Saturday, January 21, 2006
YOUTHS PUNCHY
What is it with water and Middle Eastern youths?
Stunned witnesses said about 30 youths had punched and kicked staff, including a young woman, on the grass at Oak Park Aquatic Centre about 4pm yesterday.
One witness, Alex, said families had recoiled in horror at the bashings.
"I’ve never seen anything like it,” Alex said.
"I thought, ‘Not another Cronulla’.
"There seemed to be dozens of people involved, with most wading into the staff and people trying to help them.
“They all appeared to be Middle-Eastern youths.
"It was very upsetting and scary. There were hysterical children everywhere."
Nicholas Burt, leisure manager at Moreland Council, which runs the pool, said the riot had occurred after a male lifeguard had tried to calm two teenagers arguing on the grass embankment.
Lifeguards, lifesavers ... why, they’re a root cause.
UPDATE. Great line from a Lebanese-descended lifesaver who rescued a race-hate victim: “I am Australian and I am not captured by my background. I was born here.”