melbournesnapshots

"Race Attack"? -Father of 2 killed in "bashing"

The latest article in the Melbourne Age (by Mark Russell) on the killing of the 24 year old Aboriginal, Greg Harrison, in Dandenong says that the family are calling this a "race attack".
If in fact this is the case, then is this event enough of a concern or a catalyst for our community to stop and take a very long hard look at ourselves and seriously ask the question "How many more people need to be killed or persecuted before we do something to address the fundamental causes of this type of outrage". This question in fact echoes the sentiments of the dead man's Aunty who asked the question on Sky News "How many more of our children need to die before something is done about this". Racism is a very ugly and malignant condition - and perhaps a symptom of more fundamental causes in a society.
As Australians, we love our sport and, as a people, we are on the whole very proud of our International success in our sporting achievements. On the one hand, Kathy Freeman is our "pin-up girl" for sporting achievement and "spirit of Australia" and, in the same society, a 24 year old Aboriginal father of two is bashed to death in Dandenong on a Friday night in 2005. There is an Australian Institute od Sport - how about setting up an Australian Institute for Racial Reconcialiation?

ABC - Sunday Profile Sunday 15th 9:05pm

Thank you to Mohammed (regular contributor to this blog) for bringing this very interesting and forthcoming interview to my attention - I remeber the hanging of Robert Ryan - just - I was very young, was living in Brisbane  and I clearly remember the impact that Robert Ryan's execution had on the Australian people - it was a very big issue in the news and even as a very young boy, it had a deep and lasting impact on me.

"Sunday Profile with Monica Attard The ABC Local Radio service's (not Radio National) 'Sunday Profile' program on Sunday (May 15th) night - at 9.05 pm after the news - will be an interview with a prominent retired lawyer who believes in Schapelle's innocence. I quote " Dr Philip Opas QC was the lawyer for Ronald Ryan, the last man hanged in Australia. Now aged 88, Dr Opas has entered the debate over the fate of alleged drug smuggler Schapelle Corby. He tells us why he believes Ms Corby is innocent and why she would never be convicted in an Australian court.He also talks about the effect that the Ronald Ryan case has had on his life, how it led him to campaign for the abolition of the death penalty and why , after all these years, he is still haunted by the memory of his famous client." Briefly Monica Attard is one of Australia's most respected news and current affairs journalists. Best known for her four years as the ABC's Russian correspondent, Monica has been awarded an Order of Australia for her services to Australian journalism and is the recipient of 4 Walkley Awards (including a Gold Award for Excellence in Journalism). Monica was posted to Moscow as the ABC Radio correspondent in 1990, returning to Australia four years later to present the ABC Radio current affairs show PM and to write her first book on Russia: Russia, Which Way Paradise? (published 1997). Following her time with PM, Monica moved to ABC Radio's The World Today. Monica's latest role is as presenter of Sunday Profile on ABC Local Radio. A national interview program, Sunday Profile focuses on key issues in Australia, providing listeners with detailed analysis of stories and background information and key interviews with major players. When not on air, Monica spends her spare time with her family. http://www.abc.net.au/sundayprofile

Is this Australia 2005 or Germany 1936??

What in G-d's name is our city/state/country "coming to" when a young 24 year old man can be "bashed" to death by a "group of youths" on a Friday night in Dandenong Melbourne!!
Just finished watching some VERY upsetting footage on Sky news Channel showing an absolutely distraught family member (mother?) saying "how many of our children do we need to lose before something will be done about this".

This killing by "bashing" is apparently the action of a GROUP of people - not the action of some mentally unbalanced individual or "road rager" - a GROUP of people who were presumably out socialising. The Melbourne Age has a very small story on the horrendous tradgedy.

This man was a 24 year old young man with a mother, father, brothers, sisters and cousins and, from what I can gather, two young children. He was also an Aboriginal. I am very saddened to think that this type of street killing can still occur in Melbourne in 2005. After being very,very aware of the pogroms in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the street bashings and killings which occurred in Nazi Germany, I can not help but see parallels and wonder what needs to happen for human beings to actually be "humane".

My heart goes out to this man's family and his children - no-one deserves to die in such a barbaric manner and it is certainly not my idea of what Melbourne 2005 should be about!!