May 10, 2016

A 28-year-old man in Scotland was arrested for posting a video that showed his pug watching video of Hiltler and making a Nazi salute.

He was charged with "improper use of electronic communications under the Communications Act 2003":
DI David Cockburn said: “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.”
Here's a Daily Mail article from before the arrest (where you can see the video):
[Markus] Meechan, 28 - who has now apologised - taught Buddha the pug, owned by his girlfriend Suzanne Kelly, to raise a paw whenever he said 'sieg heil' and to perk up at the word 'Jews'.

The video opens with him saying: '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.' He also filmed the dog watching a video of Hitler making a fiery speech at a Nazi rally, but insisted: 'I'm not a racist, I just really wanted to p*** her off.'
And: "I didn't intend for this to go viral, it was a private joke between friends and it ended up everywhere after someone posted onto Reddit. My friends know my sense of humour which is very, very based on shock comedy, but the internet doesn't. I just want everyone to know that I don't wish any ill-will on any race or anything, it's just how shock comedy works. I am so sorry to the Jewish community for any offence I have caused them. This was never my intention and I apologise."

He was already punished by social forces. Why arrest him?

52 comments:

YoungHegelian said...

He was already punished by social forces. Why arrest him?

Because he must be made to feel the power of the ultimate moral arbiter, the State. Any resistance to the moral power of the State must be swept away.

Yes, most of Europe is there, right now, & we're not far behind.

clint said...

Pour le encouragement des autres.

Also, because if you don't give the masses their daily two-minute-hate target, they might notice you.

Tank said...

If he had not apologized, I'd be in his corner for making a JOKE.

But, since he apologized, no.

We are living in scary times.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
exhelodrvr1 said...

That's where we're headed ...

rhhardin said...

You arrest him as part of the tyranny play. Human decency not existing is the point to be made, to keep others silent at every turn.

tim in vermont said...

Thus endeth the Enlightenment.

David Begley said...

The UK has gone full Orwell.

Sofa King said...

"Hiltler?" Is he related to a certain Mr. Hilter and his friend Ron Vibbentrop who ran in the North Minehead by-election as the National Bocialist candidate?

Owen said...

The story of Western Civ has ended, we're just watching the credits roll up the screen in the dark.

Laslo Spatula said...

This reminds me of the time Hitler was fucking my girlfriend.

I cam home from work, opened the door, and there on the couch was Hitler, fucking my girlfriend.

So I say "Hey:Hitler! Stop fucking my girlfriend."

He just mumbled something about superior Aryan sperm and kept fucking my girlfriend.

So I say "Hey: Hitler! She's Jewish!"

To which my girlfriend said "That's what makes this so exciting!"

Anyway. That was the time Hitler fucked my girlfriend. Who was Jewish. The Hitler-fucking bitch.

It's okay: I'm over it now.

I am Laslo.

Wince said...

Obviously, his inquisitors are blinded to their actions being the true harbinger of a new rise of fascism.

Mary Beth said...

He's a communist, he should appreciate the power of the state.

(No, really, he has a hammer and sickle tattooed on his chest and a painting of Lenin in his bedroom.)

Rick said...

Why arrest him?

Because with so much antisemitism in Britain they need to show they are against it. Meanwhile he's a target which won't generate the blowback pursuing Muslim antisemitism will.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

He was already punished by social forces. Why arrest him?

Where's the fun in having a monopoly on the use of force if you're not going to use it?

Gahrie said...

This is what happens when you are subjects and not citizens.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Coming soon to a Democrat-run city/state/nation near you...

CWJ said...

All of the above.

lgv said...

"Posting offensive material online or in any other capacity will not be tolerated.."

That's what government is for. I'm sick of people being offended. There outa be a law. I guess there is now.

What about pug? The pug needs to be punished. No excuses. None of the, "I thought they really were showers" routine. The pug has no excuse.



hiawatha biscayne said...

the jewish "community" wasn't offended.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Yes, Sofa King.

"Not much fun at Stalingrad!!"

Bob Boyd said...

Why arrest him?

Because you can.

SteveBrooklineMA said...

"He was already punished by social forces. Why arrest him?"

Why assume it is right to punish him?

Dude1394 said...

That they COULD arrest him is the problem. Certainly not whether a "district attorney" didn't get a good nights sleep last night.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

This morning's news brings articles on Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, and Chile.

In Brazil, the Lower House voted to impeach President Rousseff. The Supreme Court then removed the Speaker. The Interim Speaker voided the impeachment vote.

In Venezuela, Government's control of "all the levers of power" likely will allow President Maduro to stay in office while the Country nears economic collapse.

In Mexico, corruption exposed by the Panama Papers will likely result in no meaningful changes.

In Chile, President Bachelet has an approval rating of 20%, disapproval rating of 70%.

Our own Government - National, State, and Local; elected and civil servant - has largely immunized itself from responsibility to the People for not only errors but for acts of intentional malfeasance.

Indeed, that Hillary is "wrong about absolutely everything, but she's wrong within normal parameters" points to badly placed "goalposts of normal parameters."

This comes about from people bestirring and inviting Government to use the final forceful authority of Government to solve petty personal issues. Once invited and invoked, Government forever retains the power to intervene.

So we have a dermally self-abusing dolt in Scotland. Guy has no axe to grind for the National Socialists, indeed thinks them a "nasty" bunch. But he wants to "piss off" his equally dermally self-abusing girl friend. So he teaches her beloved pooch to do offensive tricks, films the dog, and shares the clip.

Well, in Scotland, don't ya know, it's agin' the law to make anyone feel bad. People of Scotland are not responsible for their own feelings, it seems.

Anonymous said...

So heil. Many Kristallnacht. Such Lebensraum. Wow.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

FREEDOM!

holdfast said...

He's a communist, he should appreciate the power of the state.

So now I don't feel bad for him. Still, it sucks about Formerly Great Britain.

Mike Sylwester said...

This is what happens when Scientific Progressives are placed in law-enforcement positions.

William said...

I thought his joke was funny. That's a mitigating factor in any joke. The joke works with pugs. I wouldn't try it with German shepherds. That would demonstrate a wish to caricature Germans as Nazis and could rightly be considered a hate crime.

Bill Peschel said...

Wow, that post of him explaining everything and displaying his commie tattoo ... it's ... I can't figure this out.

Maybe it's all the stuff they're putting in the water nowadays.

Fernandinande said...

Pug porn.


"The big question is how he managed to get more than 3oz of differential equations past airport security.

He allegedly broke them up into partial differential equations…"

Rusty said...

" Does your doog bite?"

Unknown said...

In the US he would not be arrested, just thrown out of university, or force to resign from his position.

bagoh20 said...

"He's a communist, he should appreciate the power of the state.

(No, really, he has a hammer and sickle tattooed on his chest and a painting of Lenin in his bedroom.)"


And at that link he complains of the media being Orwellian. The first prerequisite of being a communist must be abject ignorance of history.

http://genjutsu-01.tumblr.com/post/143436926723/an-explanation-of-what-actually-happened-the

Barry Dauphin said...

So, can they show The Producers on TV in Scotland?

buwaya said...

The first rule is never apologize.
The second is to escalate.
The third is to make it personal - hit the lead guy on the other side, massively.

Anonymous said...

He was already punished by social forces. Why arrest him?

Because in Scotland in the current year, what he did is a criminal offense.

Dumb question.

James Pawlak said...

In the UK free speech vanished with the Natural Law right to self-defense against criminal attacks and the ready access to the means to enforce that right

Joe said...

The UK has not codified rights of free speech, why do people assume it has?

The irony is that the UK does give a lot more latitude to what can be said and shown on TV.

David said...

"Why arrest him?"

Because they can.

Sigivald said...

Training a pug to mock Hitler is ... well, it's kind of the opposite of Being An Icky Nazi.

(Not that it should matter on free speech grounds, but the UK doesn't have free speech as such.)

Smilin' Jack said...

He was already punished by social forces. Why arrest him?

"Social forces" have their place, but Big Brother does not rely on them.

sean said...

Why arrest him? Surely no American university would permit this sort of behavior. So I would think a professor would know the answer to that question.

Levi Starks said...

Absolutely hilarious, I can't wait for it to start happening in America.

tim in vermont said...

Funny how obsessed commies are with fascists, it's because they are so similar, like the Irish orange v green, or Arab v Israeli. Nobody else can tell them apart without a scorecard.

Fabi said...

First they came for the Pugs, but I was not a Pug.

John henry said...

I love stories like this. Not because of the douchebaggery, though there is that factor that is amusing.

No, I love them because it reminds me that we are the only country in the world with true freedom of speech.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

We don't just have it in the main body of the Constitution. The argument by Hamilton and others that there was nothing in the main body that gave govt any powers over speech. No, our founding fathers felt that at some point in the future that would not be enough and it needed to be explicitly spelled out. So they went back and wrote a special amendment to do so. Then they wrote another, the 2nd, to protect it.

You want to teach a dog to do the National Socialist salute in the US? Then post it on YouTube? More power to you. You are well within your constitutional right to do so. You are a douche and hundreds of thousands may point that out but you will suffer no legal action.

No other country can say this.

John Henry

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Was this a hate crime? Yes.

First, let us distinguish between a "hate crime" and the crime (in Scotland) of being offensive.

Meechan apparently has no ill will toward Jews. He did create a video clip which was put on the internet; whether by himself or by another person is not clear. Some Jews declare themselves offended. Therefore whoever posted the material has committed the offense (in Scotland) of being offensive.

DI David Cockburn said: “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.

Meechan says he trained the dog and created the video clip to "piss off" his girl friend. The girl friend appears to self identify as a female, and is likely a practicing heterosexual. Indeed, we can conjecture that Meechan is shagging her.

Meechan therefore is involved with this woman *because* of her gender identity and sexual orientation. By his own admission he trained the dog as an act of, if not hatred, at least profound disrespect toward the woman.

Q.E.D.

MadTownGuy said...

He was already punished by social forces. Why arrest him?.

So he could be punished by Socialist forces.

John henry said...


Blogger Joe said...

The UK has not codified rights of free speech, why do people assume it has?

England doesn't have a Constitution to codify any rights. All English rights are by law and can be granted or withheld at the whim of Parliament from one day to the next.

England says they have a Constitution but it is not written down and it is whatever a judge says it is. As Bagehot said in his 1868 book "The English Constitution:

This difficulty has been constantly in my way in preparing a second edition of this book. It describes the English Constitution as it stood in the years 1865 and 1866. Roughly speaking, it describes its working as it was in the time of Lord Palmerston; and since that time there have been many changes, some of spirit and some of detail. In so short a period there have rarely been more changes. If I had given a sketch of the Palmerston time as a sketch of the present time, it would have been in many points untrue; and if I had tried to change the sketch of seven years since into a sketch of the present time, I should probably have blurred the picture
and have given something equally unlike both.


He actually goes on at some length about the difficulty of describing the Constitution because it is never the same 2 days running.

Hardly seems like a Constitution, in any meaningful sense, to me.

John Henry

Gahrie said...

You are a douche and hundreds of thousands may point that out but you will suffer no legal action.

Yet...