Update March 11th: Downunder News Link responds here, sheds some light on the same question I have.
When I first saw this story I was confused. I couldn’t figure out what Wagga was? After searching around a bit I found out it’s a city in New South Wales, Australia and its full name is Wagga Wagga (crow crow in the aboriginal language). They have lots of crows. But, anyway, back to my story.
It seems there was a racial incident that inspired some letter writing.
Racist websites Downunder News Links and US based Stormfront have both seized on an alleged incident reported by The Daily Advertiser involving African refugees.
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Prominent Wagga volunteer Erwin Richter said he was concerned Wagga was being associated with racism.
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Mr Richter, who volunteers as a refugee resettlement coordinator, reported receiving letters and phone calls, blaming him for bringing African refugees to the Riverina and telling him to “back off”.
You can read about the ‘incident’ that prompted the letter-writing campaign here. It involved an altercation between a woman (color?) and some black men, the men left and returned with eight African friends who proceeded to beat the woman with tree branches.
But, here is where I’m confused. Maybe Australian English is differant from American English! This is in the first article I mentioned above.
Wagga crime manager Detective Inspector Rod Smith warned those found to be guilty of racial abuse could face prosecution.
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“It is unlawful and we consider it offensive,” he said.
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“Regardless of race, colour or religion police will investigate all allegations of crime without discrimination.
Is the police detective talking about prosecuting the criminals who beat the woman as a racial abuse, or are the letters written to the refugee guy considered the racial abuse?
Clarification please! Australian readers please tell me you don’t have hate speech laws.