Few had heard of him before the court case; few were bothered about him when he got convicted; even fewer remember him now. But for Mark Meechan, who styles himself Count Dankula, this is no deterrent to his seeking another fifteen minutes’ worth of fame that he does not merit. He is appealing against the conviction he got last year.
Mark Meechan
Why he was convicted can put directly: Meechan trained his partner’s dog to give a Nazi-style salute when he shouted “
Gas the Jews”. He appeared to consider this to be terribly funny. He uploaded a video showing his handiwork to YouTube. This landed him in court.
As the BBC
reported, Meechan “
denied any wrong-doing and insisted he made the video, which was posted in April 2016, to annoy his girlfriend … But Sheriff Derek O'Carroll found him guilty of a charge under the Communications Act that he posted a video on social media and YouTube which was grossly offensive because it was ‘anti-Semitic and racist in nature’ and was aggravated by religious prejudice”. He avoided jail but was fined £800.
My dog's got no nose
Over a year later, and not because he’s just attention seeking you understand, Meechan says he’s appealing. As
Glasgow Live has told readers, “
A man who was fined £800 after filming a dog giving Nazi salutes is to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights. Mark Meechan, 32, was handed the fine for recording his girlfriend's pug, Buddha, responding to statements such as ‘gas the Jews’ and ‘Sieg Heil’ by raising its paw”.
There was more. “
After a number of bids to appeal were rejected in the UK courts, Meechan now plans to submit an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Meechan, of Coatbridge, raised more than £193,000 through a crowdfunding page to pay for legal fees to fund appeals against his conviction and sentence … Meechan, known as Count Dankula, said the video was a joke and argued his conviction put limitations on free speech”. FREEZE PEACH! FREEZE PEACH!
His schtick? “
We have a good case. It's blatant that my human rights were violated, I was punished by the state for something that I said that was a clear joke”. The thought that one does not joke about some of what the Third Reich did does not appear to enter.
Nor does this minor detail: although Meechan has apparently claimed that it would cost him £50,000 to have his case heard before the ECHR, one law lecturer has observed “
The chances of this case being ‘heard’ in Strasbourg are next to nil. It doesn't cost £50k to send the ECHR an application (which is free, by the way). Oh, and the European Court has no power to hear appeals against conviction”. Which means what, exactly?
Well, the
Glasgow Live report concludes “
Meechan has said that since his conviction he has been unable to find work and has been subjected to violent threats on the street”. But he’s managed to get his fans to pony up more than £190,000 on the pretext of defending his FREEZE PEACH. And he’ll no doubt tap any willing souls out there for more.
Which means, yes, this really is nothing more than an exercise in self-promotion. And proof, if it were needed, of another old adage -
Grifters Gonna Grift.
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12 comments:
I would euthanise everyone who cloaks racism in edgy humour, only joking!
Lets say that gobshite held the same views and owned that dog... but instead of being some weirdly named cunt on the internet, he was sleeping underneath some railway bridge in london.
And because he had no internet access (or anything else for that matter, other than his anonymity) he had to hold a sign up asking for money for a sandwich - instead of to allegedly fight a completely fucking spurious 'human rights issue'...
The same blockheaded nuckfuggets funding him now would probably be pissing on him under the bridge, and kicking the dog.
'Count dankula'? I mean, ffs lad.
Ah fuck him, anyway. By the way, whatever happened to that other prick with the stupid title...What was it 'Sarkon of Twatshire' or something?
Did his balls finally drop?
Funny how these Brexit types, (he clearly is one), are quick to run crying to pan-European human rights protecting organisations they have spent decades demonising, and from which they want the UK to withdraw.
"Which means, yes, this really is nothing more than an exercise in self-promotion. "
Couldn't it be argued that it was obtaining money by deception? If he genuinely thought he only needed £50k, he could and should have closed the crowdfunding appeal when it reached that figure.
Appealing?
He doesn't appeal to me...
The full story is far odder than this.
1. His lawyer, when invited to do so, declined to present any argument on the free speech point
2. This featured heavily in the decision of the appeal court to refuse leave to appeal in July 2018
3. In January 2019 he sought to persuade the High Court, which has limited jurisdiction in sheriff court appeals, the grant leave to leapfrog itself and send the case to the Supreme Court. Not surprisingly the court found that no such power exists.
4. In January this year the UK Supreme Court determined that the route he sought did not exist, and the appeal was without merit.
5. The European Court has already ruled on the issue when it considered one of Dieudonné's several convictions for using anti-semitic language, and found there was no breach of the Convention. Coming full circle, it was this specific case that the sheriff asked Mr Meechan's lawyer to address on the "free speech issue".
Let's put it this way:
I'm glad he's on THEIR side.
An unlikely looking representative of any sort of "master race". Then again, so was Himmler.
Interesting bit of trivia: when Meechan was first threatened with court action, he was approached by comedians Al Murray and Brendon Burns about getting proper legal representation. They did this as they had real concerns about a possible judgement’s impact on all live comedy. However, they did this quietly as they didn’t like Meechan or his ‘humour’ (they though he was possibly an actual fascist) and did not want any attention brought on this case as a result.
Fast forward a couple of months, for reasons only known to Andrew Doyle, Tom Walker as Jonathan Pie made a couple of videos angrily decrying the trial and comedians’ ‘inaction’ about it, including one outside the court building. This forced the case out into the open where it really didn’t need to be and giving Meechan the attention he was craving all along, just now dressed in a freeze peach cloak he did not understand or care for.
It's a bit like a genuine Jackson pollock being confused with the chimpanzee from that episode of hammerhouse of horror where the artist's severed hand relentlessly pursues Christopher Lee or something.
One unifying feature of Fascism, is the shameless self promotion and victimhood of its proponents.
Tommy Robinson has mastered the art of squeezing his fanbase of cash to fund his rather lavish lifestyle, Farage is an old pro, grifting the poor suckers out there in the forgotten corners of Britain.
Now Mark Meechan has managed to play the fiddle and cash in on his victimhood, wonder if the DWP & Revenue & Customs are aware of Mechan's new found wealth?
He finally realised that he looks like a villain from a terrible 80s action b-movie and is in hiding.
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