A man, known as an Israel-hating dog walker, is terrorizing the Upper West Side, ripping down Israeli hostage posters and allegedly assaulting anyone who dares get in his way, The NY Post reported.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel, Mackenzie Watson, AKA “MackNazi” by many of his neighbors , has waged a one-man war on anyone posting hostage flyers or removing pro-Palestine stickers, according to court records and some of his alleged victims.
“He really just hates Jews,” said a 48-year-old resident who estimates that at least 100 residents of the Upper West Side “have had bad encounters with him.”
“He’ll sometimes walk the streets with four dogs, which he hooks to his waist, and uses both hands to pull off the stickers at every corner,” the woman added, saying that he seems more worried about ripping down posters than caring for the dogs he walks.
Watson’s most recent outbursts occurred in June, when he harassed a 15-year-old girl and her mother (56), after the teen tore down one his “antisemitic” stop-genocide stickers from a corner lamp post, the fearful mother recalled. Watson then stalked them for five blocks, screaming obscenities about the hostages and dead babies as they tried to flee him, she said.
The two later found out that they were not the only victims of Watson’s violent behavior.
In April, Watson pushed his phone camera in the face of a 45-year-old woman who was posting stickers to raise awareness of Israeli and American hostages taken captive by Hamas, and screamed obscenities against Zionists”
The woman said that since the incident she carries pepper spray she ever runs into him again. “I shouldn’t have to live this way,” she said.
In November 2023, Watson pushed Joseph Goodrich, 32, to the ground, punched him and dislocated his shoulder — after Goodrich tried to stop the anti-Israel radical from tearing down hostage posters. Goodrich filed a criminal complaint.
Watson was charged with assault, but was given only “a slap on the wrist,” i.e. a conditional discharge on a lesser charge of second-degree harassment if he completed anger management courses and kept out of trouble for a year.
Less than two months later, Watson violated the plea deal and was arrested on charges of allegedly attacking a 59-year-old man, who intervened in a squabble between him and a woman who objected to the dog walker tearing down a hostage poster, according to the NYPD.
The DA’s office charged Watson with assault and harassment and requested a judge annul the conditional discharge in the initial assault case.
Watson commented, only saying that “there’s a genocide going on” and “that’s what we should be concerned about.”
Watson is among many New Yorkers who’ve come under fire since Hamas’ terror attack 14 months ago for tearing down Israeli hostage posters and similar signage.”