When is a terrorist not a terrorist anymore? Police station scare raises questions on Twitter
A 60-year-old man is in serious condition after he rammed his burning car into the Merrylands police station in Sydney on Thursday night.
He told police that he had a bomb, according to the ABC. In reality, he had two cylinders filled with gasoline. But that was enough to spark speculation about a terrorist attack -- including online, where #Merrylands began trending.
Later, people from all sides of the political spectrum would become critical of the media’s handling of the incident, especially the backflip in language that took place.
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In a couple of hours, the incident went from being referred to as an "attempted terror attack" to a situation caused by mental illness.
It all started with a tweet from an ABC reporter.
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And with that, media outlets went HAM on air and online, with headlines stating the event was an alleged terrorist attack. One outlet even livestreamed the scene.
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Some Twitter users were quick to make the link between the assumption of a terrorist attack and the suburb of Merrylands’ substantial Muslim population. Queensland politician George Christensen immediately put out a statement blaming radical Islam.
But within a few hours, police stated that they believed the incident to be mental-health related. More details were released.
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The man was middle-aged, of Croatian heritage and known to police because he had an AVO (restraining order) out against him, due to alleged violence toward a family member. Not quite the portrait of a radicalised Islamist youth.
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And so, the headlines changed. Most used less dramatic language like "Man drives car with gas cylinders into police station."
And boy, did people notice.
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Meanwhile, MP George Christensen was forced to redact (kind of) his above statement, saying, "New reports in [sic] state that surprisingly for Merrylands, this incident may not have been a terrorist attack as the ABC originally reported it to be. News is still rolling in, so we will see ... I say again: we need to discuss the rise of radical Islam within Australia and the threat it poses to national security."
The remaining question implied by many Twitter users is obvious: What informs the media's distinction between a terrorist and other labels, like "mentally ill man"? Because if it's race, maybe that's worth questioning?
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Jerico Mandybur is the editor of Mashable Australia. Previously, she worked as a digital editor at SBS, Oyster Mag, MTV and ASOS. Tweet her at @jerico_m.
