Man Trains Dog To Perform ‘Heil Hitler’ Salute — Faces Hate Crime Charge
Image by youtube
Mark Meechan appeared in a Scottish court on Monday, charged with a hate crime against Jews. His alleged crime? Teaching his girlfriend’s dog to perform a Nazi salute.
“My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute and adorable her wee dog is, so I thought I would turn him into the least cute thing I could think of, which is a Nazi,” said Meechan, who posted a video of the training session on YouTube, where it garnered millions of views before being deleted.
Meechan is heard in the video shouting slogans like “Gas the Jews,” and shows the dog video from the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which the Nazis organized. His protestations that he meant no offense did not ease the anxieties of Scotland’s Jewish leaders, who said the video had led to harassment against them.
“There is an echo chamber effect, with people trying to be more offensive. One hundred and sixty pages of messages were collected by us in a day. They supported the video and it was anti-Semitic,” said Ephraim Borowski, head of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, in a comment to the Times of London.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter, @DanielJSolomon
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
