British police have been accused of a “dystopian” attack on free speech after an American woman was threatened with investigation over a Facebook post and ordered to “apologise”. The Mail has the story.
Footage of the encounter has been seen more than 1.3 million [now 2.8 million] times since it was posted last night and has sparked a furious response from campaigners.
It shows a woman, named as American cancer patient and Donald Trump supporter Deborah Anderson, being confronted in her home by Thames Valley Police.
The MAGA-backing mother-of-two was accused of “upsetting” a person following an alleged “threatening” post she made on Facebook, which was reported to police.
The officer declined to say which of the alleged posts had been complained about.
In the video, “elderly” Ms Anderson then flatly refuses to apologise for her comments online before she is threatened with the potential of a formal interview at a police station.
The incident, filmed in June, prompted an intervention by the Free Speech Union (FSU), who last night claimed Thames Valley Police had since dropped the case. The force today confirmed no further action was taken over the allegations.
It comes as Britain faces fierce criticism over a recent clampdown on free speech, which has seen people being arrested, convicted or jailed over posts made online.
The issue has prompted concern from US President Donald Trump – who is in the UK on his state visit – and warned earlier this month “strange things are happening over there, they are cracking down… I’m very surprised to see what’s happening”.
The FSU described the encounter as “chilling” and said: “What was Deborah’s supposed crime? The policeman didn’t tell her. Was it her passionate support of President Trump and the MAGA movement on her Facebook and X pages?
“To make it worse, Deborah is in the midst of cancer treatment, including chemotherapy. She ought to be have been convalescing. Instead, she was harassed for her tweets.
“Thames Valley Police are responsible for guarding President Trump this week. What would he make of the fact that those same officers are visiting the homes of his supporters – including US citizens – and threatening them with arrest?”
In the two-minute clip, a male officer is seen entering Ms Anderson’s property as she says: “You can come in but you’d better have a damn good reason for being here.
“I’m a member of the Free Speech Union and I’m an American citizen… I’ll have Elon Musk on you so quickly your feet won’t touch (the floor).”
Sitting in a living room, the unidentified male officer tells the mother-of-two that something she had allegedly written on Facebook had “upset someone”.
“You’re here because somebody got upset?” Ms Anderson replies incredulously. “Is it against the law? Am I being arrested?”
The officer says she was not being arrested and goes on to explain: “My plan was, if you were admitting that it was you who wrote the comment you could just make an apology to the person.”
“I’m not apologising to anybody, I can tell you that,” Ms Anderson fires back, before the officer replies: “The alternative would be that I have to call you in for an interview.”
Seemingly growing frustrated, Ms Anderson hits out and accuses the police force of wasting their time on her.
“Are there no houses that have been burgled recently? No rapes, no murders… why aren’t you out there investigating those,” she tells the officer.
“I haven’t broken any laws so you’re going to be wasting your time when you can be instead doing things that are more important.”
She added: “I’m a cancer patient. You can see that because I’m bald… I’m a woman living on my own, who has never broken a law in her life.”
In a statement, Thames Valley Police (TVP) said no further action had been taken and insisted it had a duty to “respond to allegations of threatening language”.
It’s not clear what the allegedly threatening comment Ms Anderson is accused of making was.
In a statement, Toby said:
I hope the fact that this happened to a US citizen means President Trump will raise Britain’s free speech problem with Sir Keir Starmer later today. The Prime Minister is in denial about it and it needs someone of Trump’s stature to shake him out of his complacency. We need a complete overhaul of our free speech laws if we’re to avoid becoming the North Korea of the North Sea.
Worth reading in full.
See Related Article Below
UK Police Show Up at Cancer Patient’s Door Demanding an Apology For Social Media Post
In the UK, demanding an apology seems to be a law enforcement strategy.
CAM WAKEFIELD
Just when you thought British speech policing had reached the bottom of the absurdity barrel, they bring a jackhammer.
In June, Thames Valley Police managed to dispatch one of their elite to investigate a grave national threat: an American cancer patient who may have written something a bit spicy on social media.
Yes. That’s not a joke. That is, in fact, the plot of a low-budget dystopian sitcom that the real world seems hell-bent on adapting in full.
Deborah Anderson, a mother of two, a member of the Free Speech Union, a cancer patient, and, as she put it herself, “an elderly woman,” was enjoying the blissful serenity of not being in prison when a Thames Valley Police officer showed up at her front door.
Why? Because “something that we believe you’ve written on Facebook has upset someone.”
Let’s pause here.
We are no longer talking about crime. We are no longer talking about justice. We are now fully submerged in the soggy underworld of “upset someone.”
This is what policing has become in Britain; knocking on doors to gently scold the sick and the elderly because someone got their feelings hurt.
“I’m a member of the Free Speech Union, and I’m an American citizen. I’ll have Elon Musk on you so quick your feet won’t touch,” Anderson told the officer, who probably realized at that exact moment that his day’s mission had veered into Monty Python territory.
The officer, in all his taxpayer-funded wisdom, suggested that Deborah Anderson could simply apologize and make the whole thing go away, as if groveling before the offended masses had suddenly become a formal step in police procedure.
It was less “serve and protect” and more “say sorry and maybe we won’t waste more of your time.”
Anderson refused to apologize. Refused to be cowed. Refused, in short, to play along with a theater production in which “feeling offended” is now a criminal category.
“Are there no houses that have been burgled recently? No rapes, no murders?” she asked.
To which the officer replied, and I swear I’m not making this up, “Yeah, that’s all going on as well.”
The case of Deborah Anderson is not an isolated one. Earlier this month, Father Ted creator and Irish citizen Graham Linehan was arrested at Heathrow by five armed officers over three tweets about transgender issues.
He was returning from Arizona, not plotting a coup.
This article (UK Police Show Up at Cancer Patient’s Door Demanding an Apology For Social Media Post) was created and published by Reclaim the Net and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Cam Wakefield
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