Thrown Out Of Sydney No Go Zone

Some of you may well know I have been following Lauren Southern's videos, particularly on YouTube.



Well, currently, she is travelling around Australia and had just recently made a short, 5-minute video where she visited a suburb in Sydney called Lakemba.  This suburb is a Muslim and mostly Middle-Eastern stronghold.



As I understand it, she wanted to walk through a particular street and have a look at a mosque in this street.  It was there that she was stopped by a Police Officer working for the NSW Police Force.  He advised her not to walk through this particular street.



It was then that she, as a journalist, asked the Police Officer why she wasn't allowed to even walk through there, let alone film what was going on.



All well and good: as a journalist, Ms Southern was asking questions and exercising what she believed was her free speech, which she was probably well within her rights to do so; and the police officer, in doing his job, warned her not to go there and was probably well within his rights to do so also.



However, things took a turn for the worse when the officer warned Ms Southern that he would arrest her if she continued to do so.  The reason?  That she was 'breaching the peace' (according to that officer) by walking through a 'no-go' area dominated by the people of a particular faith, ethnic origin and political belief that may be considered at odds with the values shared by most people of the broader (non-Muslim) community.



This lead her to draw her conclusions that this particular 'no-go' area of Sydney is 'conquered land', taken over (or at least dominated by) people who may not share the same values or beliefs as the rest of us.

What do I think?

I also happen to believe in free speech, even though I might not agree with particular opinions.  That is the beauty of living in a country like Australia.  And I don't like it when someone wants to tread on this right, that my own ancestors and fore-bearers had to fight for in the past. 



This is why I strongly support the 1st Amendment (though it is part of the US Constitution and not the Australian one: freedom of speech is considered to be an 'implied right', rather than an expressed one.)  By rights, she should be allowed to walk down there.



However, on the flip side, I may have dressed alot more conservatively if I want to walk through an area which is dominated by a belief system that insists upon modesty (particularly for women).  Even though it is my legal right to wear whatever I like (as long as I am not indecently exposing myself), or to travel to most areas, I tend to err on the side of caution.  It is probably my life-long habit of covering up and dressing modestly - these are not just due to religious belief, though I am from a Catholic background, but mainly due to not wanting to have lots of skin or whatever else, on display.  I could go more into why I prefer to cover up but I won't. 



Wearing a 'sexy' tight-fitting dress and having blonde hair, unfortunately, attracts too much attention (particularly from men, and not all of this attention is particularly positive either).  And Middle-Eastern males, unfortunately, have earned themselves a reputation for paying 'too-much' (unwanted) attention to attractive looking 'western' women (and non-Muslim women in particular).



By doing so, Ms Southern is taking a big risk.  However, this does not mean she deserves to be harassed though.



And even though the Police Officer believes he is doing his job, I would have offered my advice differently and told her that she is taking a risk by walking through an area which may be not exactly the most 'female-friendly' at the best of times. 



I would have not threatened to arrest her 'breaching the peace'.  In having done so, this Police Officer (though he may think he is 'doing his job', or have been instructed to handle it in this manner), had pandered to the whims of this particular 'community' (that is not exactly known for integrating or assimilating with the broader community). 



But then again, I am not a Police Officer, and no one has yet instructed me to 'tip toe' around a particular group of people that well and truly don't give a **** about us one little bit.  Nor am I Muslim, a person of colour, or male.



(no) cheers,

Night Owl