The United Kingdom just reminded Americans why the Founders got it right.
One businessman learned this lesson the worst way possible.
And a British man was arrested after a Florida vacation for celebrating this freedom.
UK police destroyed a man's life over a vacation photo
Jon Richelieu-Booth made the mistake of posting a vacation photo to LinkedIn on August 13.
The 50-year-old IT contractor was shooting at a Florida homestead with friends – something millions of Americans do every weekend without a second thought.
He posted a photo holding a shotgun with a caption about his day.
In Britain, that's a crime.
West Yorkshire Police showed up at his door days later to lecture him about hurting people's feelings.
"I was told to be careful what I say online and I need to understand how it makes people feel," Richelieu-Booth said.¹
He pulled out his phone to show officers the geolocation data proving the photos were taken in Florida.
Police didn't care.
"Not necessary," they told him.
On August 24 at 10pm – nearly two weeks later – six officers returned and arrested him.
They threw him in a cell overnight and interrogated him the next morning.
The bail paperwork was Orwellian: possessing firearms "to frighten" and stalking because he posted a picture of a house online.
"If they really believed I had a shotgun, surely they would have kicked my door in at 3am with armed officers," Richelieu-Booth told The Yorkshire Post.²
But this wasn't about public safety.
This was about control.
The punishment continued even after charges collapsed
Police seized Richelieu-Booth's phone and computers – destroying his ability to work as a self-employed contractor.
For 13 weeks, he couldn't do his job.
Officers visited his home three more times over the following months.
In October, they arrested him again for supposedly breaching bail conditions.
They never explained what conditions he violated.
The firearms charge was eventually dropped.
The stalking charge disappeared.
Then prosecutors charged him with a public order offense over a completely different social media post.
He still has no idea which post they meant or what he supposedly said.
Nobody would tell him.
He was scheduled for trial on November 25 facing up to six months in prison.
One week before court, prosecutors dropped everything.
Not enough evidence, they claimed.
There never was any evidence because Richelieu-Booth didn't do anything wrong.
"I've been put through 13 weeks of hell," he said. "When did we go from a society where you can have a discussion with somebody and go, 'You know what? I don't like your opinion. I'm going to disagree with you,' to calling the police?"³
Here's the answer: Britain never was that society.
Subjects don't get to disagree with their rulers.
And Britons are subjects, not citizens.
Elon Musk showed Americans exactly what they're fighting to prevent
Elon Musk saw The Yorkshire Post story and knew immediately what it meant.
"And this is why we have the first and second amendments in America," Musk told his 229 million followers.⁴
That simple statement captures everything the Founders understood and modern Britain forgot.
Free speech means nothing if you can't defend it.
The Second Amendment doesn't exist because Americans like guns.
It exists because the First Amendment is worthless without teeth.
Britain proves this every single day.
UK police are making 30 arrests per day over "offensive" social media posts.
In 2023, officers arrested 12,183 people – 33 per day – for saying things that upset someone online.⁵
West Yorkshire Police ranks second in the entire country for social media arrests, right behind London's Metropolitan Police.
Yet only 137 people actually went to prison in 2024 despite thousands of arrests.
You know what that means?
The process is the punishment.
Richelieu-Booth couldn't work for three months.
He spent a night in jail for posting a vacation photo.
Officers showed up at his house repeatedly, harassing him in front of his neighbors.
His reputation was destroyed.
His business suffered.
All charges were dropped because there never was a case.
But the damage was done, and that's exactly the point.
"I thought 1984 was a book, not an instruction manual," Richelieu-Booth said.⁶
Democrats want British-style tyranny in America
Someone with a business grudge weaponized police to destroy Richelieu-Booth.
West Yorkshire Police eagerly played along.
An entire police force spent months harassing a man over a photo taken in another country where the activity was completely legal.
Meanwhile, stabbings are epidemic across Britain while police arrest businessmen over LinkedIn photos.
That's what happens when citizens can't fight back and government fears no consequences.
Britain's speech laws criminalize anything causing "annoyance," "inconvenience," or "anxiety."
Those are whatever authorities decide offends someone that day.
One of Richelieu-Booth's American friends captured it perfectly in an email seen by The Yorkshire Post:
"This is unbelievable! The UK is utterly lost. You were arrested for picking up and taking instruction on shooting a gun in America, with the full permission of the person who owns the gun, shooting at a cardboard box, for fun and education? This is utterly insane. What the hell has gone wrong with the UK?"⁷
Nothing went wrong.
This is what Britain has always been – subjects ruled by elites who answer to nobody.
The American experiment exists specifically to prevent this tyranny.
Watch what Democrats do every time they get power.
They attack the Second Amendment while pushing hate speech laws and online censorship.
They want British-style control over Americans.
They want the power to arrest you for speech they don't like.
They want to destroy your livelihood without ever charging you with a crime.
Richelieu-Booth is now suing West Yorkshire Police for damages.
"I will be filing a case against the police," he said. "I will be seeking quite a lot of damages."⁸
Good.
Make them pay.
But Americans watching this need to understand something critical.
The Founders gave us both the right to speak freely and the means to defend that right.
Without both, you have neither.
Britain just proved it again.
¹ Chris Burn, "'Orwellian nightmare: I was arrested by UK police for touching a gun in the US – my four-month ordeal,'" The Yorkshire Post, November 28, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Elon Musk, X post, November 30, 2025.
⁵ "Fact Check: How many people were arrested in the UK in 2025 for social media posts," Mythdetector.com, June 6, 2025.
⁶ Ben Kew, "British Man Arrested, Harassed For Months by Police After Posing With Shotgun While on Vacation in Florida," The Gateway Pundit, November 30, 2025.
⁷ Sharon Kehnemui, "British Man Who Posted Photo on Social Media of Himself Holding Shotgun While on Vacation in Florida Arrested After Returning Home," The New York Sun, November 30, 2025.
⁸ Burn, The Yorkshire Post.
