The Sydney Siege

Last weekend, I finally sat down and wrote a blog post about our trip to Cairns.  I had intended to post the blog on Monday.  Then Monday morning happened.  Since then, I’ve experienced a whole range of emotions and been wading through a sea of thoughts on the tragedy.  I’ve been unable to get the events of that day out of my mind, and it didn’t really seem appropriate to post about our trip to Cairns right after a day of pain for Australians.  Instead, I thought I’d just share my thoughts and the experience of the Sydney siege, and I’ll be posting about our trip to Cairns soon after.

On Monday morning, I went to work as usual in the Sydney CBD (central business district; essentially downtown).  Brad was starting his first day of work at a new company at 10am that morning in the CBD as well.  Sometime late morning, one of my coworkers ventured over to me and was commenting on how crazy of a day it was.  I agreed, mentioning how many projects I had going on that day, and then she stopped me, surprised I hadn’t heard yet, and explained that there was a hostage situation going on in Martin Place.  Martin Place is a central city square which is closed off to cars and is a busy center of Sydney’s shopping and businesses; my building is about six blocks away.  Prior to my coworker telling me about the hostage situation, I had planned to go to our company’s bank that morning, which is located in Martin Place, but I ended up putting it off after being handed numerous other more pressing responsibilities.  I knew that Brad’s new company (AHL, a holding company which several movie theaters and hotels) was located on Hyde Park, which runs right up to Martin Place.  I wasn’t sure exactly where on Hyde Park Brad’s building was, and I knew he was heading into work a little before 10am (the hostage situation started around 9:45am), so I quickly checked with him to make sure he was alright.  He was fine, and both our buildings (along with most of the CBD) went on lockdown.  Roads and public transport into the area were blocked off, and Sydney suddenly looked eerily quiet.  Everyone turned on the news and continued to monitor the situation as we tried to go about our day.

From the sound of things, the event was covered in U.S. news, so I won’t recap all the details, but it has been enveloping the country ever since as authorities continue to gather pieces of information about what happened.  Channel 7 News is directly across from the Lindt Café in Martin Place, so cameras caught the situation as it was initially unfolding.  Even though they were forced to evacuate, they were able to keep a camera trained on the store and stream it so viewers saw everything happen in real time.  It was chilling to see live coverage of the hostages being forced to hold ISIS-like flags up in the windows of the café and later watch live as a group of hostages escaped.  Brad and I ended up both being let out of work early.  We watched the news late into the night and then had a short, restless night of sleep as we woke up early to see if the situation was still ongoing, whether we could go into work, whether transportation was running, etc.  My heart sank when I woke up and heard that the siege had ended in the night with the deaths of two hostages.  As information has continued to come in, the reality of the sadness and incredulity of the night kept rolling in.  We watched coverage of two more groups of hostages escape, terrified.  We heard of the phone calls to news stations, texts sent to family, and YouTube videos that hostages were forced to make to broadcast the gunman’s demands.  We saw the scenes of the police rushing the café in the middle of the night, and saw the flashes of light of the shooting light up the dark café windows.  We heard about heroic actions of the café owner who twice attempted to wrestle the shotgun from the gunman, only to become the first fatality of the night for his actions.  We heard about the barrister who tried to protect her pregnant friend, then was killed, leaving three kids behind.

The feeling in Sydney, the effects of the event, and the response since that day has made me feel like I’m reliving 9/11 all over again, just on a smaller scale and in a different country, though this one quite literally hit much closer to home for me.  Australia is experiencing its own small 9/11, just as Canada did recently with the gunman in Ottawa, and Pakistan suffered on a much greater scale recently with the slaughter of over 130 schoolchildren by the Taliban, and the emotions, thoughts, and reactions which are resurfacing are eerily reminiscent of the past.  The range of thoughts I have had since that night are vast, and I just thought I’d share them in no particular order.   There is no pressure to read through it all, and if you are not in the mood for a political rant, feel free to skip #2. J

1.       The first emotion I have felt is simply sadness for those affected.  I feel sad that this city and country that Brad and I have enjoyed living in for the last few months has to experience this.  I feel sad that violence and terror and evil knows no bounds.

 

2.       As more information about that night has been gathered, some of my emotions have turned to anger.  It was revealed that the lone terrorist gunman was Man Haron Monis, a radicalized extremist Iranian refugee who had horribly offensive ISIS-sympathizing website and whose rap sheet included writing a string of offensive letters to widows of Australian veterans, a charge of accessory to murder in the death of his ex-wife (he is accused of having his then wife stab his ex-wife to death), and over 40 counts of sexual abuse.  Yet he was out on bail.  He had admitted to the offensive letters and received 300 hours of community service.  He was awaiting trial on the murder and sexual abuse claims.  Those in the Muslim community who noticed his odd, extremist behavior, alerted authorities several times about their concerns, but the police said they could do nothing without evidence.  I have to believe a democratic society can do better than this.  I don’t blame the judge who afforded him bail, he was simply abiding by the Australian bail laws that had been recently made weaker.  I don’t blame the authorities who could not legally act without evidence.  I blame the government for weakening the laws. 

I’m not that knowledgeable about Australian laws, but I know that the basis of the legal system is the same as in the U.S.  Just like Americans and many other democracy-loving people, Australia presumes that someone is innocent until proven guilty.  If there is not enough evidence, someone can be granted bail, and they will not be found guilty of a crime.  I believe this is an important presumption to preserve in a legal society.  But I simply have to believe that there are stronger laws that can be created to provide a much higher threshold for bail when someone has any type of terrorist indications in their background. 

Extreme caution must be taken when embarking on this type of legislation, however, as a society is forced to reassess which of their rights are most important, and which they are willing to concede a bit.  If the threshold for granting bail is heightened in certain instances or if the government decides to more closely monitor its citizens, a society may have to decide that giving up some of their right to privacy, prevention from unreasonable search and seizure, etc. is not as important as their right to safety and security.  Quite frankly, a society must weigh how much of one right they are willing to give up for a variable amount of added assurance in another right.  This debate is an age old one, and is one that has resurfaced in the U.S. in various incarnations frequently over the last decade or two.  Americans started to tip the balance in favor of preserving security with the sweeping passage of the PATRIOT Act after 9/11, but in more recent years, has begun to question that balance in light of the revelations from Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, and the revelations of torture tactics used by the U.S. government.  Even the recent hacking of Sony has put this question into the spotlight once again. 

While I do favor tighter bail laws in certain instances, I do foresee that the passage of such laws could open the door to undesired consequences in the future.  For instance, if a government decided that certain religious expression that is considered acceptable now is later deemed to be detrimental to a nation’s security, laws could be used in ways not intended now.   I don’t have all the answers to these questions and would not presume that I could accurately assess how much security could be gained by giving up measured amounts of various rights.  I can only hope that societies around the world and especially Christians seek guidance, exercise reason, logic, and caution, and ultimately act wisely to preserve the rights we treasure.

3.       Another emotion I have felt is pride that I have had the pleasure of living in this beautiful city, if only for a short time, that is dealing with the tragedy in a really admirable way.  In the days after the siege, I have walked through Martin Place a few times on my way home from work.  In just two days, the first site next to the blocked off café where people started to lay flowers quickly grew to the edge of the street and police cordoned off another area across Martin Place for people to continue to lay flowers, sign condolence books, and pay their respects.  The two times I visited in the two days after the siege, the second memorial site has grown immensely with thousands of flowers, lines curling around the block for people waiting to enter and circle the flower laying area, and the square packed with quiet well-wishers.  There are many people also mulling about with signs offering free hugs to anyone.  The Australian people are truly kind and generous, and this is showing through now more so than before.

 

4.       Finally, I think part of the reason why I keep ruminating on the events of the siege is the realization that anyone could have been involved.  I had no intention of going to the Lindt café, but I had planned to go to Martin Place that morning.  I wasn’t sure what mode of public transport Brad was taking into work that morning, but he might have taken the train in Martin Place.  A coworker usually goes to the Lindt café for coffee every morning, but was in too much of a rush to stop that morning.  That same coworker’s boyfriend was heading into work at Channel 7 News right as it was happening and bumped into the gunman before it happened.  There were reports in one of the YouTube videos the hostages were forced to make that the gunman had other bombs planted in Central Station, George Street, and Circular Quay.  I take a bus from Central Station every morning and I eat lunch at George Street, one street from my office.  The point is that anyone could have been involved in the Sydney siege; anyone’s life can change in an instant.  The safety and sense of normalcy we experience could be stripped away in a second.  Just as my wonderful students pointed out numerous times before I left, they cautioned that I needed to watch out for the hordes of deadly animals populating Australia, including most of the world’s deadly snakes, sharks, stingrays, crocodiles, deadly spiders, and various other animals they believed to be deadly, rabid or unpredictable, including koalas. J  The reality of the fragile state of our normalcy can hit like a lead balloon and even incite crippling fear to those who let it, but the beauty of this reality has surfaced in the forefront of my mind in the days since.  Evil, danger, and uncertainty are everywhere, but I serve a God who is The Rock of stability, certainty and strength.  I find joy in the one who provides purpose.  I find peace in the security of my eternal fate.  I take strength in the One who controls it all.  Though evil and disaster will continue, I can breathe knowing that the one who gives me breath has conquered evil eternally.