At 9.41am on Monday 15 December 2014, Man Monis directed Tori Johnson (the manager of the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place, Sydney) to call 000 and say that all those in the cafe had been taken hostage by an Islamic State operative armed with a gun and explosives.
Eighteen hostages were held in the cafe for 16.5 hours. Over that period, 12 of the 18 hostages were able to escape in four separate episodes.
At around 2.13am on Tuesday 16th December, the cafe manager Tori Johnson was executed by Man Moris. Following the execution, police stormed the cafe and another hostage, Katrina Dawson, was struck by fragments of one or more deflected police bullets and died at the scene. The hostage-taker, Man Monis, was also killed in the firefight that followed the police storming the cafe.
What is worth considering is what has happened in the past 6 years.... like so many horrific acts of terrorism, they barely rate a mention anymore. I often reflect on the Port Arthur Massacre and how a Nation handed over their guns in order to eradicate the danger of a repeat episode; yet these days, with daily stabbings, gang warfare, violence and crime running rampant .... people barely raise an eyebrow.
No one seems shocked anymore. No one really reacts. Have we become, as Pink Floyd suggested, " Comfortably Numb " ?
When I heard about what was unfolding in Sydney that morning, I was aghast that something like this was occurring in Australia. The loss of life because of political and religious ideology was so wicked and hitherto unheard of here... yet, despite this wakeup call, nothing seems to have changed.
Political and religious ideological fanatics are still running rampant and, most worryingly, community outrage seems subdued at best and apathy is on the rise.
The families of Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson will not have lost their sense of outrage. The surviving hostages no doubt still have nightmares and the legacy of the Lindt Cafe Siege will live in in their hearts and minds forever.
I hope that those of you who read this will stop for a minute's silence to remember the fallen and also to consider that we are ALL increasingly becoming victims and hostages to radical views and actions.
But this article is not written to exploit the tragedy that unfolded that day 6 years ago. It serves just to remind us that we must never forget.
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