By Neil Mitchell
Feb 26, 2008, Herald Sun:
ON a wet Friday night your city smells of booze, blood, anger and fear.At home, like turtles. If that black versus white anger is inevitable, then it is inevitable that whites want to stop black immigration and live apart from them. No need for an expensive report, just a bit of politically incorrect honesty.
And it reeks of danger. It's too late to moralise. It's time to look urgently for answers.
But first, a snapshot of what unfolded four nights ago as I spent the night on Melbourne's streets with ambulance officers:
Image 1: a middle-aged man from Echuca is standing in the heart of town, opposite Flinders St railway station.
He, his son and three friends have just been bashed. It is approaching 1am and the man's emotions lurch from fury to helpless wailing.
He is bouncing one foot up and down, agitated. His whole body shakes. He has a nasty wound to the back of his head, a bruised face, and blood all over him. But he is lucky.
A few minutes earlier he was on the ground, semi-conscious, as a gang of 12 black men kicked him and smashed large pot plants around his head.
He could have died, which seems to dawn on him as he begins howling. Then the anger hits:
"The nigger will die!" he says. A black African man arrives to remonstrate, calling him racist.
The ambulance officers retreat, expecting more trouble that does not come.
The man's son is taken to hospital. The man claims they had not provoked the attack.
"Never, ever would you come back to this s---hole," he says.
"This used to be a beautiful place."
Image 2: ... A man in his late 20s is slumped on a chair. He wears suit pants, a loosened tie and two gashes across the top of his head.
He has been bleeding profusely and has a large green plastic rubbish bin in front of him into which he will later vomit in spectacular fashion ...
He is taken to hospital with no idea what happened. A mate will insist later that he slipped and fell while in the bathroom. The ambos are sceptical.
Image 3: ... Dozens of drunken people are on the footpath, most in their early 20s. "Skylarking" is a gentle description of their behaviour ...
People lurch in front of cars. There's a real sense that the scene could turn sour and violent within minutes.
Stark images and all come from a night the experts say was comparatively quiet ...
The cricket crowds, the football crowds, even the protesting Serbs were not the problem.
Alcohol was. That and the stupidity of youth, a culture of aggression and the inevitable anger of white v black.
This city is so familiar, but the atmosphere is not. There have always been drunks and thugs. But the mood has changed.
The police agree, and Assistant Commissioner Gary Jamieson says his people are only "treading water" as they try to address what is happening.
The ambulance officers say the violence and drinking is much worse and even some of the nightclub operators warn it is out of control ...
But the time to be appalled has passed. It is time for everybody involved to argue this out and do so in public ...
The State Government has previously commissioned reports on the drug culture and the road toll.
What is happening in our town now is equally important.
Melbourne is kidding itself if it really believes it is one of the world's "most liveable" cities.
At night, at the weekend, it is a dangerous disgrace.
Don't dodge facts. There is an air of menace about our town and until it is cleared, it will keep decent people at home.
The answers are there in front of you: "this used to be a beautiful place". No need for a report to tell you that foreigners moved in, whites moved out, and Christian values became unfashionable.
See also: Herald Sun journalist tells of his son's bashing
H/T: Oz Conservative
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