CAA to write to BBC after it disgracefully hosts TikTok prankster who harassed Jewish people
Campaign Against Antisemitism will be writing to the BBC after it made the disgraceful decision to host a TikTok prankster with a history of harassing Jewish people on its Newsnight programme.
While the prankster known as Mizzy, whose real name is Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, was confronted at times over his videos, the question of why so many of his victims were identifiable Jews was not raised.
A spokesperson for the BBC told the JC: “Kirsty Wark interjected and challenged [Mr O’Garro] on a number of points, including his criminal activity and we are confident that he was robustly challenged throughout the conversation.”
Mr O’Garro elicited widespread outrage over his recent videos, which led to his arrest last month. However, the furore came only after he started targeting people other than Jews, despite the fact that earlier this year, the prankster uploaded a near-identical video in which he entered a different family’s home.
However, despite the similarities between the two videos of Mr O’Garro entering family homes, the principal difference being that the older video featured the home of religious Jews, it appears only now that news outlets and even Members of Parliament have covered the story and spoken up, with one describing the videos as “abhorrent”.
We reported that the TikTok user had been arrested earlier this year for “assaulting a member of the Jewish community.”
Mr O’Garro was reportedly held for 36 hours by police for the video involving an identifiably Jewish boy last year, and following action from Campaign Against Antisemitism, TikTok removed many of Mr O’Garro’s accounts.
According to the police statement at the time, the arrest was “a result of the Shomrim notifying police and sharing footage of the assault which has been circulated on social media.” Stamford Hill Shomrim is a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol, with which Campaign Against Antisemitism works closely and with which we have an information sharing agreement.
Mr O’Garro has repeatedly denied that he specifically targeted Jewish people, writing on Twitter today: “The ‘jumping on a Jewish man’ video was a TikTok trend called ‘free OO’ where you leap frog over someone when the beat drops and I’ve done that to a number of different people (whites, blacks, Asians etc) as I don’t discriminate so why aren’t people talking about that? I’m not saying it is good thing to do but don’t listen to everything social media says and especially what the news say as they know what they are doing.”
However, in addition to not addressing the video of him entering the home of a visibly Jewish family, he has also yet to comment on a video that appeared to show him wearing a traditional Orthodox Jewish hat whilst performing a crass imitation, while yet another video featured him mocking visibly Jewish people as he walked past them.
Last week, we reported that Mr O’Garro was fined £365, but not for his persistent harassment of Jews.
The prankster known as Mizzy appeared at Thames Magistrates’ Court where he pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a Community Protection Notice following the video in which he entered a family’s home.
In addition to the fine, it is also understood that a two-year Criminal Behaviour Order has been placed upon him by Judge Charlotte Crangle, during which time he must comply with restrictions on his social media output, he must not trespass onto private property, and he must not visit the Westfields Stratford City shopping centre.
It was reported that two days after receiving his sentence, he had breached the Order, for which he was arrested.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The prankster known as Mizzy is a criminal who built a modest following by harassing Jews and other locals. The BBC would have done better to have interviewed the police or CPS and questioned why it took so long to charge him, waiting until he expanded his campaign beyond the Jewish community. By giving him a megaphone, the BBC is legitimating his unlawful antics and encouraging other wannabe celebrities to do the same.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].
