Merrylands High School machete attack

7/04/2008, Parramatta Sun:

Two people were taken to hospital after several young men armed with bats and a machete stormed a Sydney high school, attacking students and teachers and leaving a trail of damage, police say.

A total of 18 children were treated by ambulance crews at the scene following the incident at Merrylands High School, in Sydney's west, about 9.45am (AEST) on Monday.

An Ambulance Service of NSW spokesman said one student was later admitted to Westmead Children's Hospital for treatment of a "minor facial injury".

A teacher was also taken to Westmead Hospital with bruising to the back of the head.

"We've assessed 18 school-aged children ... all having minor injuries, some lacerations, some bruising and they're obviously quite anxious about what has happened," the ambulance spokesman said.

The group of armed youths allegedly damaged classrooms, broke windows and assaulted students during the incident, police said.

The school and students were placed in "lockdown" - confined to their classrooms - as the incident unfolded.

"Police were called to the high school on Sherwood Road following reports a number of males had entered the school grounds," a NSW Police Force spokeswoman said earlier.

"They allegedly damaged a number of classrooms (and) a number of students received minor injuries.

"Some were assaulted by the group and others received injuries from the flying glass." ...

Five young men were arrested shortly after police arrived at the scene. A crime scene has been established ...

Terror as gang of five rampages through school, the Age:

"They said they were looking for someone," said Joseph Strasshofer, a year 12 student at the school. "(They were) not yelling … just walking around and waving their machetes and baseball bats."

"They came in from the side and started pushing people," said a year 10 student.

"We were having assembly and a bunch of guys walked in with machetes and baseball bats. They said they were looking for some kid, and teachers made announcement and rushed us into classrooms and locked us in," another student said.

"I saw a lot of punching and kicking and bashing," another said.

A year 10 student said the gang was made up of students from neighbouring Granville Boys High School who were looking for a boy who was absent yesterday. Students described the attackers as being of Pacific Islander appearance.

Former students said there had been tensions between the school's Pacific Islander students and other student groups for many years. "The information we've been given is that they were … looking for someone but we don't know exactly what for," Detective Inspector Jim Stewart said. "It beggars belief they would attempt this kind of activity against innocent students."

Teachers reacted swiftly. Students were quickly ushered into rooms and the library as part of an emergency lockdown. Some cowered under desks, petrified.

The intruders entered two of the school buildings, running through corridors and smashing as many windows as they could. Broken glass showered students huddled in the classrooms, leaving some with cuts.

A male teacher who confronted the invaders was allegedly hit from behind. Minutes later, police arrived and confronted the five boys, who did not resist arrest.

The boys — two aged 14, one 15, and one 16 — were expected to be charged with affray, assault and malicious damage, Detective Inspector Stewart said.

One of those arrested, a 15-year-old Granville Boys High student from Merrylands, was on bail, charged over two armed robberies last Wednesday.

Photos from Parra Sun

Immigrant had enough of Western Sydney

Hoodlum gangs terrorise owners
30 April, 2008, Blacktown Advocate:

DOONSIDE shopkeeper Tina (not her real name) doesn't know how long she can hold on.

For more than a year she has suffered ceaseless run-ins with groups of teenagers causing havoc in Doonside Crescent.

They set fires to bins, daub graffiti and smash walls, windows and signs and hurl abuse at her and passing shoppers. She said: "They do what they want. The problem here is very bad, because they're not scared. We can't touch them because we would get into trouble but they touch us they can walk away from it but no one helps us. They laugh at us and police, if they come." ...

Meanwhile, her resilience is fading.

"I am so tired, I am very tired," she said.

"You try to plan for your future and you've got heaps to do you've got mortgage to pay, you've got this, you've got that" ...

Cathy, another Doonside shopkeeper, said the situation had become so intolerable she was soon moving back to her home country in Asia, barely a year after setting up shop ...

Youth getting away with it
30 April, 2008, Blacktown Advocate:

IT WAS 8.30pm on a Thursday when a young couple parked in Westpoint and pulled a pram from the boot.

Before the 36-year-old Toongabbie dad could strap his baby into the stroller, a youth approached him and lifted his shirt, revealing a knife.

The teenager pulled the blade out, pointed it at the father's chest and yelled, "Empty your pockets".

His 32-year-old wife screamed, alerting security and the would-be thief ran off empty handed.

This is just one example of the brazen juvenile crime occurring in Blacktown every week. And according to the Bureau of Crime Statistics, the kids are getting away with it.

In 2006, the most up-to-date figures available, almost half of the 412 Blacktown youths who faced a children's court walked away with a slap on the wrist.

Just four per cent of the youths who fronted a magistrate were placed in a juvenile institution ...

Last month a report into trends in re-offending revealed juvenile offenders were far more likely to reoffend than adults two thirds of juveniles were reconvicted within two years.

Call to 'teach the parents'
30 April, 2008, Blacktown Advocate:

BLACKTOWN'S young people were "hurting" and the entire community needed to band together to help them, a retired Children's Court magistrate said.

Speaking to the Advocate this month on the problem of repeat young offenders, Barbara Holborow also said the juvenile justice system was floundering and that parenting classes should be compulsory.

Ms Holborow, who spent 12 years on the bench, said she and other colleagues agreed that young people from Blacktown attending a recent youth outreach session were "flat".

"Everybody agreed they were not responding," she said.

"So I'm wondering what is happening to the kids in Blacktown?"

Ms Holborow said lots of local young people were hurting and suggested all members of the community should try a different approach.

"(Nelson) Mandela says it takes a village to raise a child and I believe in that," she said.

"Ask yourself what you're doing to help."

However, she believes the best preventive measure against youth crime begins at home.

"It is the first three years that are important and you've got to get it right," she said.

"If you don't, you'll spend the next 27 undoing it.

"We need parenting classes with compulsory attendance.

"I don't care about the compulsory part it's in the best interests of the child."

"At least we may be able to prevent some of the deaths and cruel assaults happening because of lack of interest."

The courts were also failing our youth, she said.

"If I gave a young person bail, that meant you didn't reoffend between now and when you come back or 'bring your toothbrush because you're going in'," she said.

"Now they're reoffending three or four times and laughing when they come back.

"Who are we putting up to fail? The kids," Ms Holborow said.

"If you're going to put a child on a good behaviour bond, that is what it means. If you're going to allow kids to push boundaries, the kid has no respect for the law and, more importantly, for themselves."

Ms Holborow retired in 1994.

All hands on deck, diversity is failing. The energy is gone, the vibrancy is gone, the celebration is over - it's all gone 'flat'. Grab a kid and teach them something, anything, just do it. And don't forget to tell them they should be celebrating.

Parenting classes are an OK idea, for a while, until the community runs out of steam - and then what? There's hardly any white folk left in Blacktown now anyway, so Ms Holborow's good intentions are whistling in the wind. Again, eventually you're left with an autonomous immigrant community - kiss it goodbye. Hello no-go zone. All the efforts of the police, courts, and optimistic do-gooders fail under the weight of numbers. The immigrant/refugee intake is an unrelenting wave that swamps efforts to assimilate it (unless the immigrants are from a compatible source).

If we can't bring Aboriginal communities into line, then what chance do we have with African kids? Smart move, Cathy.

Miss Blacktown?

Beauties in line for the crown
07 May 08, Blacktown Advocate:

IN August more than 20 young women will strut their stuff in the hopes of being crowned Miss Africa Australia.

Most of the contestants hail from Blacktown, including Uwaila Oduware, an 18-year-old from Plumpton, and 21-year-old Effie Nkrumah, from Quakers Hill.

The young women were chosen from dozens of Sydneysiders who auditioned for a place in the pageant.

The women, seen here, were practising dance routines for a pageant fundraiser at Blacktown's Bowman Hall recently.

Organisers of the Miss Africa Australia Pageant said the girls would be positive role models for their community.

The worst places to buy a home
April 29, 2008, the Australian:

MOUNT Isa may be the worst place to buy a house, but Sydney's western suburbs dominate a list of 13 of the nation's top no-go zones for residential real estate investors.

Housing hotspot specialist Terry Ryder says Parramatta, Bankstown and Blacktown have become the home repossession capitals of Sydney.

His report says Bankstown offers "a smorgasbord" of reasons not to buy, and the Blacktown/Mt Druitt region is regularly held up as a symbol of society gone wrong. Ethnic tensions, high crime rates and aircraft noise are reasons to stay away from Bankstown, and Blacktown/Mt Druitt is no better.

"Imagine living in an area where there's an arson attack on a home every second day," Mr Ryder says ...

Only two other major capital areas - Melbourne's Lyndhurst and Brisbane's Dinmore - are on the no-go list, which Mr Ryder says is made from observations of the property market based on 26 years as a real estate researcher, writer and investor.

Mr Ryder runs a website that attempts to identify property hotspots before they happen. He says his list of worst places to invest is meant to help buyers avoid investment property where prices could fall. "Investors can make big money buying in the right places at the right time," he says. "Equally, they can lose money by buying in the wrong places."

Standing proud
8/05/2008, Blacktown Sun:

Criticism of Blacktown as a poor investment risk, with high crime rates, social disadvantage and falling land values have been angrily dismissed.

The description, by real estate commentator Terry Ryder last week, drew swift rebukes from Mayor Leo Kelly and other community figures ...

Blacktown police commander Mark Jenkins said crime rates were not high and were falling.

``There's been a 25 per cent fall in robberies over the past nine months and we're seeing fewer stealing offences,'' Superintendent Jenkins said ...

Mr Ryder said he only described Blacktown as a bad investment risk ... He also defended his comment about Blacktown's crime rate.

``The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics said Blacktown had 175 crimes of arson in the previous 12 months,'' Mr Ryder said.

``There are people in Blacktown working to improve the community and that can lift over time. But it's not a good place to invest at the moment.''

So, despite the media and politicians painting a rosy picture, the expert doesn't toe the line. Not only do we have white flight from immigrant areas, we also have investor flight. That's because when things get to critical mass, when the white folk are gone, and immigrant communities become autonomous, nobody has the confidence they will stay peaceful. All they can offer is "trust us, this time it will work, ignore all the overseas bad examples". The expert knows that diversity is a bad risk and his advice condemns politicians and diversity advocates as high risk gamblers. Despite black communities turning feral in France, UK, US, etc, the diversity junkies in Australia rock up to the casino table and say "hit me". Junkies.