TikTok prankster fined £365 by judge, but not for his harassment of Jews
A TikTok prankster was fined £365 today, 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 after one of his videos in which he entered a family’s home went viral.
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.
Mizzy, whose real name is Bacari Ogarro, elicited widespread outrage earlier this week over his recent videos, which led to his arrest. 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 Ograrro 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”.
Bafflingly, The Independent has released an exclusive interview with the prankster, in which it provided him with a platform to defend himself against the criticism. Mr Ogarro said: “I’m a Black male doing these things and that’s why there’s such an uproar on the internet.”
Otherwise, he seemed satisfied that his inane and awful videos were receiving attention. The article does not include any statement from Jewish community groups.
Earlier this year, we reported that the TikTok user had been arrested for “assaulting a member of the Jewish community.” Mr Ogarro was reportedly held for 36 hours by police for a video involving an identifiably Jewish boy last year.
Another video appeared to show him wearing a traditional Orthodox Jewish hat whilst performing a crass imitation, while yet another video featured him entering the home of visibly Jewish people without their knowledge.
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.”
Following action from Campaign Against Antisemitism, TikTok removed many of Mr Ogarro’s accounts.
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.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “There may be no better use of the phrase ‘Jews Don’t Count’ than a TikTok prankster being publically chastised for carrying out dangerous stunts only a few months after testing them out on Jews first. The prankster known as Mizzy cut his teeth on putting Jews in harm’s way, when he knew no one would care, and while we welcome his re-arrest after his reckless and threatening videos, where was the outrage when his targets were just Jews?”
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis of Home Office statistics shows that an average of over five hate crimes are directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales, with Jews more than five times likelier to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2021 showed that over two thirds of British Jews believe that the authorities, in general, are not doing enough to address and punish antisemitism.
