Official Discussion Thread (Ghost Edit)

[Bronies Are Cool]

holy shit this is happening right now

https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/2577250 ... ce/?cmp=fb

That's a scary situation!

How close to you people in Australia is this?

[ph00tbag]

I read about that earlier today. If any of you Aussies are in the Sydney area, please be safe.

[FLAOFEI]

It's not letting me watch the video cause geography D: Can someone tell me what that's about? There's a hostage situation in Sydney, but what is it about? Is it a robbery? Is it terrorism? Are they making threats? Is stuff going on in Melbourne too?
There seemes to be no media coverage of it in Sweden, so can someone give me an update here?

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

holy shit this is happening right now

https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/2577250 ... ce/?cmp=fb

That's a scary situation!

How close to you people in Australia is this?

I dunno about Jokeblue, but me and Abby both live at least 800 kilometers (500 miles) from this.

[Acsii]

holy shit this is happening right now

https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/2577250 ... ce/?cmp=fb

That's a scary situation!

How close to you people in Australia is this?

I dunno about Jokeblue, but me and Abby both live at least 800 milometers (500 miles) from this.

Well I'm closer than biggles, and bluey is in NSW and I think he mentioned once he's in the burbs of syd, but yeah it's pretty scary.

[Acsii]

That's a scary situation!

How close to you people in Australia is this?

I dunno about Jokeblue, but me and Abby both live at least 800 milometers (500 miles) from this.

I live an hours drive from Sydney, though my Dad works in Sydney and we do have family/friends round there. I think Evdog lives in Sydney too, so he's probably the closest atm. That being said, proximity doesn't really seem to be the main issue with this at the moment. It's thought to be a small group acting on their own without orders from any main terrorist cell, though they did force hostages to the window to hold up a flag that read "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger" which has been associated with a certain terrorist cell in Syria who have links to Al-Queda. Despite that, I think the police/Australian equivalent of Swat/the people doing the stuff at the thing have recognized the groups actions thus far as amateurish, so they're treating it as a 'lone-wolf' situation. The (i think from what i've seen on the news - I've been following this all day pretty much) two men who have taken the hostages are armed, with again what i've heard to be a pump action shotgun and/or rifle, with possibly more - as the alert was raised when one woman ran from the venue screaming about guns in their bag.

The fact that they have a bag in the first place is bad news. There could be anything in there, and of course the police forces have had to prepare for the worst and are treating it as a potential bomb which is leading to quite the delicate situation. There are reportedly around 15 hostages, but that amount has been varying throughout the day (reaching a potential 50 at one point), though thankfully 5 have either escaped or been set free - we don't know.

The ringleader, early in the day made several demands, only two of which have been made public. One he requested delivery of an Islamic State flag. If he receives this he lets some hostages go. And Two, he requested a live radio feed to Tony Abbott and wishes to talk directly to him. If he receives this he'll let 5 people go. Some people have been skeptical as to why, if they're supposedly a small, lone terrorist group, haven't they just blown the place up? As kind of implied by the request of talking to Tony Abbott, this is a politically motivated act. And the location of the place is significant too. It's in a Lindt (a brand of chocolate) cafe, opposite the Channel 7 news room, as well as down the road from a bank, not too far from the American embassy I heard, and many other locales of similar importance. But, main fact is it's right opposite the news station. So it's a politically motivated act with an aim of publicity.

Police are still seeking a peaceful resolution and are treating the situation very delicately. They also, very rightly, refuse to give much information to the public as to avoid the gunmen being potentially tipped off over the media. All we have is bits and pieces of what public information has been available that we've been able to gather throughout the day. They also refuse to state this is a confirmed terrorist attack. The main way that they are treating it is by saying that "there is a major crime taking place". Though there are so many police and they look so heavily armed and they are really well prepared. We still don't know this guys motives. We still don't know so much of whats happening. One expert thinks that because the ringleader has no facial coverings and does not seem to be trying to get away (as well as other reasons), that there is potential of this not ending well, and you can take a wild guess at what I could mean by that.

I think there are two ways this can end, and both will have quite the impact on Australia.

Ending 1 - Bad End - A large public tragedy has struck, and Australia is now aware of how susceptible it is to attack and terror. Suddenly we are no longer so safe. Suddenly other groups with similar agendas may start to test what they can do and what they can get away with based off of this. Potential for attack rises through it's success.

Ending 2 - Better End - Police forces successfully and peacefully resolve the situation with few or minor casualties. We have been attacked, but our leaders and police have proven that they can handle the situation and defend us. We still realize that we don't live in safety, we're as vulnerable as anywhere. But if the authorities have proven they can deal with a hostage situation, chance of similar situations happening doesn't rise as much.

Regardless of either one of those outcomes, Australia will most likely come away from this with a much larger realization that this is real and this can happen.

As to the religious aspect of it though (I forgot to cover this I think), it has been confirmed that this as an extremist Muslim attack. Australia's most senior Muslim cleric, the Grand Mufti, has of course condemned the actions of these people and their attack. My friend posted a status to facebook about the to be expected attacks on the muslim community and religion in retaliation of this, and I fully support what he says - "Today marks another day that we as a race have not fully woken up to ourselves... I have absolutely no respect for violent or arrogant religious fanaticism. At the same time, however, I don't think it is constructive to say stuff like 'fuck religion' in times like these; let alone at all. This strain of blatant, unnecessary hatred does not need to fuel more of the same thing.
People can believe whatever they want, and I don't think that it is the differing opinions on the nature of one's own existence that are to blame for violence occurring in the world. It's evident that a false sense of supremacism and fierce intolerance fuels this kind of ignorant action; and these actions are clearly not respectful toward one's fellow man. A lot of beliefs promote peace, and if you want some respect, it's probably a good idea to show some respect."



Sorry for the massively long post, but this is a big event that's pretty deserving of a long post. While a lot is still unconfirmed and we don't have official police statements on a lot of things with not a lot of public info, I felt the need to try and organize and share what's been going on to fill you all in so you don't just see my link and go "oh no" and then move on. This is most certainly quite a massive wake up call for a large amount of people within the country.

Police think that this situation may last a few more days, and could really drag out for a while. My prayers go to a peaceful resolution to all this, the safety of the hostages, and the wisdom of the authorities.

The thing I'm most worried about are the anti-islam people who will now get even worse in their discrimination, Someone I know on Facebook already posted this:

"Take your Islamic religion
Go back to your perilous, fucked up countries
And die in a predator strike"

I'm glad to see the #illridewithyou tag which shows that there are humane people out there, but it seems there aren't enough. I'm also sad that it takes a dark time like this for people to show their humanity. Such is life. I hope we can pull through this together and in the meantime nobody does something stupid.

Also Evdog lives in Melbourne. In fact he's like 30 mins from me.

[Ricky Denzel]

I hate it when this forum gets serious. Let's smile for once, please. You guys depress me.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

No, 3 of us are in a country where extremists are holding 20+ people hostage, we're probably gonna wanna talk about that.

[Ricky Denzel]

Well, I'm out. Not to be a dick, but I can't stand all this seriousness when I'm in my hype zone. Call me when the convo is over.

[Acsii]

Well, I'm out. Not to be a dick, but I can't stand all this seriousness when I'm in my hype zone. Call me when the convo is over.

not to be a dick? are you serious... you can't just run away from problems like this, because for us everything just hit home.

[eery]

Yeah for real, if you dont wanna talk about it, then dont talk about it,please just stay out of it, Ricky. not to like beat a dead horse, but its really uneccecary.

[Stuntddude]

Friendly reminder to everyone on this forum: you're not allowed to talk about important current world events if they don't directly concern me. Nobody really cares about Australia or terrorism anyway. Not to be a dick, I mean.

[Ricky Denzel]

Well, I apologize for that. I'm sorry, okay.

EDIT: You really didn't have to rage out on my post. It wasn't that serious. Let's drop it and pretend like it never happened.

[Acsii]

UPDATE: They just named the gun man. currently only 5 hostages have escaped. No other news.

[Acsii]

UPDATE: THEY DID IT THE POLICE MOVED IN! ALL HOSTAGES FREE! LARGE AMOUNT OF GUN FIRE! BOMB ROBOT GOING IN AS I TYPE NOW!

[FLAOFEI]

Nice to know everyone made it out.
I kinda feel like a dick now cause I didn't care near as much when there was a suicide bombing here in Sweden :I Back then I thought everyone was just blowing stuff out of proportion...

[ph00tbag]

Glad to hear everyone got out okay.

[FLAOFEI]

Actually it looks like not everyone did make it out. From what I've seen there have been 2 casualties, one of which was a hostage, and more in hospital. :(

[Ricky Denzel]

Thought I've never do this, but here it goes.
https://soundcloud.com/rickydenzel/available-for-collaboration-roderickhawkinsoutlookcom

[ExoBassTix]

Glad to hear the hostages seemed to get out.


Apparently, tomorrow next month, I'll be DJ'ing at my first Noisj get-together, at the same location where Into The Dark Lands will be February 20st :D gonna play Deep Techno as first of the night!
So hyped \^o^/

Welp, also completely didn't realize I broke the 3000 post marker again xD I guess it loses its cool when you've been there done that already.

[Coloriot]

I googled myself.

This happened: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... t/2119065/

[Acsii]

MORNING UPDATE: Two hostages are dead :( gun man also dead. Apparently a police sniper saw him shoot a hostage and less than 10 seconds later they stormed the place.

[DJ TATCM]

it's crazy and also pretty devastating how quickly everyone from around the world can find out about this, my gosh. this is surreal i log on and this happens thoughts go out to all those affected today. as an aside the hostage who was shot, was that the first or second victim? i cant seem to find much about this tragedy live updating aside from the mess that is twitter hashtag feeds

[Bronies Are Cool]

In reply to the news from Australia, I'm relieved that the situation is being handled. And it's unfortunate that there had to be casualties or that this situation happened at all.
I hope that all you people living in Australia have an eased rest of your week and month and year as you all cope with what just happened.

[Fl Brony]

ABOUT TO GO TO MY FIRST CHOIR PROFORMANCE IM ALL SPIFFY AND I HATE IT
WISH ME LUCK NERDS