The consequences of pranks can sometimes be severe—more so when the prankster is adamant on recording and sharing it with his friends or on the internet. Scottish man Markus Meechan (28) may claim to have made a video of a dog responding to Nazi slogans simply to annoy his girlfriend Suzanne (28), but the nature of the prank has, without any question, offended many and even led to his arrest.
Image courtesy: SWNS and Metro UK
The footage, which was uploaded earlier this year on YouTube and has been viewed over a million times, shows Meechan training his girlfriend’s pug named Buddha to respond to the phrase “gas the Jews” and to raise his paw (imitating the Nazi salute) to the words “Seig Heil”.
Image courtesy: YouTube
The footage even shows Buddha watching Hitler’s speeches from Leni Riefensthal’s film Olympia that documented the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Image courtesy: YouTube
In the footage named M8 Yer Dugs A Nazi, Meechan says, “My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute her dog is. So, I thought I would turn him into the least cute thing I could think of . . . which is a Nazi!”
Meechan subsequently apologized saying, “I am so sorry to the Jewish community for any offence I have caused them. This was never my intention and I apologize.”
However, the director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities Ephraim Borowski said, “To regard the meticulously planned and industrialised murder of six million people solely on the grounds of their ethnicity as a joke is outrageous, and for someone who does so to claim not to be racist, beggars belief.”
Meechan’s arrest had only recently come into light. He was reportedly arrested on 28 April at his house in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, and released on bail from Airdrie Sheriff Court the following morning.
Detective Inspector David Cockburn of Lanarkshire CID told The Huffington Post, “Posting offensive material online or in any other capacity will not be tolerated and police will act swiftly to tackle hate crimes that are motivated by malice or ill will because of faith, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.
This clip has been shared and viewed online, which ultimately has caused offence and hurt to many people in our community. There is no place for hate crime in Scotland and police take all reports of incidents seriously.”
YouTube has reportedly refused to take the footage down owing to freedom of speech.
