Former British Copper Arrested by His Own Ex-Colleagues over a Tweet

Julian Foulkes spent a decade serving for Kent Police, only to be arrested during his retirement and detained in a cell for eight hours ‘because of’ a totally innocuous social media post—or rather, because of the British state’s hatred of free speech.

The arresting officers—one of whom recognised Foulkes from his time at Medway police station—also scrutinised the pensioner’s “very Brexity” book and magazine collection, as well as his wife’s shopping list and underwear drawer.

A report in The Daily Telegraph shows his arrest—“on suspicion of an offence under the Malicious Communications Act”—was in relation to a forgettable tweet in which he warned about the threat of rising antisemitism after October 7th. For this, Foulkes was met at the door one day in November 2023 by six uniformed officers, equipped with batons and pepper spray.

The newspaper added that the social media post in question had not been reported by the public, and had only been viewed 26 times, meaning it is “unclear” why the post was flagged in the first place.

Leading Tory Chris Philp said the case was “completely unacceptable,” but failed to mention that he held the position of crime and policing minister at the time of the arrest.

Foulkes accepted a caution at the time, despite having committed no offence, because he feared that any further escalation could hamper his ability to visit his daughter, who lives in Australia. Kent Police has since admitted this caution was a mistake and deleted it from his record.

But Foulkes, who has suffered emotional damage because of the incident, is now suing the force with the help of the Free Speech Union.

Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson, who was herself visited by police officers—on Remembrance Sunday, no less—over a year-old tweet in November last year, agreed that “legal action must be taken,” saying:

Policing of “behaviour” needs to STOP!