UK Cops Think Twice About “Thought Crime”

Letter to Ephesians: The danger in criminalizing if not censoring social media was illustrated by our friends in UK, where a retired policeman was forced by former colleagues to acknowledge “guilt” over an X post warning fellow Brits about a perceived rise in antisemitism. Hello lawsuit.

As Napoleon once supposedly said on his ill-fated retreat from Moscow, “there is a thin line between the sublime and the ridiculous.” Color what happened to 71-year-old Julian Foulkes “ridiculous.” All he did was express his honest opinion about anti-Israel protesters after the October 7, 2023 Hamas rampage in Israel and especially after rioters searched a Russian airport for arrivals from Tel Aviv; he worried it suggested his own Englanders were “one step away from storming Heathrow looking for Jewish arrivals.” Yet, as Fox News & UK outlets reported, “someone” filed a complaint with the local police and they soon showed up at his door to search his home. The Telegraph said bodycam footage revealed at least one officer was concerned about the books on a shelf containing “very Brexity things.” In addition, the Kent Police worried over Foulkes’ hairdresser wife’s shopping list that included “bleach, tin foil & gloves.” Foulkes was able to avoid arrest only by admitting to “an offense to avoid prosecution” & accepting a “warning” ticket.

The police department later profusely apologized for the “misunderstanding," but it’s a tad too late. “This is absolutely an Orwellian-style thought crime,” said Foulkes, who is now suing the police department responsible for his ordeal. “It’s absolutely ridiculous because I sent a tweet which was reasonable under the circumstances ...” The author & namesake of the Code Napoleon would have agreed, Julian.

Davd Soul