Sy Abelman?

Seriously though these pricks just need to **** off. You live in ****ing Australia just stop being dickheads.

https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/statu...444929/photo/1

I'd really like to read the hashtags that accompanied that picture.

5 hostages have managed to escape thankfully

Not suggesting I want it to escalate but it's a pretty boring siege.

Sydney networks are struggling to keep it interesting after 12 hours. Can't imagine O/S networks would stick it out with nothing happening.

Police are doing a good job keeping the media out of it which is obviously a professional way of handling it.

I wonder what the cops are waiting for, it's been going for 12 hours

Seems like they haven't given up on the possibility of a peaceful resolution.

hes in there alone and confirmed acting along and are talkng to him, so most likely just sweating it out to end it peacefully

There has to be a lot they're not telling us. 12 hours and hardly any info or movement seems strange. All we know about the guy is that he is Islamic, has a gun and is wearing a vest and a backpack. I'm guessing he has or is threatening to have a bomb.

Or this I guess.

i'm just not sure if they're gonna change his mind after 12 hours and the hostages might be getting thirsty. But yeah they have a lot more information then we do

He's going to get tired at some point. You also have to assume that if he was intent on killing people he would have done so already.

https://twitter.com/GhioDeOliveira/s...917057/photo/1

The same person in an 'original' facebook message alerting everyone of the situation had a 3rd demand telling the other two brothers not to blow up the bombs around the city

not sure if its fake or not, but its been confirmed there are no other people involved and the police arent worried about attacks elsewhere in the city (related to this one anyway)

Speculation is growing that this may have happened 'by accident' when he was spotted with the flag while walking in the city and panicd and got in to the cafe without a real plan, when his intention was to do something else

He doesnt appear to really know what hes doing

They are in a cafe. They won't be getting thirsty.

This looks like a very easy shot. Seems like the standoff should have ended the moment this pic was taken.

and the deadswitch on the bomb he said he had?

this isnt the movies

I was thinking the same thing. Unless he is wearing a bomb vest or the cops on scene have other information that makes killing him inadvisable.

He was saying he had a bomb and had two brothers elsewhere in the city both with bombs, so I'd imagine thats a reason for making him unkillable

there are plenty of windows and lots of police/assault teams on the scene, so I'd imagine a lack of kill shots isnt an issue, theyre just opting not to kill him

But as it drags further on it looks like hes a bit of a nutjob, reports are his demands dont meet that of someone you would expect operating as a terrorist and this guy may just be a misguided idiot

He wants a ****ing flag. That should be an indication he's an idiot.

nawwwww poor dude just wants to be called a big bad man and given an official flag

In before "Nothing to do with Islam"

I'd be surprised if that guy could spell bomb, let alone make one.

Only in a movie would a terrorist group organized enough to build a bomb vest w/ a deadman switch take over a chocolate shop to get a flag.

The news report I saw said that his gun was spotted in a bag he had and he panicked and did this. The US Consulate is nearby FWIW (and has been evacuated now).

Oh also they said this guy is "known to police".

Speculation, but this would usually mean NSW police and not ASIO (CIA equivalent) or the Australian Federal Police (FBI equivalent). IMO this raises the chance he is a lone gunman style nutter rather than an organised plot and that Islam is obv a contributing factor but not the whole story.

OTOH, I have seen reports that the ABC (the govt-owned national broadcaster and bastion of quality journalism) were in contact with the gunman but were asked not to report what they were told by police and are complying. This makes it very likely that they were asked to deliver some "allahu akbar" type message and are ignoring it because we're not going to meet this clown's demands.

Obvious dripfeed of information is very tiny, I remember a case in Australia about a year ago where the police were extremely controlling of important information that was released and it was very beneficial to solving the issue, can only assume the same thing is happening here (they havent even confirmed if the hostages escaped or were released)

3 Videos have been released on youtube of different women behind the flag inside the store repeating the demands from the facebook posts in this thread

Easy to find if you search sydney seige, but I wont post them here