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FunTranscript
00:00The
00:16sometimes thin veneer of multiculturalism is being well and truly tested after a day of
00:21race rioting in Sydney, the like of which has never been seen before.
00:25It's a dog chasing a rabbit type vibe.
00:27Oh, we've got something. Let's go.
00:30Anyone of Middle Eastern appearance was set upon as the crowd became an angry lynch mob.
00:34In a matter of seconds, there were so many people.
00:37Just because of my colour, I was targeted.
00:44It's anarchy. It's very animalistic.
00:48There is no brains.
00:50I've never been more humiliated as an Australian.
00:57I grew up right on the border of Cronulla.
01:00You know, you are an hour from the city.
01:04It's called the Insula Peninsula because it was kind of just a really locals kind of place.
01:11For me, I've always described it as a bubble.
01:13Growing up, it was a little bit of, oh, you come from the bubble. Everybody kind of knows each other.
01:19It wasn't very multicultural at the time. But, yeah, on the weekends, you'd get people from all over city because we were the only beach with a train line.
01:26And generally, that's great. It's everybody's beach. But at the same time, there were just certain people causing a lot of problems.
01:32I'd had probably just 20 years experience in the police force. There was a fair amount of discontent with mainly Middle Eastern males.
01:39The tension was with Lebanese boys coming to the beach, disturbing the local culture, so to speak.
01:46And in part, that was right because a lot of the youngsters on the beach, free, unseen by their family, and they just go a bit funny.
02:00Us girls, they would harass us, making sexual comments, and you sort of felt like you couldn't be in your cozy or you had to be with your friends to feel safe.
02:19They disrespected some girls in bikinis, and people didn't like that, and so it was that very typical Cronulla, like, this is our beach, this is how you treat our women, and we won't accept that.
02:29Even if they were doing that themselves, it was like no outsiders could come in with that sort of mentality.
02:35I was working at one of the largest Muslim NGOs, so I was attuned to the furor over Lebanese Australians and derogatory terms such as WOG, WOG's coming to our beaches.
02:50I owned a barbershop in Cronulla. I spent days on the beach with my kids, swimming, scuba diving.
02:55I did know the attention was pointed at the Lebanese because I've actually experienced in the leader, like, go back to your effing country.
03:04Post September 11, that was just the norm. We were abused in the media. We were abused by politicians.
03:11The Muslim community was always under the microscope, and then when they assaulted the lifeguards, then it kicked off.
03:20For many, this was not just a brutal crime, but an act of sacrilege.
03:25Four lifesavers were abused by several men, described as of Middle Eastern appearance.
03:30The only really policing on the beaches were by volunteer lifeguards, and there was an assault on a lifeguard.
03:38I'm a photographer on the local paper. The media kind of said, you know, volunteer lifesavers are beaten up, which probably didn't happen.
03:45Because I know the guy. He'd give as good as he could take.
03:48I thought, it's another fight on the beach, because this happens all the time.
03:52Locals say gangs have been harassing lifesavers at North Cronulla for years.
03:57Something has to be done, because I don't feel safe to let my children down on that beach again.
04:02Throughout the community, people were really kind of up in arms, like, enough's enough now.
04:06And then all the media hyped up, and it turned into what it turned into.
04:10Well, I tell you what kind of grubs this lot were, this lot were Middle Eastern grubs.
04:13There we go.
04:14Alan Jones was talking about it constantly on the radio, in my opinion, inciting people to hatred and violence.
04:21It escalated when the radio guys started talking about it, and someone decided to have a rally.
04:27And then we got this text message.
04:30It just sort of popped up on your phone, it was from a random number, to go down to Cronulla on the Sunday.
04:35Everyone's saying, you know, reclaim the beach, that type of thing.
04:39Racist text messages were also being circulated.
04:42I remember one of them said, come down for Lebonwog bashing day, which was ridiculous.
04:47There was a lot of caution from the community, don't go to Cronulla.
04:50Naively, I thought hyped up youngsters.
04:54I didn't think much of it at the time.
04:56My mate who ran the surf school, he had the girls learn to surf day on.
05:11He goes, can you come down at seven and take a picture?
05:14So I went down there, took a picture of these girls all lined up, and then people started turning up.
05:23I was a young star photographer for the Sydney Morning Herald.
05:26And on this day, you know, we knew about the text messages and the Alan Jones stuff on the radio.
05:31So often we will just go out and see what happens.
05:35I was working a shift at Cronulla Cinema.
05:37I was learning to drive at that time with my mum.
05:40And I remember seeing Australian flags planted down the Kingsway.
05:44And we both just sort of looked and went, oh.
05:47Coming into this extremely territorial domain, I immediately went, something's going to happen here.
05:53We were to be at Cronulla Police Station for our briefing.
05:57The bosses told us there was going to be a gathering and hopefully it'll just stay within the Durham Park area.
06:02I started taking pictures of people crowding around.
06:05I literally knew almost every person.
06:07People who thought they were doing the right thing to show a message that we weren't going to take it anymore.
06:13It wasn't all in one spot. It was kind of dispersed at that stage.
06:16Nothing was organised. There was no leader. There was no speeches.
06:20It was just people waving flags and going, woo-hoo, we're locals.
06:24For whatever reason, me and a couple of friends decided to go down.
06:30There were people cooking sausage sizzles, pumping Aussie pub rock.
06:35I do remember seeing people from my high school.
06:37And also it shocked me that some people who probably had like a multicultural background
06:41were also showing up wearing Australian flags.
06:44I remember seeing my mum and dad and a lot of like the older generation.
06:47They'd kind of all come down to support as well.
06:49It had a festive feel about it.
06:53And I said, this will all blow over, nothing will happen here.
06:56This will be all good.
07:02I noticed that people were starting to drink.
07:04I didn't drink that day at all.
07:06The only time I really got concerned was when slabs of beer were flowing around the place.
07:12You'd be photographing kids drinking.
07:14And the thing that was sort of weird was there were cops in amongst there tolerating it.
07:19It gets to a point, there's just too many people to try and control that bringing of alcohol.
07:26And it just sort of progressively got messier.
07:28Those guys I knew sit in their cars and all of a sudden they're drinking.
07:32And then someone gave them a megaphone.
07:34And I'm like, where do they get a megaphone from?
07:37Ninja, go straight and then I see a plan.
07:41Then you start seeing signs.
07:43The sign that was around a fair bit was, we grew here, you flew here.
07:47That's when it sort of hit me.
07:49Oh, this is really getting racially motivated.
07:51There was TV guys filming guys drinking, like encouraging, you know, wave the flags.
07:56Put me right off and thinking, this is also creating it, right?
08:01This is what our grandfathers fought for, to protect this so we can enjoy it.
08:06And we don't need those Lebanese and the Lebanese to take it away from us.
08:12They thought they were in the right.
08:14So they're all there going, you know, I'm strong, standing up for Australia.
08:18I was watching people get drunker and start making bad decisions for themselves.
08:22It was like, can we just like wind back a little bit here?
08:24It's just a whole pile of drunken surfers, except every now and then you came across somebody
08:30with a UHF walkie talkie.
08:33You know, nationalist guys trying to organise people.
08:38You could tell that they're not from the Shire.
08:40Handing out racist flyers and trying to egg people on and get people upset.
08:45I'd notified the police radio that there was far too many people on the road.
08:49You're saying, ah, this might get ugly.
08:52And eventually that's exactly what I was.
08:55I was the licensee of North East Cronulla Hotel, which is right opposite the beach.
09:04I was actually off work.
09:05I knew that they had prepared for the day by putting extra security on.
09:10We'd moved down into Dunningham Park.
09:12There was two young Middle Eastern looking guys who had sort of been noticed.
09:17At first it's just one person seems to go, oh, I reckon that guy might be Lebanese.
09:22And then everybody just crowds in around.
09:24But all of a sudden it all started to form and it all rushed across the road to North East.
09:33Coming through Cronulla in the car, we stopped at the traffic lights.
09:37Right at that point in time there was a young male of Middle Eastern appearance.
09:41It felt like a thousand people chasing this one guy.
09:44And that's probably the first time that I felt scared.
09:47I just thought, oh, this is real.
09:53I suppose the protection mechanism kicks in and I said to my wife, you drive.
09:57I jumped out of the car and ushered him into the hotel for his protection.
10:05You know, you couldn't actually see what was happening.
10:07So it was more confusing than anything.
10:09And the poor bouncer at North East, who was like a Tongan or a Kiwi,
10:13they're just going, what's going on?
10:15And he barricaded the door.
10:17So there's like a thousand people all standing, chanting, just going mad.
10:30That's when it turned feral.
10:31I definitely remember him being scared.
10:33I was reassuring him and saying, look, you know, we'll make sure you're okay.
10:37People were sort of trying to get in there because they were so revved up.
10:40We were just in shock.
10:41It would have been so scary for those people being chased.
10:45They come running through and just throw a punch out of the top.
10:51They think they're not going to get caught.
10:53And the police were on the scene not long after and they took him home.
10:57Like it was just shock and embarrassment to think, wow, this is happening in my hometown.
11:01And, you know, it's literally unfolding where I work.
11:05We went straight into, wow, we're going to photograph this as we see it.
11:10I was behind still and I just took pictures.
11:12But it's a conflict because I actually live almost in that street.
11:15You're in your own hood.
11:17You're shooting people, you know, do bad things that you know they're going to pay for.
11:29So my friend used to work in a service station right next to the Cronulla station.
11:33So he called me up, like, come over.
11:35There's a lot of people coming, so maybe a festival or something.
11:38Let's go check it out.
11:39I was born and raised in Bangladesh.
11:41I was an international student.
11:43I'd never been to Cronulla, but it sounded pretty good.
11:46I was like, all right, I'm doing nothing.
11:47So better than just sitting at home.
11:49Everyone was kind of out the front of Northies saying racist chants and things.
11:53And I thought, we need to stay back.
11:55This is getting a bit unsafe.
11:57So we were driving from the service station towards the Cronulla beach.
12:00I had a car, my friend actually bought it from a Lebanese guy from Bankstown.
12:03It was a Honda Prelude with orange flame on the side, black hood, pop-up lights.
12:10It was probably the most lit-looking car that he can find.
12:14We're all at the pub and everyone's waving and shouting and carrying on.
12:20There's a lot of people.
12:21I didn't know what would happen.
12:22Like, what?
12:23Music or drinks or barbecue or something, whatever.
12:25These poor innocent Indians turned up and everyone just turned and ran back across the
12:29road.
12:30We saw one person running towards us with a Trillian flag.
12:34And he yelled that, are you Aussie?
12:39And then there's like more people.
12:41And my friend, I think he realised something at that point.
12:44So he stopped and he started reversing.
12:46The police radio started to chatter up.
12:49It started to abuse the Pakistanis that had come down in a car.
12:53The guy with the Trillian flag, he smashed the front windshield.
12:58Someone jumped on it.
13:00In a matter of seconds, there were so many people punching in the window, throwing the
13:04beer bottles.
13:05They were just pushing the car.
13:07I remember the car was going like they was born.
13:09The crowd was starting to harass anyone that even looked Middle Eastern.
13:12They were trying to open the door, but I'm just holding onto it with my life.
13:16Credit goes to my friend, so he just took off.
13:26There was a police officer in the middle of the roundabout.
13:29I put the window down and he said, what are you two idiots doing here?
13:33Don't you know what's happening here?
13:35He said, go, drive.
13:37The rumour started that there was a big group of Lebanese boys on the train and that
14:02they'd come to fight.
14:03There'd be the little rumours going through.
14:06We suspect it had something to do with the guys with the UHF.
14:08I'm just then seeing a swarm of people just rushing, like a stampede.
14:15It's like the head of the snake.
14:17At first it went to that car and then they turned and that snake went up to the train station.
14:26We just kind of stood and just watched people just egging them on, like, yeah, go get them,
14:31go get them.
14:32These couple of guys who don't actually look Lebanese or anything.
14:36I mean, I guess they're expecting Osama Bin Laden to come off the train or something.
14:39And we knew our friends were heading up towards that.
14:42It definitely had that sort of pack mentality.
14:44And then one of them just decides to, you know, punch him.
14:47And these guys on the train didn't expect it.
14:49They'd go back inside of the train.
14:53I was going, guys, guys, no, back the fuck off.
14:55And they just absolutely just pushed me out of the road.
14:58Like wild dogs.
15:00They'd smelt the fear of these guys and just went after them.
15:03And then that's when our hero, the big cop, he came in to swing it.
15:15Just started clearing the actual train station itself.
15:18So we were photographing this stuff.
15:20I was actually, I was pretty shook up.
15:23And when you're thrown into position and there aren't any cops around you,
15:27you're having to make that horrible decision to try and stop these guys.
15:30And so I didn't get, I did not get a good frame from that, from inside.
15:35Craig Greenhill got great photos.
15:37He also intervened as well, but he also got some very good photos.
15:42I was just grossed out by it.
15:45Like, what are you doing?
15:46I remember that being a thought, what are you doing?
15:48It made me feel sick that my local community was just so stupid,
15:52doing something that was just had no purpose.
15:54We just kind of stopped for a little while and just went,
15:58whoa, like what just happened?
16:00This has just gone in a totally opposite direction to what,
16:03you know, the idea was of the day.
16:05And then I remember calling my mum.
16:07She said, you don't catch the trains.
16:09I'll send your brother down to come pick you up.
16:11In the end, I left and I literally pulled over and almost threw up.
16:15I just couldn't believe in how stupid we were.
16:25As it progressed into the day and got worse and worse,
16:28it's just like, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening.
16:31And then all of a sudden, two Middle Easterners came racing towards me,
16:34whole little crowd chasing them.
16:36Myself and Andrew Mears and a couple of other photographers
16:39were photographing this stuff.
16:40And then they split up.
16:41One was pushed over a ute.
16:43The adrenaline goes in.
16:45I was able to push my way through.
16:47And I had to capsicum spray one gentleman that was holding him down.
16:51I've got photographs of him being protected by the cop
16:54while they're throwing bottles and stuff.
16:56You don't even feel things hit you.
16:58I remember the photographer walking backwards, kind of shielding us.
17:02So I was quite happy just to see him there.
17:05And the gentleman I was trying to protect, he was hanging on to me for room life.
17:09Tells me that they've got me by the leg.
17:12Luckily, the dog squad guy was able to get that guy off.
17:16I wasn't fearful for myself.
17:19He was the one I felt that his life was in peril.
17:23Once I got to the police car, we started to get pelted by rocks and I put the siren on.
17:29The siren's pretty loud, so you can't stand in front of her for too long.
17:34Then I notified the police radio that we'd both suffered injuries
17:38and we were heading up to Sutherland Hospital.
17:43I was an Australian Associated Press photographer.
17:46It was my day off.
17:47It came over the radio that they're rioting and I knew I had to get there.
17:52We got there late in the afternoon, but they were still there drunk as guns.
18:05The cops came in with riot police and dispersed.
18:12When you have such an adrenaline rush, the down rush is very disconcerting.
18:18It's the first time I've ever got teary after an event.
18:21I really had to take a little bit of time to compose myself back to normality,
18:26if you want to call it that.
18:28We had to go and write a report.
18:30The police officer asked me,
18:31all right, describe yourself, your colour.
18:34I felt a bit funny, I would say.
18:37I think when you're in that kind of mindset that,
18:40all right, I'm getting targeted, it feels like everyone's targeting.
18:42A couple of them even asked me where am I from, which got my back up.
18:46Being of a Greek background and seeing the racism,
18:49it made me angry at the time.
18:51We filed our pictures, it's breaking news.
18:53I knew it was going to be a powder kick,
18:55because for every action, there's a reaction now.
18:58Racial tension boils into all-out violence in Cronulla.
19:08Injuries, arrests and unwanted visitors terrorised.
19:14On that Sunday, I watched the 6pm news.
19:18It's the first time in my life, and probably the only time in my life,
19:22I've ever bawled while watching the news.
19:25I was a medical practitioner in South West Sydney,
19:28and I was also active in the local community.
19:31I saw the news, I saw the pictures.
19:34I felt awful.
19:35To see so many people, thousands of people,
19:38wanting to get rid of us, it was truly horrible.
19:41I remember I sent a message to my dad saying,
19:44I am embarrassed to be Australian.
19:47This is the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen.
19:49I started to get phone calls.
19:51People were angry for what they saw.
19:53I got text messages saying,
19:55don't leave the house.
19:56If you're a visible Muslim woman,
19:58if you wear the hijab, stay indoors.
20:00I remember getting a call from my dad as well,
20:02saying stay away from those places,
20:03and I didn't tell him anything about what happened.
20:05I didn't want them to worry,
20:07so I didn't even say anything.
20:08I was like, alright, I'm not going anywhere.
20:10I was fearful that some members of our community
20:13are going to retaliate.
20:14For people to see, other people saying,
20:17we don't want you in this country.
20:19We grew here, you flew here.
20:22It was beyond traumatising.
20:24I called the New South Wales Police Commissioner then
20:27to alert him not to underestimate
20:29the retaliation that's going to take place.
20:31I started driving around getting reports
20:33that the police were stopping traffic
20:36and checking for carloads of Middle Eastern youth.
20:40They're definitely not going to respond
20:42just at the beaches of Cronulla.
20:45They wanted to respond everywhere.
20:46I didn't knew where ethnics go,
20:49and that is Brighton Leesands,
20:51so I raced off up there.
20:53I was actually in the garden all day.
20:54I didn't even watch the news.
20:56I didn't know what's happening.
20:57My wife said, let's go down and have a coffee
20:59with a friend down in Brighton.
21:01I saw a group of people,
21:02yeah, a big group of people.
21:04The young boys looked like Lebanese,
21:06Middle Eastern, directly across the road from us.
21:08As soon as I saw the big group of people,
21:09I knew what was going on.
21:11They're planning something.
21:12One of the boys climbed on a power pole,
21:15and I see him dragging the flag down,
21:17the Australian flag,
21:18and I said to my wife,
21:19they're going to desecrate the flag.
21:21I pulled up, jumped out of the car,
21:23left the cameras in,
21:24because I didn't want them to know
21:26that there was a media photographer,
21:28and yelled out to one of them,
21:30where are we going, brothers?
21:32And they said, Merubra, to get them back,
21:34because by then there was a lot of roadblocks in Cronulla.
21:37I felt like speaking to them like a father would speak to sons.
21:40What the hell are you doing, boys?
21:41On the other hand,
21:42things could be twisted around,
21:43because I am, at the end of the day, Lebanese,
21:45and I could be seen to be the perpetrator.
21:48And I'd try to follow them,
21:50but they all had WRXs.
21:51You weren't going to catch them,
21:52but they were going to Merubra,
21:54so I started looking through Merubra.
21:55Then I came across cars which they smashed up.
21:58You know, the Anglo kids had their day,
22:00and the ethnic kids, they had their night.
22:03It was tit for tat.
22:04When you see young, impressionable children
22:08feel that way towards our national flag,
22:11there's something terribly wrong.
22:13I got home, switched the TV on,
22:15and it was all over the news.
22:17Just when police thought they'd dealt with the racial unrest,
22:19the retaliation began.
22:21A 23-year-old man was stabbed in the back,
22:23trying to defend his female companions from a vengeful mob.
22:27Men of Middle Eastern appearance involved in a standoff.
22:30They knew they were being targeted.
22:33They felt targeted.
22:34I understood where they were coming from
22:36and the anger they had in them.
22:38I didn't agree with it, but I understood it.
22:45The next day, Cronulla was a mess.
22:48I think that there was a lot of next-day hangovers
22:51of like, oh, gosh, what just happened?
22:53I went to work the next day as a per-normal young man.
22:56He was a regular client.
22:57He was about 18 at the time.
22:59He said, look, give me a short haircut.
23:01He had a long, surfy hair.
23:02So he walked out looking like a different person.
23:04So when he walked out, I sat down and opened the newspaper.
23:09There he was on the second page.
23:11On his chest, it says, we grew here, you flew here,
23:14and the headlines were the ugly faces of the Shire
23:17or something like that.
23:18The next day, the media were like, oh, our race is shame,
23:21and it was just funny to me because I was like,
23:24you were literally stirring up fears
23:26about Lebanese Australians in the lead-up,
23:29and now you're calling it a shame?
23:31Bosses rang up and basically said, you know,
23:33you done a good job, well done.
23:35Now do you want to do a media interview?
23:38Constable Smith has been singled out
23:40as one of yesterday's police heroes.
23:42Once I got him in the police car and we left the area,
23:46he thanked me for saving his life.
23:48Next, there was a bit more of, like, processing
23:51and, like, what exactly happened.
23:53Obviously, don't want to get into that same position again.
23:56That's what I said, actually, in the interview.
23:58If they could manage to get ourselves,
24:00any one of us out of the car, they could have killed us.
24:03Both reluctantly returned to Cronulla today
24:05to give statements to police.
24:07I remember the news team picked us up
24:09and took us back to Cronulla.
24:11As we're driving back and I'm like, where are we?
24:14They're like, yeah, Cronulla. I'm like, hmm.
24:17I received a call from the Premier's office.
24:19I was asked to attend a meeting
24:21to try and work through the issues.
24:24The mood in that room was tense.
24:26We were angry, but at the same time,
24:28we pledged that we would be side by side with the police.
24:31Still, I was worried that it was going to get worse.
24:34I was working at the Lebanese Muslim Association,
24:38right across from Lakemba Mosque,
24:40and the threats started to come through.
24:43I don't even know how many death threats I received.
24:45There was a message circulating.
24:47They're coming to burn the mosque down.
24:49That same mob in Cronulla
24:51are going to come down and bomb the mosque.
24:53So then text messages started flowing.
24:55Protect Lakemba Mosque.
24:56That night, I couldn't believe what I saw.
24:59There was thousands of people.
25:00Not only Arabs and Muslims.
25:01You had Italians.
25:02You had Greeks.
25:03There was a lot of young men,
25:04mainly people of colour.
25:06There is only one common thing about them.
25:21Their anger.
25:22You could see it in their face.
25:24And there is a lot of talk among them.
25:26We don't need the police to protect us.
25:28We can protect ourselves.
25:29All that sort of talk.
25:31At the moment, we're above Lakemba Mosque
25:33where we estimate more than a thousand people
25:35have gathered.
25:36That is obviously of some concern to police.
25:38One of the people, he opened out the boots of his car
25:41and he had a few fire guns.
25:44Serious weapon.
25:45And then I said, please, please close it down.
25:47We don't need this gun to defend ourselves.
25:49There was a lot of people from the community
25:51trying to bring back a sense of calm.
25:54The local chefs and imams really went out of their way
25:58to convince them not to do anything.
26:00A few hours passed.
26:01It was becoming apparent to everyone.
26:03Whatever people, they're coming to attack the mosque.
26:06It's not going to eventuate.
26:07But there was a lot of talk of, okay,
26:09how far is this going to escalate?
26:11They didn't bomb the mosque today.
26:12Are they going to bomb it tomorrow?
26:13You know, when you go through such hostility,
26:16it isn't something you just pack up in the back of your brain
26:19and move on.
26:20It's something, it's the beginning of something.
26:22A lot of young people went in convoy towards Cronulla.
26:26It was late that night and we were listening to the talk back radio
26:29and a lady had called up a couple of streets away from us
26:32and she said, there's cars coming and we can hear them coming.
26:35And then she started getting really upset and she said like,
26:38they're smashing up my car.
26:39They're smashing up my car.
26:40And then we were sitting inside and then we could hear them.
26:42Down the street, there's guys just baseball batting every car.
26:44They were as bad as the guys.
26:45It was the same thing.
26:46We just panicked and we turned off all the lights and locked our house up
26:49and we went and hid.
26:50I think eventually after half an hour or so, they'd moved on.
26:53I don't know I guess there was a sense of shock.
26:55What had happened and how it had escalated by the house.
26:58And how it had escalated.
26:59It was a good reason.
27:00So, it wasn't a bad reason.
27:01It was just a bad reason.
27:02It was the same thing.
27:03It was a bad reason.
27:04It was just a bad reason for the car.
27:05But the car's coming and we could hear them coming.
27:08And then she started getting really upset and she said like,
27:10they're smashing up my car, they're smashing up my car.
27:12And then we were sitting inside and then we could hear them.
27:15and how it had escalated like that.
27:17The bosses were concerned that this situation
27:19had opened a hornet's nest
27:21that the Sutherland Shire people had no idea what they've done.
27:29Days afterwards, there was a huge police presence patrolling
27:32to keep everything on a tight lid.
27:36It was still tense. It was still talked about.
27:38For months, the beaches were quiet. There's no one around.
27:41A lot of people stayed at home. They didn't take their kids.
27:45Outside.
27:46I think the initial couple of weeks was a bit tough.
27:48Why did this happen to me and why would you guys do that?
27:51You can't just start beating people up.
27:54Everyone was remorseful.
27:56There's a picture of the beach the next day.
27:58Someone had written in seaweed on the beach,
28:01saying they were sorry, which I thought was pretty good.
28:04It was clearly awful.
28:05There was innocent people being beaten up
28:08and not being able to do much about it.
28:10It shouldn't have happened.
28:11There should have been much earlier intervention
28:14down at Cronulla Beach, better police presence.
28:17It should never have happened.
28:19The police requested photographs because they were going to charge
28:22the guys who attacked the guys up on the train.
28:24Normally, I would wait to be subpoenaed,
28:26but I guess it's my way of saying,
28:29no, this is where I'm going to stand.
28:32They needed to be held to account.
28:35I knew one of the guys that had unfortunately gotten onto the train
28:38and he was arrested.
28:40And I just felt really sorry for them that they'd made that decision.
28:44One of the guys in our club, obviously, he got arrested.
28:46He wasn't doing the bashing.
28:48He jumped up and down on a police car and was throwing beer balls at the police.
28:52His life changed and he ended up taking his lone life.
28:55I, as a young man, can remember being angry about the most idiotic stuff.
29:01And so I can, I guess maybe that's even the part of the humiliation
29:05I felt was it's like I probably could have been led like this.
29:10I think it's just simply inherited and a lot of people inherit it
29:13and they don't realise they've got it in them.
29:15Being told you're standing up for your country
29:18and your friends who are surf lifesavers and these are your enemies,
29:22I think I probably could have been manipulated.
29:24It's a terrible culture in this country, the fear from others.
29:27This whole mentality has always bothered me growing up in Australia
29:31and even the Sutherland Shire.
29:33I moved away and tried to disassociate myself from the place.
29:36You just didn't really want to be associated with that stigma.
29:39There's two sides, great community, great natural beauty,
29:43but then there's this flip side of ownership that's always bothered me.
29:47Nothing's changed. We're still being demonised.
29:50And in my opinion, that's because people don't want to have frank conversations.
29:54Whether you experience racism or not, it is there.
29:58I've come across it, you know, racial profiling from police,
30:01Middle Eastern appearance, as they call it.
30:04But it's how people react to it, I guess.
30:06I have to react to it the way I want to react to it.
30:09I can't let this bring me down.
30:10If we don't acknowledge negative things that have happened,
30:14we'll never be able to move forward.
30:16It's the past.
30:17You can't change it, just own it.
30:19How's this?
30:20It's for me.
30:21It's for me.
30:22It's for me.
30:23It is for me.
30:24Ready to react to it, past Tuesdays.
30:28Take it back.
30:29By the time,
30:34it is beautiful.
30:36Every day,
30:36Prozent of the tempo has been closed,
30:38one source of the time.
30:40But now,
30:41you may not add up to it.
30:42It's possible,
30:43it's too small as it has to be helpful with confidence.
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