| Submit your comments on this article |
| Down Under |
| Teenager who burnt Australian Flag to face Diggers |
| 2006-08-22 |
| A TEENAGER who burnt an Australian flag taken from an RSL club during Sydney's racial unrest will come face to face with club members as part of his punishment. The 17-year-old pleaded guilty to removing the flag from the Brighton-Le-Sands RSL club and burning it in a reprisal attack following the Cronulla riot on December 11 last year. In Bidura Children's Court today, the teenager from Hurstville, who cannot be named, was ordered into youth conferencing with the club. He is expected to meet with diggers to discuss how the crime affected them and what the flag means to war veterans. Brighton-Le-Sands RSL president Barry Worling welcomed the punishment and said he would accept an apology from the boy. "I would be quite happy to accept his apology," Mr Worling said to Macquarie Radio. "He would certainly learn the significance of it (burning the flag) by coming up and apologising. "As a punishment I think it's good. I think it would be humiliating for the lad." More than 5,000 people were involved in a race riot at North Cronulla beach, during which people of Middle Eastern appearance were chased and attacked. As retaliatory violence spread through other Sydney suburbs that afternoon, the youth climbed a pole and took an Australian flag from the RSL club. The flag was sprayed with accelerant and set alight amid a crowd of about 150 people. The teenager and another man, Hadi Khawaja, were charged with burning the Australian flag. Khawaja, 24, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three months' jail in January. In court today, Magistrate Joan Baptie sentenced the teenager to 12 month's probation for entering the Brighton-Le-Sands club grounds with intent. Two additional charges of demanding property with menaces and detaining a person in company were withdrawn and dismissed. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |
| #6 Harry Morant: "We shot them under Rule 303." Nice work Diggers. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-08-22 14:27 |
| #5 Are they gonna touch up the little tosser? |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-08-22 10:26 |
| #4 "Why don't they set his balls on fire and then discuss how his flaming balls affected him and what his flaming balls mean to him." Careful, we don't want to inflame the Muslims! Heh, heh! I do like the idea though. |
| Posted by: Texas Redneck 2006-08-22 10:12 |
| #3 He is expected to meet with diggers to discuss how the crime affected them and what the flag means to war veterans. Here's a better idea. Why don't they set his balls on fire and then discuss how his flaming balls affected him and what his flaming balls mean to him. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-08-22 09:47 |
| #2 The apology will be as sincere as a muslim cease fire. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-08-22 09:37 |
| #1 That's going to be a futile exercise. The boy and his family are from another country. They hate Australia and Australians. They don't care what the flag means to them, any more than did the Imperial Japanese care, until they were *made* to care. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-08-22 07:04 |