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Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”
The empire on which the sun once never set, “this scepter’d isle” as Shakespeare dubbed it, “This other Eden, demi-paradise… This precious stone set in the silver sea… This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,” continues its tragic death spiral into dystopian decay.
In the latest case in point: the UK Telegraph reports that IT consultant Jon Richelieu-Booth was arrested by police in Britain after he posted a picture online of himself posing with a shotgun – while vacationing in the United States.
Richelieu-Booth, 50, said he was shocked by the “Orwellian” decision by West Yorkshire Police to prosecute him over his social media post on August 13th, which included a picture of himself on LinkedIn holding a shotgun while on a private homestead with friends during a holiday in Florida. The picture was attached to a lengthy, innocuous post about his day and work activities. There was nothing in the post that could be considered threatening.
And yet, as a West Yorkshire Police spokesman later said in a statement,
Police received a complaint of stalking involving serious alarm or distress, relating partly to social media posts, several of which included pictures of a male posing with a variety of firearms which the complainant took to be a threat.
How some internet rando could possibly have considered the picture to be a personal threat is unclear, but nevertheless, upon Richelieu-Booth’s return home, a police officer paid him a visit to warn him that concerns had been raised about the post.
“I was told to be careful what I say online and I need to understand how it makes people feel,” said a flabbergasted Richelieu-Booth, who offered to provide officers with proof that the picture of the firearm had been taken while he was in the U.S. The officers said that was not necessary – but then two officers returned to his home shortly after 10 p.m. on August 24 to arrest him on the allegation of possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. The thought police seized his phone and computers, leaving him unable to work.
Richelieu-Booth was held overnight in a cell before being interviewed, then subsequently released on bail until late October. Police officers then visited his property three more times before he was re-arrested in October, allegedly for breaching his bail conditions – a charge that was later dropped.
The firearms and stalking allegations also were ultimately dropped, but Richelieu-Booth was then charged with a public order offence related to a different social media post “with intent to cause harassment/alarm or distress.” He told the media he is unclear as to which post he was being charged for, but in any case, that charge too was later dropped.
In the wake of this, Richelieu-Booth told reporters, “Anybody should be allowed to say anything they wish, as long as it’s not hateful.” That’s the European perspective; under America’s freer First Amendment, you can actually say something hateful as long as you’re not inciting violence. The UK also lacks a Second Amendment, of course, and one reason Richelieu-Booth was targeted for a harmless social media post may have been to punish him for daring to pose for a photo while enjoying America’s unique freedoms – in particular, the right to bear arms in self-defense against government tyranny.
Richelieu-Booth continued:
When did we go from a society where you can have a discussion with somebody and go, “You know what? I don’t like your opinion. I’m going to disagree with you, but I’m not going to tell you why, I’m going to call the police. When did we get so thin-skinned as a society?
This was a rhetorical question, but the answer is that we reached that point as a society when the totalitarian Left realized they could chill their political opponents’ freedom of speech by surveilling and weaponizing social media. This marked the birth of modern cancel culture.
Richelieu-Booth added, “I have not been able to sleep. I’ve lived in fear of a knock at my door for the last three months. I haven’t spoken to my neighbours for four months.” Without his phone and computers, the investigation “damaged my ability to run my business.”
“It was a massive overreach by the police,” he continued, in an understatement. “This is 1984 writ large.”
In response, “I will be filing a case against the police, I have been put through 13 weeks of hell and I will be seeking quite a lot of damages.”
He added: “I’ve always believed in truth and justice and stood up for the police and believed they are doing an important job of keeping order. Now I have no faith in the police.” Nor should he. Instead of solving or preventing actual robberies, murders, the Muslim grooming gang abuse of countless thousands of white British girls, and rampant migrant knife crime, the UK police have been shamefully reduced to making house calls to intimidate and/or imprison white Brits over anonymously reported tweets.
The West Yorkshire Police spokesman dismissed the force’s bullying of Jon Richelieu-Booth thusly: “Police investigated and charged a man with a public order offence but the case was then discontinued by the CPS.”
No apology, no admission of guilt, no sympathy extended to the victim of their abuse. That’s because the process is the punishment. That’s the totalitarian way, and it has become the new normal in the United Kingdom, where globalist elites strictly enforce a two-tier system of justice: one for the hordes of migrants whose openly antisemitic, anti-Western, Islamic supremacism is defended as “diversity” by such militant multiculturalists as Prime Minister Kier Starmer, and one for the white, working class, indigenous citizens whose righteous anger is smeared as hatred of the brown “other.” Those citizens can’t even enjoy a legal outing at the shooting range in a foreign country without being treated like a subversive threat in their own once-great nation – a country that is rapidly coming to resemble, as Jon Richelieu-Booth put it, “1984 writ large.”
Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior.
What would have happened if he was shown firing an AK into the air while yelling “aloha snackbar!”? Probably nothing.
Aloha snackbar is WELL DONE!
From what I’ve read muslim migrants “offend” native Brits all day long.
Why is THAT ok?
For sixty years I have been noticing offense by example. That assumes there is a victim by imputing to an action a criticism of others. In this case, a threat to the anonymous and possibly fictitious public was posited instead of claiming the example was a critique of the policy of the government.
As an actual journalist with actual training and actual practice under my belt, the use of anonymous sourcing (or complainants or contributors) is a pretty big no-no, and discredits any content it’s associated with. …Can’t face an accuser/source/commenter if you don’t know who they are.
jf
Police charged Richelieu-Booth with “intent to cause harassment/alarm or distress.”, which was exactly the crime the police were committing against him. Whilst IslamoFacist rape gangs get free reign in the UK., so much for women’s rights on anyone’s rights on the scepter’d isle. The ultimate fascists are Kier Starmer, and the EU elites with their Muslim minions at their beck and call.
Your concept is correct, however the “elites” are at the beck and call of the muslims.
Who said policing in the UK was immune to Alinskyism?
British police have not only taken leave of their senses, they are run by complete morons. (Will this post get me banned from Britain?)
Only if you’re lucky. There was a time when I would have liked to visit England, but that is no longer even a slight desire of mine.
As I understand it, tourists arriving in Britain can have their social media accounts reviewed, and of course if there is any criticism of Muslims, they won’t allow the person in, or arrested.
We have free speech here and anyone who says that we haven’t will be arrested
All this crap is still in the beginning stages – it’s going to get worse and there is going to be a revolution!
Help, help, I am living in an open air Lunatic Asylum & Sir Stalin Starmer & the inmates are running the Gulag.
Starmer is committing Treason with his cohorts.
Vote the Devil OUT.
In addition to taking legal action against the police involved here, he should also go after the stalker who made the initial complaint based on his/her feelings. I bet this gentleman feels threatened by their actions.
I don’t understand about the conservative tendency to support the police. The police love left wing governments. Harassing and persecuting honest citizens who post harmless stuff on social media, moms who attend school board meetings, people praying silently next to abortion clinics is much easier than fighting actual crime. Law enforcement (including municipal and FBI) haven’t been unwilling participants in tyranny and political persecution, but rather enthusiastic supporters of it. This includes the political persecution of DJT, beating the hell out of people for not wearing a mask, the support of antifa, the blind eye to violence towards MAGA, and support of the Burn, Loot, and Murder movement. Even now, antifa operates freely and the FBI covers up the crimes of the left and so on.
Wrong, it is NOT the police that are causing the problem, it is the politicians.
Someone is having a silly smurfy day
:silly: does not hurt. Tyranny does.
The experienced responsible officers have been retired and have been replaced with younger officers who have been through the university system. Idealistic attitudes just like a certain German dictator.
Worst stance holding a shotgun I have ever seen. That is how one can sprain one’s back or badly bruise a shoulder. And no hearing protection.
Of course he would probably hold a 22LR the same way.
Hey dude, you kind of look like Jamey Raskin.
Ooops….my bad. He does have hearing protection
He lives in the United Kingdumb and has not had the opportunity to learn the proper techniques.
Is this what concerns you most about this story?
I don’t know. Is this what concerns you?
It’s a typical amateur stance. All newbies do that no matter what if the guns long or short. All Brits are newbies because they’ve been disarmed for years.
Time for the British Cops(Bobbies)to arrest the real criminals and not innocent citizens who trash Islam with the truth
STASI abhors a vacuum and the UK is there to accept the mental refuse of the world.
I cannot imagine living in that absurd place where hall monitors refuse to grow up.
They prosper.
Get out while you can.
badge-*******, try that commie/fag/muslim bullshit in america @ your own risk
I will NEVER visit the UK. I would not waste my money and I would be afraid the entire time I was there since the police spend MORE time protecting Muslim rapists than prosecuting them. Their police force is a JOKE. Their government is made up of mostly COWARDS who obviously care NOTHING for the British people. The government would rather arrest people for “thought crimes” than prosecute REAL CRIMES. Methinks the UK needs a new Churchill and a revolution.
What’s all the kerfuffle about? There is no UK or British culture. There once was but not now. They capitulated to the Islamic conquerors years ago. No biggie. Who are we to say they shouldn’t have capitulated? It’s their country and their lives.
Besides, they don’t speak proper English anyway. American English is “proper” English. Anyone who says or thinks otherwise ain’t a true red, white & blue American!
The bobs are so bloody barmy they thought they had John Wilkes Booth in the dock so they laid the most heinous charges they could think up.
Were I this poor sap I’d have my counsel asking questions at the bar with respect to the evidence they have in hand to support their theory that the accused actually discharged any o those weapons, and more, what evidence they will put up to the jury to support any charges in regards violence, threats, physical harm, and on….. here happened to be a largish sea betwixt the “harm” and the “harmee”.
Merrie Auld ain’t so “merry” any more.
If one cannot meet his accuser or the accuser is allowed to remain anonymous, who is to say who the accuser really is? It could be the Gov. or the police dept itself with someone who has a vendetta against someone. I can easily see leftist Gov. officials playing demi-god and harassing or accusing innocent civilians of just about anything for just about any reason. And there is no end to this scenario as the system protects the guilty.
Maranatha, come Lord Jesus………..< (this year).
Rev. Roy…….<
He did we get to a society where 1 person or group believes an individual can be, let alone should be, held responsible for how anyone else “feels” about something the person has said or posted on line? None of us is a mind reader, and how another chooses to react to something, particularly something not spoken or posted to him directly, is solely the choice of the individual hearing or reading the statement, not the 1 who said or wrote it. That’s as inane as holding people to account for the unknown “personal pronouns” of a stranger, in a legal sense.
From King Richard the Lionheart and Winston Churchill to Whimper and Sob pathetic little sissies and snowflakes
Once again, the *fake police* in the UK raise their ugly Stasi heads. They are no police, they are Stalinistic henchmen on gulag patrol. Oh, wait, can I be arrested too—here in the USA— for saying that? One never knows.
Don’t count it out sometime down the road. Just wait for the next Democrat President to put such in place.
But they would never get me to the jail alive. I’d grab for the first police revolver I could get my hands on. And go from there.