen, covering the terrified girl in shattered glass. A Bacino Cafe staff member said the crowd of mostly young men was running through The Corso towards Manly Wharf every 20 minutes, shouting “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’’.
“They stopped the whole traffic, they were jumping over cars,’’ he said.
The crowd also damaged a number of awning signs from shops along The Corso.
Superintendent Darcy said last night police had yet to receive any reports of damage from shop owners.
Indira and Ziggie Jackman, of Manly, who were sitting outside the cafe, said: “The girl was in the back passenger seat of the car. It happened just here, in front of our eyes. They were running up on top of the cars.’’
The 18-year-old, who suffered cuts, grazes and bleeding, said a large shard of glass embedded in her foot and her back when one of the men smashed the window.
“Two to three people came over the car,’’ she said.
“The glass window just came over my head.
“I had to shut my eyes because of the glass.’’
At least two other vehicles were targeted, including one taxi driven by a Sikh who drove away.
The teens also jostled against a police car and yelled “bugger the pigs’’ as the police tried to intervene to stop them jumping in the water at the wharf. The Corso was filled with hundreds of teens during the afternoon, many draped in Australian flags and covered in green and gold zinc like warpaint,
some shouted racial slurs and demanded girls take their tops off or tried to pull bikinis off female friends. What started off as boisterous chanting, quickly escalated to intimidatory behavour just before 2pm.
The youths came from across Sydney, including both western and southern areas as well as closer to home.
Manly Police called in the riot squad and Polair just before 3pm.
Some people, who said they were residents, yelled at police demanding to know why they weren’t doing more.
The greater police numbers and cooling temperatures prevented the situation from escalating and by 4.30pm things had quitened considerably.
While some teens claimed the incidents had nothing to do with race, a number of young men said they hoped the day would escalate into something like the racially-motivated Cronulla riots of 2005.
One 18-year-old man, who did not want to be identified, said a lot of people had been talking about coming down to Manly for Australia Day.
He said the day was to celebrate what it meant to be Australian.
“We’re celebrating we are Australian, bugger the ethnics,’’ the man said. He said a number of the group were not Caucasian but had joined in to stop getting bashed.
Another group of teens spotted on the beach sported hand-drawn maps of Australia on their stomachs with the words: “bugger off we’re full’’. Superintendent Darcy played down the afternoon’s drama and any suggestions of it being racially motivated. “There are around 10,000 people in Manly having a wonderful time and what we have is about 80 young people who are intoxicated, who are acting anti-socially and inappropriately,’’ he said.
“And they are trying to spoil it for others but despite their efforts the overwhelming majority are having a good time.
“They have not been successful because there is a genuine good will towards everyone in Manly.’’
Superintendent Darcy said the behaviour of this group had been unacceptable, but said there was no suggestion any activities were racially motivated and that the crowd had not targeted ethnic minorities.
The youths were not from the local area, he said.
Police made a number of arrests, including one for assaulting policehttp://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/aussie-day-disgrace-riot-squad-c...I wonder if Kevin Rudd will be coming out condemning this
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