INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
at the camera and described the training he had given to his girlfriend's pug, Buddha."My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how
cute and adorable her wee dog is," he said in his Scottish brogue
"And so I thought I would turn him into the least cute thing I could think of, which is a Nazi." Then Meechan asked the dog the same
question, again and again: "Buddha, do you want to gas the JewsFor two years, the video, which includes a scene of a pug staring obediently
at a speech by Adolf Hitler, has raised questions about the murky line between offensive satire and hate speech that normalizes Nazism
The Nazi pug video has been blasted by outraged Jewish leaders and defended by satirists who likened Meechan's prosecution to censorship in
the George Orwell novel "1984."Now it will cost Meechan 800 pounds (about $1,100).On Monday, according to the BBC, a sheriff gave him the
fine and a stiff lecture, saying the video was anti-Semitic and racist
Meechan was found guilty of a hate crime under the Communications Act last month."The centerpiece of your video consists of you repeating
the phrase 'Gas the Jews' over and over again as a command to a dog which then reacts," Sheriff Derek O'Carroll told Meechan while
announcing the fine."You use the command Sieg Heil, having trained the dog to raise its paw in response and the video shows a clip of a
Nuremberg rally and a flashing image of Hitler with strident music
You say the video was only intended as a joke to upset your girlfriend, whose dog you used, and nothing more."O'Carroll told the court he
did not believe that claim
Previously, the sheriff said, he believed the video was intended to draw attention to other material Meechan had on YouTube.In the "M8 Yer
Dugs A Nazi" video posted in April 2016 (which obviously contains offensive language), the dog becomes animated every time Meechan says the
phrase or the word "Jews."At one point, Meechan says "Sieg Heil," the Nazi salutation (in German, it means "hail victory"), and the dog
extends its right paw, mimicking the Nazi salute.The dog is also seen watching a Hitler rally during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin
The dog appears to raise its paw when Hitler proclaims "Sieg Heil.""Who's a good wee Nazi" Meechan praised the dog.The video ricocheted
around the Internet after it was posted in April 2016 and has now been viewed millions of times
Some found it amusing; others felt it was crude and anti-Semitic, including a woman who Meechan says confronted him, then spread dog feces
on his front door.Soon after the video was posted, police knocked on Meechan's door in Coatbridge, a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, he
The officers told him that he was being charged with a hate crime and that the video could be seen as promoting violence against Jews
They told him to change his clothes, took pictures of his apartment and hauled him off to jail.He spent a night there and was charged with
violating the Communications Act of 2003, which prohibits using public telecommunications to send discriminatory religious
messages.Prosecutors in Meechan's September trial alleged that he communicated material that would cause fear and alarm and stir up hatred
on religious grounds by posting a clip on YouTube that was "anti-Semitic in nature," according to the Telegraph."I feel in the long run I
didn't do anything wrong," he said on Jones's show
I wasn't setting out to cause any offense to any people
If anything I was wanting people to laugh, and just obviously, it was taken the wrong way."Meechan didn't respond to messages from The
Washington Post seeking comment
He said that he could see how people could be offended by his video but that he doesn't "think hurting someone's feelings is a
crime."Prominent comedians - including Ricky Gervais and Jewish comedian David Baddiel - rallied to Meechan's defense, saying free speech
includes jokes that some may find offensive.Ricky Gervais tweeted "A man has been convicted in a UK court of making a joke that was deemed
If you don't believe in a person's right to say things that you might find 'grossly offensive', then you don't believe in Freedom of
Speech."Ephraim Borowski, director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, argued that the video is indeed a hate crime, according to
the Telegraph."It is grossly offensive
It stuns me that anyone should think it is a joke," Borowski told the court, saying he had family that died in the Holocaust."My immediate
reaction is that there is a clear distinction to be made between an offhand remark and the amount of effort that is required to train a dog
I actually feel sorry for the dog."And Borowski told the court that there were real-world consequences: The council was "bombarded with" 160
pages of anti-Semitic messages supporting Meechan and the video.In a QA with the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Gavriel Rosenfeld warned that
Hitler- and Nazi-based satire normalizes the Nazi legacy: "The Internet above all is the medium that really focuses on Hitler as a
completely decontextualized, dehistoricized figure
We can draw a Hitler mustache on anything or a swastika on anything and start laughing at it."When Hitler himself is photoshopped into the
form of various other characters, we get into some really bizarre phenomena: catsthatlooklikehitler.com or thingsthatlooklikehitler.com or
'Hipster Hitler' or 'Six Degrees of Hitler' - it's a cottage industry of people exploiting his image to get attention but we're far away
from any historical lesson."The Scotsman reported in July that there was a record number of anti-Semitic attacks in Scotland in 2016
The paper wrote that of the 26 anti-Semitic crimes last year, 15 resulted in criminal charges, while a further 19 "non-criminal"
anti-Semitic incidents also took place.Meechan has posted a video apologizing for any offense the video caused.He stressed that he hates
"racism in any way shape or form
I don't have any ill will towards the Jewish community or anything like that at all."But he'd already defended his actions in a succinct
statement on his pug-centered video: "I'm not racist, by the way
I just really, really wanted to [tick my girlfriend] off."Shortly after his conviction, Meechan said he would appeal the decision, which he
