PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Police in the United Kingdom arrested a retired police officer for posts on X (formerly Twitter), held him for eight hours, but admitted later he had not committed a crime.
👥 Who’s Involved: British police, former special constable Julian Foulkes, the British government.
📍 Where & When: The raid and arrest occurred in November 2023, but bodycam footage of the raid was released on May 10.
💬 Key Quote: “Nobody is really safe… the public needs to see what’s happening, and be shocked.” — Julian Foulkes.
⚠️ Impact: The case is just one of many alleged speech crimes or so-called non-crime hate incidents that have seen British police raid or arrest people based on social media posts.
IN FULL:
A retired British police officer was arrested over a social media post on X (formerly Twitter) and had his home raided by police, who questioned his pro-Brexit books. The former special constable was then taken to a police station, where he was held for eight hours.
Julian Foulkes, from Kent in England, was arrested in November 2023, but body camera footage from the police who raided his home was only published on May 10. The footage shows officers criticising Foulkes’s book collection, which contains pro-Brexit material.
The post that prompted the raid was a tacit defense of then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s description of anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London as “hate marches.” Foulkes said the marchers were “One step away from storming Heathrow [Airport] looking for Jewish arrivals,” in reference to Muslims storming an airport in Russia’s Dagestan region looking for arriving Israelis.
🚨WATCH: Body-worn camera footage of Kent Police searching FSU member Julian Foulkes’s home — all because of a perfectly lawful tweet.
“Very Brexity things,” murmurs one agent of the state, while browsing the pensioner’s bookshelves. Then, glancing at a Eurosceptic tome on… https://t.co/4gJHdF8sMB pic.twitter.com/xkJynbjUj1
— The Free Speech Union (@SpeechUnion) May 11, 2025
“Free speech is clearly under attack,” Foulkes told British media, adding, “Nobody is really safe… the public needs to see what’s happening, and be shocked.” Along with being raided, police also seized Foulkes’s electronic devices and went through many of his personal belongings.
Despite locking Foulkes in a cell for eight hours, police later admitted he had done nothing wrong and even stated that the caution they gave him had been a mistake.
Mr Foulkes commented on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer telling President Donald J. Trump that the United Kingdom has had free speech for a long time, saying, “I saw Starmer in the White House telling Trump we’ve had it in the UK for a very long time, and I thought, ‘Yeah, right.’ We can see what’s really going on.”
The case is just the latest example of British police showing up at people’s homes or even arresting them over social media posts. A similar incident happened to Telegraph newspaper writer Allison Pearson over a social media post that was declared a “non-crime hate incident.” Police turned up at her home last November to ask about her posts.
As many as 250,000 non-crime hate incidents are reported to police every year in Britain.
Jack Montgomery contributed to this report.
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