The process is the punishment.
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. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Jon Richelieu-Booth/Linkedin |
‘I thought 1984 was a book, not an instruction manual,’ says Jon Richelieu-Booth.
A British man arrested for sharing a photograph of himself using a shotgun while vacationing in the United States is planning to take action against the West Yorkshire Police and an individual he says made false allegations about him that prompted the arrest.
The businessman, who was visiting family in Florida at the time the photo was snapped, Jon Richelieu-Booth, said he is engaging the British public interest group, the Free Speech Union after a 12-week ordeal in which police came to his home multiple times and arrested him on charges of stalking and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
The arrest followed a series of three posts shared by Mr. Richelieu-Booth on LinkedIn in August. In them, he is seen near or shooting shotguns. The posts do not reference where he is or what he’s doing. Rather, in the post cited by police, Mr. Richelieu-Booth speaks about filing a complaint over a delinquent client with the secretary of state for business and trade and the North Yorkshire Police.
In one of the posts, Mr. Richelieu-Booth, who is a frequent commenter on LinkedIn, says, “Let’s start off with a quick check-in to see how everyone is doing. It’s not the most optimum of Contract Markets here in the UK so if you’re struggling please feel free to sound off below, we’re all here to support one another because God knows no-one is coming to save us so we have to have each other’s back.”
Mr Richelieu-Booth told the Yorkshire Post that nothing in the posts was threatening, but the police visited his home in mid-August to warn him that someone had raised concerns about it. On August 24, they returned at 10:00 p.m. and arrested him.
While he reportedly offered to show officers his geolocation data proving he had been in America at the time and does not own a shotgun, police declined and held him in a cell overnight before interviewing him the next morning.
“If they really believed I had a shotgun, surely they would have kicked my door in at 3am with armed officers,” he told the Yorkshire Post, adding, “I thought 1984 was a book, not an instruction manual.”
In a series of follow-up posts after the police visits, Mr. Richelieu-Booth, who owns a contracting company and hosts a business-related podcast called “Coffee with the Hashtag Guy,” explains that the shotgun photos were taken while receiving instruction from a former Special Forces operative in Baker, Florida. --->READ MORE HERE
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