Stamford Hill leader’s meeting with social media prankster sparks controversy

A controversial leader of Stamford Hill’s orthodox community has sought to explain a decision to meet a notorious social media prankster after a picture of them holding talks sparked anger.

Levi Schapiro was pictured meeting the prankster known as Mizzy, (real name Bacari-Bronze O’Garro)  at a local restaurant along with Talk TV presenter JJ Anisiobi and another man on June 6th.

Images of the group together were posted on Twitter, with Mizzy, who has previously been fined for entering a home in a prank, tweeting “Equality”, while presenter Anisiobi wrote:”Great to see our neighbours working together for the greater good of our whole community.”

But not everyone in the community was impressed with Schapiro’s actions. Mizzy had previously been arrested for assaulting a young Charedi man in a prank in which he was filmed placing his hands on his victim’s shoulders and then attempting to leapfrog over him.

In another video, he can be seen cycling while wearing a hoiche hat and saying: “Guys I’m a f**king Jew.” 

While another clip titled “Who leaves their door open like that”, shows Mizzy entering the home of a Jewish family.

One senior Stamford Hill communal source told Jewish News this week:”This purported peace feast is a miserable letdown for the community.

“Unilateral actions like this underline why the UOHC expressed such strong concerns in its recent letter.”

But Schapiro defended his actions in meeting Mizzy, who was arrested at last Sunday’s Wireless pop festival for breaching court orders.

He told Jewish News:”The picture circulating with Mizzy and members of the community including myself followed a request by Talk TV host presenter JJ to explore options how we can mitigate Mizzy’s pranks on the community, furthermore as a community we thought an opportunity to sit down with him and explain him directly the aggravation he is causing to young children and members of the community, he has been arrested and charged so many times yet he is still continuing his silly and dangerous pranks, we thought it would be worthwhile perhaps for him to hear it directly from victims and people within the community. 

“He agreed his actions were unacceptable, we appealed to him to stop these pranks immediately and offered to send him to professional help which he accepted. We are pleased to report no new incidents took place within the community following these discussions and hope he takes the mentoring seriously. 

“It’s important to understand Mizzy lives locally in the heart of the Stamford Hill community and we must find ways to communicate with him effectively in order to bring an end to this misery and dangerous pranks. ”