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HEAT BLAMED

Several paragraphs into a general piece on Melbourne’s weather, The Age mentions a certain poolside incident:


A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the heat might have frayed tempers at Oak Park Aquatic Centre in Melbourne’s north on Saturday, when about 30 youths had reportedly assaulted staff.

UPDATE. The Herald Sun:

A suburban pool will reopen today with beefed-up security after a mob of about 30 people attacked four staff on Saturday.

Three pool staff and a security guard at Oak Park Aquatic Centre were set upon after trying to eject a member of the group about 4pm.

The pool’s management decided not to open the complex yesterday, despite the 40C scorcher, because of concerns security measures didn’t go far enough.

UPDATE II. Reader Tony reports that The Age’s brief mention of Saturday’s Poolistinian uprising didn’t actually appear in the newspaper’s print edition.

Posted by Tim B. on 01/22/2006 at 08:46 PM
  1. So Moscow is the least crime-ridden place in the world right now?

    Posted by andycanuck on 2006 01 22 at 09:58 PM • permalink

  2. Well done, they managed to kill two birds with one stone - the root cause of the incident was global warming.

    Posted by HC44 on 2006 01 22 at 09:58 PM • permalink

  3. Interesting. I’ll guess I’ll wait for the next heat wave to commit some violent crime so I can have an excuse.

    Posted by Ahriman on 2006 01 22 at 10:02 PM • permalink

  4. I love the way The Age airbrushed “of Middle Eastern appearance” out of the story.

    Thank Zarquon we no longer rely solely on these people for the news.

    Posted by Evil Pundit on 2006 01 22 at 10:04 PM • permalink

  5. Nothing to see here. Move along!

    Posted by niobium2000 on 2006 01 22 at 10:28 PM • permalink

  6. #2 HC44

    Well done, they managed to kill two birds with one stone - the root cause of the incident was global warming.

    In other words - blame Bush.

    Posted by Melanie on 2006 01 22 at 10:34 PM • permalink

  7. And when they’re asked why they failed to report this incident they’ll be able to say they did report it. It must have taken quite some time to decide exactly where they could hide the report.

    All sarcasm aside, is it possible that this could happen without there being a deliberate editorial decision to suppress the report? What arguments, I wonder, seriously, could have led to this decision?

    Posted by SteveGW on 2006 01 22 at 10:46 PM • permalink

  8. It’s no secret that crime goes up during warm weather.  That’s because criminals don’t like going out in the cold.  But it’s still crime, torrid temperatures or not.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 01 22 at 10:51 PM • permalink

  9. Stupid sun, inciting those youths to commit violence.  Ah, so THATS why the Middle East is such a messed up region.  Its why everyone is so tense when you get close to the ecuator!  This could be a break through!  I’m going to go tell my Jamaican sociology professor from a few years ago and see if we can get a paper going on this.... Amazing!

    *rolls eyes*

    Posted by MikeTheLibrarian on 2006 01 22 at 11:17 PM • permalink

  10. Come to think of it, for that time of year, 9/11 was a warm day.

    Posted by perfectsense on 2006 01 22 at 11:56 PM • permalink

  11. 30 youths had reportedly assaulted staff.
    Would those be the staff who were reportedly taken to hospital for treatment?

    Posted by blogstrop on 2006 01 22 at 11:56 PM • permalink

  12. Hmm!I was wondering why there was no report in the news ,TV or press,about 30 men of Middle East appearance belting up a couple of life savers....again.
    Maybe it is a daily event therefore not worthy of continual reporting.
    Or maybe in the name of political correctness, it has been brushed under the carpet .
    Must be a huge dust heap under there by now.

    Posted by waussie on 2006 01 23 at 12:01 AM • permalink

  13. #12 yup, here in pc Braxtopia, you usually find a grudging reference to the background of offenders way down the bottom of a story, if at all. skips & wingnuts fight in the treasury gardens & cut each others’ arms off with swords, & it’s reported as gangs of youths. skips & wogs brawl at street drags & it’s youths again. mind you, with the monopoly on brainless violence not being held by any effnick group they could have a point

    Posted by KK on 2006 01 23 at 12:28 AM • permalink

  14. But KK, if a mob of Anglo-Celtic kids started belting officials of a different ethnic background, the “R” word would be spinning of its axis.

    Posted by slatts on 2006 01 23 at 01:56 AM • permalink

  15. Stupid sun, inciting those youths to commit violence.

    Address root causes by signing Kyoto!!

    /moonbat

    Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 01 23 at 01:56 AM • permalink

  16. dammit, HC44 said it in a much cleverer fashion in #2. Apologies.

    Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 01 23 at 01:58 AM • permalink

  17. And of course, in the name of fair and balanced reporting, do u think BBC World or CNN will even cover it on their little ticker things down the bottom of the screen???

    Give the Cronulla incident a bit of context maybe, or when that back packer guy was beaten up on the video just released??

    Posted by casanova on 2006 01 23 at 02:42 AM • permalink

  18. if only we could have called a time out as the incident or bro-ha-ha was escalating and and substituted a real bit of Aussie beef cake to hold up the national honour, and got those strutting, poncing life saver types out of there…

    And to make up for the disparity of numbers perhaps we’d even allow Latham to take his claw hammer with him… and give these middle easterners’ a camera perhaps???  i’m sure the ambo’s would have to be double parked out the front of this place....

    Posted by casanova on 2006 01 23 at 02:48 AM • permalink

  19. Sorry team, the one-sentence reference in the Age to a certain aquatic event of 30-person kicking of municipal staff did not actually appear in the Age printed newspaper.

    The sentence appears in the web version but not in the paper version (page 4 story).

    Which raises some questions:
    1. what was the process for removal of same sentence from the paper? particvularly given the implications explored in Tim’s earlier post?
    2. or was it a process of insertion of same sentence into the web version for purposes of adjusting the historical record
    3. what are the journalistic ethics of this outright omission of possibly important facts from what was once the newspaper of record in Melbourne.

    It confirms the decay of the Melbourne Age - it no longer deserves to be called a newspaper in my humble opinion.

    Posted by tony06 on 2006 01 23 at 03:23 AM • permalink

  20. Some of you may have forgotten this earlier furore from the same Moreland City Council:

    Women-only swimming is set to begin in late July at the Brunswick City Baths each Sunday night from 8.30 pm to 10.30 pm.

    Councillor Responsible for Women’s Issues Stella Kariofyllidis said the sessions would be open to women and children and would cater for all women who preferred to swim in female company.

    “Many community groups have requested this service for quite some time. If it encourages people to use the pool who do not normally swim here, it’s fantastic,” she said.

    The YMCA, which runs the Brunswick City Baths, was given approval by the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal in May to hold the single-sex sessions out of hours.

    Have a guess who the ‘community group’ was that requested this?

    Posted by Nic on 2006 01 23 at 04:00 AM • permalink

  21. Slightly O/T but I just found out whose responsible for causing racism in Sydney, it’s some bloke called Marce, see this link for proof (dont bother with the article though, its the usual shite) ....  Racism: Whose stirring it up?

    Posted by Tancred on 2006 01 23 at 04:07 AM • permalink

  22. #20: If it encourages people to use the pool who do not normally swim here, it’s fantastic,” she said.

    I wonder if she still thinks it’s fantastic?

    Posted by Evil Pundit on 2006 01 23 at 04:56 AM • permalink

  23. ‘beefed-up security’
    Does that mean that lifeguards will now be able to issue ‘Time out young man!’ cards to naughty middle eastern yoofs?

    Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2006 01 23 at 05:41 AM • permalink

  24. BEEFed up security...well it could have been some other kind…

    Posted by crash on 2006 01 23 at 06:53 AM • permalink

  25. Nary a sign on any t.v. channel or radio-could the subject have been banned?

    Posted by crash on 2006 01 23 at 06:54 AM • permalink

  26. Seen nothing of this on the telly here. It’s almost like it never happened.

    Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 01 23 at 07:28 AM • permalink

  27. Bloody outrageous, what’s that expression about lying by omission???

    On another disguting note, did anyone see that race “documentary” on the ABC tonight???
    An incredible whitey whacking orgy!
    American racist researchers blamed for putting ideas into Nazi heads which lead to the holocaust. Two whites confess how easy their lives are because they are white...it’s becoming less easy every day with nonsense like this. And in next week’s episode we discover how race was invented by evil Americans to justify slavery...ARGHH!

    Posted by Brian on 2006 01 23 at 08:18 AM • permalink

  28. Does anyone know anyone (or know anyone that knows anyone)from the aquatic centre or the police force?  What about the 6 degrees (max) of separation.

    Posted by Melanie on 2006 01 23 at 08:20 AM • permalink

  29. #27- Oh, the one about the “illusion” of race?  Very convincing illusion, I must say.  Hasn’t started yet here in the west, think I’ll make a point of missing it.

    Posted by slammer on 2006 01 23 at 08:24 AM • permalink

  30. I should have added..or journalists. WFT?

    Posted by Melanie on 2006 01 23 at 08:25 AM • permalink

  31. #27 argh again, now they are showing some crap rehabilitating the harem

    Posted by KK on 2006 01 23 at 08:26 AM • permalink

  32. #27 Brian.  I thought the doco was OK. I was watching while being distracted so I didn’t see the bit you mentioned about American researches being blamed for putting ideas into Nazi heads.  If that happened then that’s silly. But all in all I thought the point was that race doesn’t exits and according to the genetic examples they were showing there was no real diffences between say an African and an Icelander to an African and an African.

    Posted by Melanie on 2006 01 23 at 08:33 AM • permalink

  33. #32 it’s not the thesis of the non-existence of race that’s the objectionable part, it’s that yet again whitey (& esp yanks) is to blame for everything wrong with the world

    Posted by KK on 2006 01 23 at 09:06 AM • permalink

  34. #33 KK:  Well if as Brian says next weeks episode is on “discover how race was invented by evil Americans to justify slavery” then that just painly dismisses history and reality.  Slavery existed before America and still exist today Muslim world - and is accepted.

    Posted by Melanie on 2006 01 23 at 09:17 AM • permalink

  35. But all in all I thought the point was that race doesn’t exits and according to the genetic examples they were showing there was no real diffences between say an African and an Icelander to an African and an African.

    So skin color, hair color, and general build are not determined by genetics? Sickle-cell anemia is a big problem for Icelanders?

    There’s a vast difference between saying the differences are outweighed by the similarities and saying there are no differences. The former is demonstrably true; the latter is complete crap.

    Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 01 23 at 09:24 AM • permalink

  36. If the staff continue to provoke pool users of MEA, then the facility must be shut down altogether.

    No swims for white racists.  They can go home and stick their rednecks in the fridge.

    Nic - Morelandistan?

    Posted by Inurbanus on 2006 01 23 at 10:02 AM • permalink

  37. I only watched about 5 minutes of the documentary - it quickly became obvious what level it was pitched at. The attempt to deny that race corresponds to any natural kind has to be prima facie pretty ridiculous - it is just an intractable fact that no one has any difficulty distinguishing a typical Eskimo from a typical Bushman. And the argument employed is usually misdirected. Apparently the differences between randomly selected members of a race can be greater than the differences between randomly selected members of different races. I don’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised if the same wasn’t true between many species. The point is that genetic differences that are correlated with each other mark out large biological groups that correspond to the naive notion of races.

    I’ve heard even more implausible arguments that sex is a social construction too. But you really have to be a very highly credentialled intellectual to believe that. I used to challenge them to bring me any person they knew and see if I could not identify their sex when all cultural cues (like clothes) were eliminated.

    Posted by SteveGW on 2006 01 23 at 10:30 AM • permalink

  38. "Challenge them to bring me any person they knew and see if I could not identify their sex when all cultural cues (like clothes) were eliminated”

    I give you Michael Moore and his man breasts.

    Posted by Rob Read on 2006 01 23 at 11:02 AM • permalink

  39. #35/37 if you want to subscribe to a theory of race that ascribes other characteristics to individuals on the basis of their appearance, go right ahead, but you won’t be doing anything very valid as far as biology goes.  and there is no analogy with sex, as the y chromosome is usually* a pretty emphatic indicator of fundamental difference, expressed in gross variations in morphology rather than slighter differences such as skin colour or hair texture.  race as a concept has probably had its day - people are people, despite the fact that you have to watch out for some who are are brainwashed into communism, dependency culture or splodeydopeism

    *nod in direction of zoe

    #38 & early stage mark latham ditto

    Posted by KK on 2006 01 23 at 11:29 AM • permalink

  40. *so americans were responsible for making the japs racists??.....those japs always considered chinese and koreans to be inferior.

    *with all the lebanese shenanigans in sydney it’s amazing that someone with a video camera hasn’t caught the action and given it to the media.

    Posted by vinny on 2006 01 23 at 04:22 PM • permalink

  41. This will do ... we all know that the real cause of the heat that caused these poor youths to get excited is from global warming!

    There—now I can post a link to this brilliant acerbic piece by Peter Walsh in today’s Australian.

    Posted by Wand on 2006 01 23 at 07:13 PM • permalink

  42. As we are wont to say..........only on the ABC.
    Reading the above I am very pleased I never wasted my time watching the ABC ‘s cringe making doco on race.
    Compass is bad enough.
    Isn’t it RACIST to hate whiteys?

    Posted by waussie on 2006 01 24 at 12:36 AM • permalink

  43. Of course not waussie.  In order to be a racist, according to the bien-pensants, one must have power, and only white people have power.  So that Al Sharpton can’t be a racist no matter how often he incited pogroms against Jews and Orientals, because he’s black. When Willy Brown was Mayor of San Francisco he could not possibly have been a racist because black people have no power.  The fact that, if I had gone there on, say, some kind of demonstration and Mayor Brown could have ordered the police to beat the shit out of the demonstrators is neither here nor there.  I, being white, and having no power to order anybody to do anything, am nevertheless racist because of white skin, which somehow endows me with power, though to do what I have never known.

    Now I hope that is all clear.  People who are not white can’t be racists because only whites have power.  Got that?

    Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 01 24 at 02:05 AM • permalink

  44. Poolstinian uprising eh?
    Now we’re going to have to build a wall down the middle of the pool. The ‘Poolstinians’ can have the west end or ‘West Bank’, and will be alowed to swim so long as they don’t start lobbing water bombs over to the other side. The militants among them will probably form a group called the Al-’AQUA’ Martyrs Brigade who will squirt lots of civilians with big water pistols.

    Posted by Skip on 2006 01 24 at 05:18 AM • permalink

  45. Off topic but a week ago I posted:
    way off topic but I was interested in Sunday Age columnist Karen Kissane today

    Melbourne has racism. You often hear it from taxi drivers. It can show itself coarsely in the oaths of cricket crowds or delicately in the poisonous patter of dinner parties. The veils of Muslim women can be torn off in the street, and they and their children can be spat upon by strangers.
    Just wondering, is this veil-ripping an urban myth? Can anyone turn up any evidence that it ever happened
    ?

    Kissane has forwarded me a report from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission which contains the following submission:
    A Muslim man described how his wife and daughter were assaulted in a supermarket in north-western Melbourne in late 2002 by an angry woman who tried to remove his wife’s scarf then broke her tooth.

    This legitimates Kissane’s assertion, although it is a single incident not plural as she writes (and I won’t quibble about distinctions between streets and supermarkets). So well done, Kissane!

    Posted by percypup on 2006 01 24 at 07:22 PM • permalink

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