Police Admit Attacks Are Racist But We Need To Tackle The Cause Of Racism
It’s a step forward that in The Age today, Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland said, “Some of the attacks were clearly racist in motivation and that violence is unacceptable and racism is unacceptable in any form.”
Before this, he had insisted on blaming the victim and calling the attacks opportunistic.
This shift is not a result of Overland or the police suddenly realising this or having a heart. They’ve been forced to admit this due to the public anger, the protests and the embarrassing reports in the media that Indians are not safe to walk home late at night for fear of racist attacks.
This is why we need to continue the protests.
But Premier John Brumby and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd don’t actually care about the victims of racist attacks. The majority of their comments to the media consist of insistence that Australia is not a racist country and that it is a safe place for International Students.
This is a lie, but they want International Students to come here so they can make money off of them. The government are only concerned about the bottom dollar. They want racism to be maintained within the confines of official discrimination, because the more ugly form of racial violence (that they stoke) will send International students home, rather than just keep them scared and under the thumb to be exploited.
The new response by the police is as equally disturbing as their complacency. Dogs, horses, more cops and helicopters will dominate the streets. You can be sure that this will not solve the problem. The cops have refused to address Indian’s concerns, they have attacked protests of Indian students, and dispersed security organised by Indian students. There is nothing to guarantee that it will be the racists that will be the sole target of increased police presence.
The real solution to the problem is to tackle racism at cause, the constant discrimination in immigration laws that force International students to work, late, cash in hand jobs and live in far out suburbs meaning more time spent on trains late at night.
This is backed up by racist ideology attacking Indians, treating them as second-class. This demonization and scapegoating fuels racist thugs to be the violent fuckwits they are. It’s a simple divide and rule tactic that shifts the blame from our rulers to immigrants.
It is campaigns to remove discriminatory laws against not only Indians, but Aboriginals, people of “Middle-Eastern appearance,” Asians and any other non-Anglo race that will defeat the scourge of racism.
