http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/police-to-get-new-riot-powers/2005/12/13/1134236033030.htmlNSW Premier Morris Iemma has recalled parliament for an emergency sitting to equip police with new powers to crack down on rioters.”NSW parliament will be recalled for a special emergency sitting on Thursday morning to provide police with extra powers to deal with criminals and thugs who are causing disturbances across our city,” he told reporters.
Mr Iemma said the government would seek powers including the ability to lock down zones, search people and vehicles, create temporary alcohol free zones, and shut down licensed premises.Police also would get additional powers to confiscate vehicles of people involved in social unrest.”These criminals have declared war on our society and we are not going to let them win,” the premier said.
Dozens of people have been injured and many others arrested in two days of racial violence along Sydney’s southern and eastern beaches.
Meanwhile attempts were under way today to broker a peace deal between warring groups to prevent a third successive night of clashes.
But while community and political leaders urged an end to the racial violence, one Muslim spokesman warned of continuing anger among Middle Eastern youths who feel police are treating them unjustly.
Eleven men were arrested in a second night of violence last night as groups unleashed apparent reprisal attacks for Sunday’s race riot at Cronulla, when alcohol-fuelled mobs chased and bashed anyone of Middle Eastern appearance.
Seven people were injured, cars and shops trashed, and rocks and flares hurled at police in suburbs including Cronulla, Brighton-le-Sands and Caringbah.
NSW Police were today planning how to deal with the spiralling violence.
“We’re dealing with an unprecedented situation the likes we haven’t seen in Australia before, with this type of racial tension and these types of series of smash and bash attacks across multiple fronts,” NSW Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Goodwin told ABC Radio.
While the southern beachside suburb of Cronulla has been the major flashpoint for violence, attempts were under way today to ensure peace at Maroubra Beach, the target of an apparent reprisal attack late on Sunday night.
Lebanese Muslim leader Keysar Trad and members of Maroubra’s surfer gang, the Bra Boys, held talks today to broker a peace deal between rival groups.
“They [the Bra Boys] expressed their outrage at what happened at Cronulla and they expressed their support and appreciation for the Middle Eastern community,” Mr Trad said.
The Lebanese community also condemned the violence, Mr Trad said.
Bra Boys member and top surfer Koby Abberton labelled Sunday’s riots at Cronulla “cowardly”.
“I was upset being Australian on that day,” he told the Nine Network.
However Islamic leader Fadi Abdul Rahman suggested further trouble could be brewing, saying Muslim youths felt angry that 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 told the Seven Network.
“They feel injustice and they feel angry about it.”NSW Police Minister Carl Scully said rival groups needed to bring an end to the violence, and groups had no right to take the law into their own hands.
“They feel slighted and insulted and believe they’re entitled to respond to the provocation of those drunken yobbos on Sunday,” Mr Scully told ABC Radio.
”[But] they’re not entitled to respond in a violent, criminal manner which is what they’re doing and the police will continue to round them up while they do so.”
The NSW Opposition called on the NSW Government to mobilise hundreds of police in a bid to prevent another night of violence.
Opposition leader Peter Debnam said the Government should consider importing police from other states.
“The Government is simply pussyfooting around. What they need to do is mobilise hundreds of police,” he told ABC Radio.
Prime Minister John Howard again played down the racial aspect to the Sydney clashes, saying they were primarily a law and order issue.
“I don’t think we should over-complicate this,” he said.
“Violence, thuggery, loutish behaviour, smashing peoples’ property, intimidating people – all of those things are breaches of the law and I don’t think the actions should be given some kind of special … status because they occur against the background of this or that.
“If we start treating this behaviour for what it is we will far more readily settle things down and get back to a situation we all want.”
Mr Howard again said he did not think Australia was a racist country and said the mob violence would have no long-term effect on Australia’s international reputation.
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