It was the Comancheros biker gang, staging a public declaration of peace with the Maroubra Boys surfer gang. The Comancheros were started by Jock Ross, a Scotsman, in the 1960s, but a number of young men of Middle Eastern appearance have risen up through their ranks. The Bra Boys, a longstanding gang of tattooed surfer youths from Maroubras tough housing estates, likewise boast of being a multiracial group (one of their members jocularly claims to be the only Lebanese surfer in Sydney). The two groups declared their opposition to the racial violence and decried the actions of the Cronulla mob.
The Comancheros headed back to the western suburbs in their black Range Rovers and silver Mercedes. The Bra Boys headed back into the surf.
In a week of mayhem it was a rare moment of multicultural harmony at the beach.
ESCALATING UNREST AT CRONULLA
Sunday, December 4 Two Cronulla Beach lifesavers attacked by men of Middle Eastern appearance; text messages begin, encouraging people to retaliate
Sunday, 11 Racial violence erupts as 5,000-strong crowd gathers at Cronulla Beach; by nightfall violence spreads to other suburbs with 16 arrested, 31 injured
Monday, 12 Seven injuries, 11 arrests; cars and shops attacked; violence at a mosque in Lakemba
Tuesday, 13 Hundreds of police patrol troubled areas; text message campaign continues
Wednesday, 14 Church hall set on fire; shots fired near suburban school
Thursday, 15 Emergency measures give police powers to enforce curfews, confiscate cars, ban alcohol sales; petrol bomb thrown at police; 19 arrests
Friday, 16 Police warn people to stay away from Sydney beaches after receiving intelligence that more riots are planned; 1,500 police expected to patrol streets at weekend
WHAT THE PAPERS SAY
Sydney Morning Herald,
December 13 A nations reputation for tolerance has been severely damaged . . . Australians are struggling to understand how in this country, supposedly the worlds multicultural success story, such ugliness can happen
The Courier-Mail,
December 13
However many police on the beach and trains it takes, however many community dialogues, inter-faith conferences and goodwill services it takes, Sydney and Australia cannot afford large areas of the nations leading city to sink into ongoing sectarian, gangland violence
Piers Akerman, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney),
December 13
Though branch-stacking politicians and academics might like to think multiculturalism is all about exotic clothing and tasty kebabs, those residents who have remained in suburbs subjected to the multicultural experiment feel neglected
Michelle Grattan, The Age,
December 14
The unfolding racial violence in Sydney has links to the fight against terrorism and complicates that challenge . . . The introduction of race to an old conflict is especially dangerous when fears about terrorism are putting new strains on relations between ethnic-religious communities and the wider community
The Herald-Sun (Melbourne),
December 14
The simplistic official response to the riots is to characterise them as a law-and-order issue. John Howard presented the riots as primarily a law-and-order issue. On the contrary, Prime Minister, this is a very complicated issue . . There is no guarantee it will not spread beyond that states borders
Joe Hildebrand, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney),
December 17
The pretentious pontificating against multiculturalism is just dressing up racism in big words . . . Are we not all responsible for our own actions? No, all us helpless whiteys have been forced into rioting and wog-bashing by this terrible wrong . . . As the Aboriginal bloke in Cronulla said in bewilderment on Sunday: Im the only real Australian here