Well, well, well. I want to talk about that fantastic Daily Telegraph (online), the Sydney NewsLtd staple rag. You know, the one where Tim Blair is the Opinion Editor (with emphasis on ‘editor’).

Last night in Granville, a western suburb of Sydney, a young man was stabbed and sadly died sometime later. The Daily Telegraph duly reported the crime, with updates as to the identity of the murder victim later in the day.

I read the article and when I got to the final paragraph, which said, in part:

Police are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed the incident or noticed a group of black/African males in the vicinity…

Here we go, I thought. If the calibre of the Telegraph’s target audience is anything to go by, surely the comments will contain some elements of racism and xenophobia. Oh, and maybe Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, NSW State Premier Morris Iemma and the soft-on-crime judges and magistrates and the whole legal system might get a mention as well.

I’m going to show you some of these comments. Editing and bolding mine for length and emphasis respectively, and typos left alone for posterity. Let’s have a look at the first comment, shall we?

Another stabbing takes place, while this Iemma government sits on its backside and absoluutely refuses to ramp up legislation in reviewing the laws involving the use and/or carrying of knives. Tearful Magistrates and Lawyers who would tell the community that the attacker is misunderstood and would be given a menial sentence or another Good Behaviour Bond allow these people to attack again. legislation that takes away the discretion of the judiciary to refuse to impose very very hefty Jail time for these cretins is needed…NOW.
Posted by: Mike Knowles of Sydney

Ah, Mike Knowles of Sydney, alarmist extraordinaire. Expert opinion on how to run everything: schools, unis, prisons, courts, parliament, you name it, he knows how it should be run.

That aside, BINGO. Morris Iemma gets the blame, as do ‘tearful’ magistrates and lawyers. What’s the go with the capital letters for ‘Good Behaviour Bond’, though?

Crime is the biggest concern for this country.
Posted by: Paul of Central Coast

Young gangs –not global warming, not tax evasion, not money laundering and not war on terrorism–will soon create havoc and fear in Australia unless the government and justice system clean up their acts and get tough on these crimes.
Posted by: huskies of Parramatta

Gulp. Seems to me that Paul and huskies are diagnosing the country’s problems in two short paragraphs, with no regard for statistics, evidence, proof, studies, nothing. But they’re right, you know. When I catch the train home from work, I stand on the platform in a semi-orderly fashion with other commuters, allowing passengers to disembark before boarding. When I walk to the shops on Saturday mornings, I am assaulted by the chattering of a diverse group of people enjoying brunch. When I withdraw money from the ATM, people stand a decent distance behind and don’t wrestle me for my cash and shoes.

Oh it’s a big, huge, massive problem blighting the nation, alright. AND I’M A VICTIM!

I wonder if they have heard of the term moral panic, just out of curiousity? Hmm. Ya reckon they have? No? OK, then.

another life taken through crime - when is this going to end. I think the Rudd government should do something about this before it happens again. we have seen enough crime and violence in this country..
Posted by: jr of nsw

Yeah, so get cracking, PM Rudd. Just ignore all that state intervention and constitutional stuff, and crack down on crime, pronto!

Zero Tolerance is well overdue for NSW. If it worked for New York city, it’ll work here. Considering the utter incompetance of the Carr/Iemma Governments on Policing, I’m surprised the Liberals have not picked up this ball and run with it yet.
Posted by: Pacman of Ryde

Sigh. How little ‘zero tolerance’ is understood. For a start, although crime rates in NYC may have dropped under Giuliani’s ‘zero tolerance’ era, “many criminologists question the precise part played by the police in this process. They point out that the reductions in crime in New York City must be viewed in the context of a general reduction in the major US cities in recent years. A diversity of causes are said to lie behind these developments, including the sustained period of economic growth in the US in the 1990s and the changing nature of the drug market in this period…”

Not only that, but as criminologist Chris Cunneen has argued, implementing a ‘zero tolerance’ policy in Australia would lead to, inter alia, civil liberties violations, court jams, more people in prison (which are already overcrowded, as it is), and there is little evidence to suggest that it would reduce crime and drug use. The get-tough tactics of the New York police look a lot better from a distance. It doesn’t mean that the alleged success of ‘zero tolerance’ in NYC would be just as successful in NSW, or elsewhere. (1)

Anyway, back to the pathetic comments. They get nastier, the comments (admist all the blame Rudd/Iemma/legal system). Like this one:

What nationality (or background) this time? Western Sydney is a Crime Capital - thuggery criminal behaviour that has proven in the past will spread to other innocent suburbs! Be assured, these people are low life scum and do not care who they hurt. Crime is not being managed at a state or federal level….but wait……we had the 20/20 summit and we may get our not wanted republic!
Posted by: hazy of Chatswood

‘What nationality or background this time?’ Did s/he really ask that?! What if the answer came back as Caucasian, white, pure as the driven snow? You know, like the Morans or the Williams, those murderous white boys.

Fuck you, hazy, for even asking.

But there’s worse:

Well, considering where it happened and who the police are looking for, I can’t say I’m terribly surprised… Guess who’s moved in? Any guesses why I’ve moved out?
Posted by: Michelle

Come on, Michelle, say what you really want to say.

Wow, I thought the africans in our country were generally pretty cool and peaceful. Racial gangs have to go. Its not worth it.
Posted by: PW of Surry Hills

An incident in Granville involving a small number of ‘blacks/Africans’ and all of a sudden, all the Africans in ‘our’ country are not cool and peaceful anymore, is that what you’re honestly saying, PW?! And just WHAT THE FUCK are ‘racial gangs’? And when you’ve answered that, they have to go where?

C’mon.

Anyway, as bad as all the above comments are, this one has to take the cake for sheer stupidity:

…Why won’t Dr Brendan Nelson do something to help the crime? He ought to be struck off the register.
Posted by: Wassa

I’m the last person to defend Dr Brendan Nelson (actually, The Editor might be the last in the line), but this comment is just so obviously asinine and ridiculous, I’m sure I don’t have to point out why.

I think I’m going to have to give up reading the Daily Telegraph online, for my sanity.

(1) Cunneen, C. 1999. Zero tolerance policing and the experience of New York City. Current Issues in Criminal Justice 10 (3):229-313.

*Title of this post is a line from the Billie Holiday song, “Strange Fruit” - a song that condemned American racism and lynching.

UPDATE: Yes, I know it’s a long post. There’s a LOT OF SHIT TO GET THROUGH ON THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, OKAY?!

UPDATE II: Almost Always Wrong reckons this post is too scholarly for Grods. Bollocks, I say. One, it’s not scholarly - not if you’re critiquing a tabloid’s online comments. Two, if them RWDB from you-know-where are pissed off by my leftist rant (or in the very slight chance that they rethink their silly ideas on crime and race), then I’ve reached nirvana.