'The Black
Shirts'
What are
they?
A radical
men's group whose members dress in paramilitary uniforms. Not very
imaginative, they took their -- black uniform-style dress -- idea from
Oswald Mosley's fascist blackshirts of the 1930's.
"The origins
of the blackshirt and the uniform were very simple. When fights are forced
upon you, it is a serious business. You do not win unless you have organization
and method. The first thing is to be able to identify each other in the
fight. That was the simple reason why we wore first the blackshirt - which
was a distinctive colour, and then the uniform. For the same reason police,
soldiers, etc., who are obliged to fight, wear uniform in order to recognize
their own side. It is as simple as that." (Source:
An
Interview with Oswald Mosley)
Mosley's blackshirts
were sensible, educated men, with a clear goal and respect for the law
and human kind.
"We expect
members to behave like serious men whose lives are dedicated to a great
cause. They must have the calm of athletes, not the hysteria of mobs, the
dignity of dedicated men, not the nervous excitability of the Red rabble
without roots or faith, without past or future. We hold this attitude not
only because we obey the law, but because victory belongs to the cause
which can so inspire men. (Source: An
Interview with Oswald Mosley)
The Australian
'support' group -- that the group leader estimates as being 300-strong,
but others estimate is only thirty -- could be more appropriately be called
Black
Shits after their filthy behaviour.
If you take
a close look at this mob, you will find them to be ignorant about the processes
of the law, totally self preoccupied and selfish, with no consideration
whatsoever their actions have on the VICTIMS in all this - the children.
The focus of the Family Law Court is on the needs of the child/ren. The
blackshirts motives are pure evil and purely selfish. They are violent,
unrepentant and their aggressive agenda is fired by a paranoid megalomaniac
with delusions of grandeur.
Leora Moldofsky
wrote a lengthy article in 2001 about their activities and terror campaigns.
"Fathers
unhappy with Australia's Family Court are finding militant allies in a
group that urges them to take the law into their own hands."
Megaphone-wielding
fathers who refuse to accept judges' child-custody rulings have been a
fixture at Australian family courts. Some aggrieved men have attacked their
former wives and partners, their children, and court officers. Now a group
whose name echoes 1930s fascist movements is providing an aggressive new
outlet for men struggling to cope with the consequences of marital breakdown."
Waiting
outside the Preston court in their Blackshirts attire, Simon and Clive,
who are also contesting court orders - and Les, who says he's at the hearing
because "I love to see [the women] cry" - won't reveal how many members
the group has." (Source:
Society
Fight Club Time International, Leora Moldofsky 12 Nov 01 )
The blackshirts
have their own website which only brings up blank pages in any other browser
other than IE. Many of the pages simply don't work, or stuff is 'coming'
The site begins
with a 'letter' giving themselves permission to break the law and intimidate
whomever they feel like in their sense of distorted justice.
"Thank God
for the Black shirts. The only real power that can put an end to the evil
imposed on marriage, family and children and bring back family values.
Don't be intimidated by restraining orders, family court applications or
for that matter - members of the legal profession. As mothers or fathers,
you have a right and indeed a duty to defend your marriage - family and
especially - your children. The Black shirts are dedicated to support any
and all who crave to bring back the very term marriage and family and stand
against any force or power bent on corrupting children or the dismantling
of the family unit or the destruction of the marriage.....
"The answer,
fight the good fight together for united we stand and put this attack on
family values to an abrupt end. In short - put those who would corrupt
our children, undermine our marriage and compromise the family unit into
sewers where they belong. It is the contention of the Blackshirts that
restraining orders are a blemish to the very term democracy and freedom.
Let the individual who has been accused of any crime be dealt with by the
letter of the law and be given his or her right to be assumed innocent
until proven guilty and not be restrained of their freedom on heresay and
innuendoes only to be denied of what is rightfully theirs. (Source:
Blackshirts Website)
It continues
with some bizarre rationale about their dress: (my opinion in red)
WHY BLACK?
What colour
do judges and lawyers wear? (suits of
dark colours usually)
What other
colour would one wear when mourning the loss of a loved one?
(Navy, blue, green, red or yellow or whatever the person feels like. In
some places the BRIDE gets married in Black, in China, it is red. Black
does not always mean mourning. Likewise white does not always mean purity.
At many weddings the GROOM may wear a black tuxedo. By their rationale,
the groom is a member of the legal profession or else in mourning?)
People who
generally wear all-black could be making a statement about their lives
- that their lives are colourless.
WHY THE
CAP?
It gets
hot standing in the sun in summer and it keeps the head warm in winter!
It helps
to identify us to each other and the public! Police wear hats don't they?
So does
the salvation army!
They look
better than wigs, don't they? (No.
Only dickheads wear caps.)
WHY THE
FACE COVER?
Section
121 (family law act) prohibits us from identifying ourselves.
We would gladly
step forward and identify ourselves and the abuse being inflicted on us
and our children were it not for corrupt laws being used to hide the abuse
of children and families.
(That is why John Abbott is often on TV and disgruntled fathers line up
outside Australian -- mostly Victorian -- court rooms where there
cases are being heard, and march up and down the streets, terrorising mothers
children and the whole neighborhood with megaphones, so you don't identify
yourselves? )
WHY "THE
BLACK SHIRTS"
Our members
needed a name that would stand out. (Saves
money for funeral garb I guess.)
A name
that immediately identified us when in the public arena.
We think
its much better than the names given to loving fathers by other gutless
members of the legal fraternity.
In spite
of the fact that we live in a Christian democracy, or at least we are led
to believe that we live in a Christian democracy...."
Just doesn't get it does he? Maybe they should have called themselves the
Homers.. with their heart in the right place, but totally off the track
and going about everything in such a way it effectively thwarts their own
cause. This isn't a cartoon, where the dead come back to life and the hero
can do no wrong. This is real life, where you have to play by the rules
-- dictated by society and enforced by the law -- or else pay the price.
A Christian?
How long since any of these men have been near a Church? This behaviour
is not reflective of a man/men who believe in Jesus Christ.
FATHER
FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO..
These misguided
souls then go on to give themselves permission to terrorise their ex-wives,
ex-partners or girlfriends new husbands and partners by labelling them
as being an INTRUDER and the supposed "corruptor/s of their
children."
"It is not
the concern of the Black Shirts as to whether a husband and wife live together
or not, and nor should it be the concern of anyone else. However, it should
and must be the concern of every degent person if the family, marriage
and children are corrupted. Especially by an intruder who would dare to
try and replace the mother or the father to the children. Such a creature
must realise that no one can replace the mother or the father and such
an attempt will inevitably incur the wrath of the Black Shirts and every
decent Australian.The Black Shirts stand ready to make the lives of such
creatures as difficult as possible within the bounds of the law. The Black
Shirts are adamant to bring back to fundamentals all institutions that
have a direct and indirect impact on marriage family and children. Whoever
and what ever they maybe - No exceptions."
But even
more importantly is the fact that our children are made to suffer the intrusion
of strangers into their lives who more often than not are imposed upon
the family by their mother. We say that the "intruder" corrupts the morals
of young by mere fact that they are there, because all children are loyal
to their mother and their father.
When a (so
called) man is imposed into the family home, the children automatically
see this as a betrayal to the father and if a (so called) woman is imposed
into the family home the children automatically see this as a betrayal
to the mother.
We, the
Blackshirts say that if we want our children to be morally bound, decent,
dignified, honest, loyal, law abiding and responsible.
John Abbott
Blackshirts
spokesman John Abbott says his men are "doing what needs to be done to
stop divorce and reclaim the status of marriage and family." But Family
Court Chief Justice Alistair Nicholson accuses the group of behavior "that's
one step along the path to terrorism" - and says it won't be tolerated
by the Australian community.
Says Abbott:
"With 6 out of 10 families now being corrupted and infiltrated [in fact,
4 in 10 Australian marriages currently end in divorce], it's a target-rich
environment. (Source: Society
Fight Club Time International, Leora Moldofsky 12 Nov 01 )
Abbott is gathering
plenty of enemies.
One Melbourne
family law practitioner said; "We've been spat on, hit and threatened."
Marshalls and Dent senior associate Mark Finn says Abbott was the ringleader
of a group who used to attend court hearings wearing black shirts. (Angela,
who has also been the target of Blackshirts protests, says they used to
call themselves the Southern Cross Good Fathers). Says family law solicitor
Sue Macgregor: "They'd sit at the back of the courtroom in their uniforms
and make themselves extraordinarily annoying and intimidating to the women
who came up [in hearings] against the blokes they were supporting."
Sandra thought
the amplified voice drifting into her kitchen came from the gelato vans
that trundle along her suburban Melbourne street on Saturday mornings -
until her son yelled, "There are men in masks outside." Seeing the four
black-clad men, their faces hidden under caps and bandannas, Sandra spirited
Peter to his room, dialed the police and yelled "I've got terrorists outside."
But the
police were already close by. The masked men had just paid a visit to Wendy,
who lives in the same suburb, and officers had a copy of the letter one
man was now reading through a megaphone while his companions distributed
copies along Sandra's street.
"Dear neighbor,"
the letter read, "Sandra has petitioned for divorce without reason, shamed
her family and introduced an immoral stranger to her son. We the Blackshirts
will not let those who corrupt children rest."
Abbott says
he's prepared to go to jail to save Australia's children, particularly
from "predators" like Sandra's partner, Luke. Offering a briefcase filled
with a decade's worth of newspaper articles about children murdered, he
claims, by their mothers' boyfriends, Abbott says: "I'm going to hurt [Luke]
real bad. I want him in and out of court every second day. I want every
member of his neighborhood to reject him and we'll demonstrate against
anyone who supports creatures like him."
So far,
the neighbors aren't joining the fight. "The residents are most upset by
this type of behavior," testified the secretary of the body corporate at
the block of flats where Luke lives. Abbott says the Blackshirts would
stop demonstrating if "we had any notion that our behavior is frightening
children. But we believe they'll grow to admire us. We don't like demonstrating,
but the fear for our own welfare is superseded by the care of our children."
But groups
like the Blackshirts are more interested in their own agenda than in children's
rights, according to some lawyers and counselors. "Their ringleaders are
usually embittered fathers with court orders not to contact their children
who prey on emotionally stricken men and send their cases down the chute
by trying to show that men are badly done by in the Family Court," says
a Melbourne family law practitioner. Court counselor Owen Pershouse says
such groups "tend to entrench men in an angry-victim role because they
don't provide a way out for these people other than a knock-down, drag-out
fight."
Sandra says
her ex-husband has refused to seek counseling. Although he was "distraught"
when they separated, "we were working things out between ourselves," she
says, "until he became involved with John Abbott, who is reliving his own
obsessions through people like my ex-husband." Militant action can only
hurt fathers' chances in the Family Court, says solicitor Finn. One of
his clients was once a Blackshirt, he adds, "but he's now realized he won't
get anywhere unless he works within the system, not outside it." (Source:
Society
Fight Club Time International, Leora Moldofsky 12 Nov 01 )
The blackshirts
are terrorising so many women and children, by following them, ringing
and harassing them, breaking DVO's, marching up and down the street with
megaphones (as below)
Victorian authorities
are looking at invoking STALKING and PEEPING TOM Legislation.
THE ABC on
25th July reported:
"The blackshirts
have been accused of stalking women and children in Victoria. Victorian
Attorney-General Rob Hulls says members distribute abusive letters, make
phantom phone calls and knock on doors in the middle of the night. Barristers
and lawyers have also been targeted. The organisation known as the "Black
Shirts", and members claim they are victims of broken marriages. Mr Hulls
says their activities could be considered stalking and has written to the
group to try to stop the campaign. "This is cowardly behaviour and I strongly
suggest that these angry men in Victoria stop harassing innocent citizens
and instead attend the various men's support groups that have been established
to deal legally and effectively with the hurt and pain of broken marriages,"
he said. (Source: ABC News Mail)
Abbott has
emptied his bowels on many websites guest books and message boards.
The latest
target was the HUG-UR-KIDS website. What Abbott fails to realise is he
is only making himself look foolish.
On 2nd August,
A Current Affair ran a segment on the blackshirts and Abbott. The following
announcement on HUKO, prompted an outpouring of angst onto the message
board (which Geoff promptly removed) by Abbott.
"Tonight
being 2/8/2002 for ALL Australian viewers please tune into "A Current Affair"
on Channel 9, finally this group of militant angry men calling themselves
"The Blackshirts" leader John Abbot is finally EXPOSED for who he really
is, an "ADULTERER". A little bit of background about this group of angry
men: They harass, intimidate, threaten, protest outside women's homes,
scare to death women who are in this groups eyes 'adulterous' corrupting
family morals and values, living alternative life-styles. Well,
MR. JOHN ABBOTT leader of this group of men will tonight be exposed for
the 'hypocrite' that he really is. As being that a woman he
had relations with was married at the time and he knew that this woman
was married also. This coming from a group who go out of their way to expose
and scare women, they cause trauma and suffering to these women.
One woman whom was associated with HUKO previously and had to go
into hiding as she feared for her life and her children's. Good on you
A Current Affair for this exposure.
FOOTNOTE:
Please understand for all who visit this page that NOT all men's groups
are like "Blackshirts". There are some very good and decent men's
groups out there who do a lot for men's issues and provide support, the
Blackshirts are nothing but a group of misguided angry men trying to create
chaos and fear into the lives of innocent caring women." (Source:
HUKO)
Stalkers
defy Victorian Govt to continue their menacing
Also on the
ABC, The 7.30 Report featured the stalking activities of this mob.
The transcript
is below.
MASKED MAN:
We, the Black Shirts, will continue to demonstrate again and again and
again until the message has gotten through.
MARY GEARIN:
These men consider themselves heroes in pursuit of those they say compromise
the family unit. To most others, they are figures of fear and hate.
TONY ROBINSON,
VICTORIAN STATE MP: This behaviour by the so-called Black Shirts is no
more acceptable in suburban Melbourne in 2002 than it was in Nazi Germany
in the 1930s. We just cannot have a group like that operating with contempt
for the law.
JOHN ABBOTT,
THE BLACK SHIRTS:
When the
parents themselves are the ones who are corrupting their children, then
society cannot turn a blind eye. It must react.
MARY GEARIN:
The dark-masked members of the so-called Black Shirts have become familiar
figures outside the Family Court in Melbourne but it's their harassment
of women outside their own homes that's now been targeted by the Victorian
Government. It's warned them in a letter, "Stop or be arrested for stalking".
ROB HULLS,
VICTORIAN ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I simply say that it is to be harassed in the
middle of the night, for intimidatory letters to be sent, for neighbours
to be contacted, and for all sorts of rumours to be spread about innocent
victims who have had their matters dealt with appropriately by the courts.
These people
are cowards. The fact is that they mask themselves, they harass women in
the middle of the night. It is totally inappropriate behaviour.
JOHN ABBOTT:
We go about it by demonstrating in the neighbourhood. Our concern is the
neighbourhood, not the person themselves because they know what they're
doing. The rest of the neighbourhood doesn't know what is going on and
we are there to alert them, so we do it by handing out letters to people
who are passers-by or putting them in letterboxes, and the megaphone simply
discloses to the neighbourhood what are our concerns.
MARY GEARIN:
John Abbott claims to be spokesman for 300 vigilantes. Family Court lawyers
say it's more like 30. The group lives on the most marginal and radical
fringe of male support groups, and has emerged only in the past year. State
MP Tony Robinson alerted the Attorney-General, but already the group has
promised to defy the Government's order. Does the Victorian Government,
by its letter and the publicity which has followed, give this group some
legitimacy, and is there a danger that the group will escalate its actions
because of that?
TONY ROBINSON:
I think they're like a sore that has to be excised, so whether they're
doing it at one level or intend to escalate it to another level is immaterial.
It can't be allowed to continue in any form, full stop.
MARY GEARIN:
Women targeted by the group were today too frightened by the Black Shirt
campaign to speak on camera.
SUE MacGregor,
FAMILY COURT LAWYER: It completely and utterly intimidates them and terrifies
them, and no doubt scares the children as well.
MARY GEARIN:
In the Family Court, Sue McGregor has seen Black Shirt members intimidate
women, families and their lawyers. She believes the vigilantes are angry
former litigants.
SUE MacGregor:
Invariably men turn up alone and they internalise their anger and they're
distressed and they don't talk about it, and therefore they're so vulnerable
to these groups picking them up when they're walking out of court.
MARY GEARIN:
Not surprisingly, John Abbott says he's had his own such battle.
JOHN ABBOTT:
I was hoodwinked by a society who promised me that marriage was a lifelong
union and would be defended and protected. I was hoodwinked to believe
-- from a society that told me that family was a fundamental group unit
of society and would be protected.
MARY GEARIN:
The Chief Justice of the court, Alistair Nicholson, has labelled the group's
behaviour as: " -- one step along the path to terrorism. Yet the State
Government has stopped short of actually arresting the group's members.
TONY ROBINSON:
It's not for me to get into the pros and cons of individual police action
and legal charges against individuals, and I don't want to do that.
MICK BOYLE,
MANAGER, NO TO VIOLENCE: I suppose our concern is that if there is evidence
of criminal behaviours, then we would expect that the police would be acting,
would be interviewing, and would be seeking to lay charges.
MARY GEARIN:
As head of the State's peak body dealing with men who've committed violence
against women, Mick Boyle believes the Government has not gone far enough.He
says the Black Shirts are dysfunctional men who won't join anti-violent
male support groups until their values change.
MICK BOYLE:
They're on about men's privilege within the family and men's control over
other family members, and the sorts of extreme behaviours that we're seeing
now are just extensions of what may have been happening over many years,
even in their own relationships.
JOHN ABBOTT:
If we are twisted, what does it tell you about the Family Court? If we
are angry, what does it say about the Family Court? If we are frustrated,
what does it say about the Family Court?
SUE MacGREGOR:
My experience is that the Family Court is completely gender unbiased and
that it does not take into consideration really what sex you are in relation
to the distribution of property or child contact.
TONY ROBINSON:
The danger of this group is that they're taking the law into their own
hands.
We've got
a collection of pretty sad, middle-aged men running on rage and revenge,
and that's no way for a civilised society to go forward.
(Source: Stalkers
defy Victorian Govt to continue their menacing, 7.30
Report Transcript 25/7/02)
Pathetic isn't
it?
UPDATES:
AUGUST 2002
Gran tells of clan's terror
| The Herald Sun 6th August 2002
by Leela De Kretser
VICTIMS of
a vigilante fathers' group faced their antagonists again in court yesterday
as the group's leader launched an appeal against three intervention orders
against him.
An elderly
grandmother broke down as she told the County Court police did not stop
the group - known as the Blackshirts - "demonstrating" outside her daughter's
home.
The woman,
who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she looked out of a window
on September 1 last year and saw masked men outside.
She said she
tried to get help from a police officer who was standing in the street.
"He said to
me they were just having a peaceful demonstration," the grandmother told
the court.
"I said to
him that (it) might be peaceful to you, but it frightened the living daylights
out of me."
The victims,
who have given evidence at two previous court appearances, told of their
terror on the days the group turned up outside their suburban homes.
The court
heard the Blackshirts, dressed in paramilitary-style garb including black
caps and black masks, staged a series of demonstrations outside two homes
in September and November last year.
Sergeant Paul
Dart, from Doncaster police, told the court the Blackshirts had faxed advance
notice of their "demonstrations" to the police station. He said he had
seen the group in action on several occasions. One of these occasions included
a "demonstration" on November 24, just a month after a magistrate granted
one victim an interim intervention order against leader John Abbott. Sgt
Dart said Mr Abbott and his men stood just 200m down the road from the
woman's house, making statements, without any disruption by police. Four
members of the Blackshirts, including Mr Abbott, were present in court
yesterday. Two female victims, who at first had to sit next to the men
against whom they have intervention orders for stalking, were visibly distressed
throughout the hearing. One told the court she had lived in fear since
the group had first focused its attention on her and her son, 10.
"My stomach
just came up into my throat and I started thinking, 'I have just got to
get out' (of my home)," she said.
She said she
had to lock the doors of her car every time she drove, get special parking
arrangements outside her workplace, and increase security for her son.
The grandmother said she had suffered continuing illness since the incident
and feared going out in public.
"I don't know
where they are going to be, where they are going to turn up," she said.
"In the last
11 months I have had 31 visits to the doctor."
She said the
group had ruined her family's lives and her 10-year-old grandson's life
had been "absolutely screwed by these morons".
The hearing,
before Judge Peter Rendit, was to continue today.
Blackshirts leader defiant
| The Herald Sun 8th August 2002,
by Leela De Kretser
THE leader
of a militant fathers' group yesterday vowed in court to step up demonstrations
outside the homes of divorced women.
"We will come
back again and again to demonstrate," Blackshirts leader John Abbott said
in the County Court.
"The demonstrations
will be stepped up. I'm hoping by the end of the year to take them to as
many neighbourhoods as possible."
Mr Abbott
was in court yesterday appealing against intervention orders taken against
him by two suburban mothers and one of their boyfriends.
The court
has heard the group made accusations about the divorced women through loudspeakers
and delivered letters to neighbours alleging corruption of the family.
The women told the court they have suffered psychological and physical
illness since the protests in June, September and November last year.
Mr Abbott
said the group had a strict code of ethics and that police were notified
before the protests.
The case continues
before Judge Peter Rendit.
