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| Down Under | |||
| Sydney massacre. Why did quiet Australia decide to get knives? | |||
| 2024-04-18 | |||
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Ol'ga Kuznetsova [REGNUM] The English word stabbing sounds less ominous than the Russian "massacre" or "stabbing", and is usually used in the crime section - but not in the last few days, when the word has dotted the front pages of the English-language (especially Australian) press. First, in connection with the story of Sydney's Westfield Bondi Junction shopping center, where an unknown person with a mental disorder attacked customers with a knife, killing six and injuring eight more (including a nine-month-old girl).
It’s not that the author of these lines is inclined to exaggerate the significance of what was said by American columnists, but alas. This seems to be true. "COMPLETELY INSANE" The massacre in the shopping center took place in the backdrop of a prosperous area, home to the local Jewish community, as well as emigrants from the post-Soviet (and even “post-imperial”) space. People from all over Sydney came here on weekends, not only for shopping, but also to stop for a cool drink before going to the nearby beach. Mass murders - unlike in the USA - are a novelty for Sydney and Australia in general. So is the terrorist threat. Almost no one is ready for them - especially security in shopping centers, which after last Saturday began to be called with contempt “fiction.” And even the police officer, who was the only one who happened to be near the scene of the tragedy and shot the killer, did not save the situation much. Later, witnesses said that the criminal was “completely insane,” as if he was under the influence of some kind of drug and, according to some, sought to kill women. One of the customers with a nine-month-old child was the first to be stabbed. The girl was saved; her mother died in the hospital. However, the situation could have been worse. One of the visitors found the strength to block the killer’s path to the top floor, where the playrooms for children were located. Users of social networks, who were following the situation almost online, immediately began to put forward their versions of what happened. Focusing primarily on visual factors, as well as on the world agenda, to which the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (banned in the Russian Federation) was recently returned, Islamic terrorists immediately began to be suspected of what happened, and a native of the Middle East began to suspect the tanned and bearded criminal. East. The police did not reassure public opinion much: at first they said that what happened could well be a terrorist attack, then they said that “nothing indicates a motive for terrorism,” but added that “the investigation will continue for many days” and it is too early to say, what was really behind the attack. They chose not to reveal the identity of the criminal; they only released information that he had never been under the surveillance of counter-terrorism agencies. But he came to the attention of the police, where he remained in the database of people with mental disorders. SEVERED FINGERS Not everyone had time to take the flowers to the memorial when another attack happened - this time not in a well-known area of Sydney, but during an evening service in the Assyrian Church of the East, which was led by a priest popular in local conservative circles, who has repeatedly criticized the globalist agenda and especially LGBT (an extremist movement banned in the Russian Federation). There were no casualties in this story - the knife did not open completely, and the priest did not receive critical injuries, although the risk was very high: the attacker was aiming for the face and neck. Several parishioners were also slightly injured as they tried to restrain the criminal, who was shouting “Allahu Akbar” with all his might and trying to speak Arabic. In particular, the criminal smiled idiotically and with a crazy face said that he attacked the priest because he allegedly “insulted the Prophet and his faith.” In fact, it turned out that the “defender of the faith” is 15–16 years old, he speaks Arabic with great difficulty and his native language is English, and he only recently accepted Islam.
However, the situation was resolved quickly, although at some point stones and debris were already thrown at the authorities - but real pogroms and real casualties, which everyone feared at the very beginning, were avoided. The incident was almost immediately recognized as a terrorist attack, which local representatives of the Islamic clergy immediately condemned. And they wished a speedy recovery to both the priest and the victims. Nevertheless, local media described what was happening in their own style. In particular, they focused not on the criminal, but on the angry Assyrians, calling them “Christian radicals” and “bandits.” The situation was further aggravated by the fact that a photograph of a disfigured hand began to be circulated on social networks with the comment that parishioners, in a fit of rage, allegedly cut off the criminal’s fingers. Subsequently, this report was refuted: the attacker’s hand was indeed damaged during the arrest, in an attempt to knock the knife away from him, but not to such an extent. KNIVES EVERYWHERE As a result, we see in the history of Australians a sudden attack by a madman in a shopping center, an Islamic terrorist and loosely controlled diasporas seeking to “execute vigilante justice”. All this in a few weeks. At the same time, the Australian crime chronicle for April escalates the situation even more. For example, in the area of a long-suffering shopping center, on the eve of the attack, an unknown person attacked a woman with a knife. On the same day, in Sydney's west, a group of high school students staged a "battle of the boroughs" that left one teenager dead and another in a critical condition due to stab wounds. And that's just Sydney. In Queensland, an uncle stabbed his nephew to death in the heat of an argument and then tried to attack a policeman. In Brisbane, teenagers staged a stabbing outside a McDonald's. The trial of a teenager who stabbed his friend to death has begun in Adelaide. And all this - literally in one week. Moreover, attacks with bladed weapons turned out to be a kind of “Achilles’ heel” for local security forces, who not so long ago boasted that they were able to stop the illegal circulation of weapons and reduce the number of shootings. With knives and axes, everything turned out to be more complicated, in addition to this, the situation began to worsen - escalating from gang warfare, attacks by drug addicts in a state of withdrawal and domestic quarrels into mass murders and terrorist acts. And there is no reason to believe that the situation will improve in the near future. Quite the contrary: against the backdrop of gloomy news from the global agenda, layered on local stress, both radicals being developed by Western intelligence services and seasonal madmen, for whom any stress can become a trigger, can raise their heads. So, it is likely that we will hear about Australia in the news agenda. And not at all for a happy reason. | |||
| Posted by:badanov |
| #5 There's lethal weapons, less than lethal weapons and that, there appears to be a "you'd wish it was more quickly lethal if it was used on you" weapon. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2024-04-18 17:15 |
| #4 |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2024-04-18 16:19 |
| #3 A whip with croc teeth on the end. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2024-04-18 14:13 |
| #2 So knives soon to be outlawed. What will Crocodile Dundee do? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2024-04-18 13:56 |
| #1 Could it be the lack of guns? The problem is not knives, it is not guns. The problem is crazy people. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2024-04-18 08:36 |