AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-2005
NSW: Angry scenes at North Cronulla beach
EDS: Attention language in 13th paragraph
By Adam Gartrell
SYDNEY, Dec 11 AAP - Australian flags were everywhere: clutched in fists, draped over
trees, waving from car windows and painted on faces.
But it's hard to imagine a more un-Australian scene.
"Kill the Lebs!"
"Go home Lebby scum".
"Get off our beaches".
The racist vitriol flowing on Sydney's Cronulla beach today was deafening, even above
the hum of the news and police choppers hovering overhead.
One shirtless man, a beer clutched in his hand, whooped and jeered at police as they drove by.
Then came the cry - "Get em" - and within moments hundreds of young shirtless men had
swooped on the paddy wagon, which was flanked by mounted police.
Beer bottles were hurled, and someone chanted "Australia" as the crowd closed in on the vehicle.
A few tense moments later, the crowd thinned and the police made a hurried escape.
Back on the sand, young girls in beach gear no older than 15, posed for photos in front
of the churning crowd, as if at a concert or cricket game.
A drunk teenager walked by, proudly displaying the slogan painted on his back: "We
grew here, you flew here".
"It's time for a fucking war, so join the army of hardcore," the message on his young
mate's back read.
Coral, a 60-year-old Cronulla woman, watched as group of teenagers smoked up their
car wheels in the car park of Cronulla's surf lifesaving club, Metallica blaring from
their speakers.
"It's been a long time coming," Coral said.
"This place has changed in the past 30 years and now the young ones are taking it back."
A man on a megaphone called "Go Australia", as NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney
arrived to take in the chaotic scene unfolding on the suburban Sydney beach.
"I just wonder how they even call themselves Australian," the commissioner simply said.
AAP ag/kjd/tnf/de
KEYWORD: SURF SCENE (PIX AVAILABLE)
2005 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
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