Police seek to stop third night of Sydney unrest

More than 450 police, four times the usual number, patrolled Sydney’s streets today to prevent a third night of racial violence by youth gangs who have attacked people, smashed cars and hurled rocks at police.

The New South Wales (NSW) state parliament was being called into emergency session on Thursday to give police special powers to “lock down” parts of Sydney, Australia’s biggest city, to stop the unrest, officials said. Police will also be allowed to ban consumption of alcohol in areas of unrest by shutting down licensed premises and prohibiting anyone from carrying liquor. The state government will also increase the jail term for rioting from five to 15 years and double the penalty for affray, fighting in public, to 10 years. “These criminals have declared war on our society and we are not going to let them win,” NSW premier Morris Iemma said.

Racial violence erupted at Sydney’s Cronulla Beach on Sunday when some 5,000 people, some yelling racist chants, attacked youths of Middle Eastern background. Police said white supremacists incited it. Meanwhile, the media reported that mobile telephone text messages from Australians of Anglo-Saxon and Middle East backgrounds were both calling for revenge attacks to continue. Islamic youth leader Fadi Abdul Rahman said further trouble could be brewing in Sydney as Muslim youths were angry, believing police were not treating them fairly.

“They feel they have been dealt with by the authorities differently to the way Anglos have been dealt with,” he said. —Reuters