A video clip of Thames Valley Police confronting an American woman in her own home over “upsetting” posts she made online has gone viral. The social media clip, viewed over 1.3 million times, shows a woman, named as American cancer patient and Donald Trump supporter Deborah Anderson, being spoken to by an officer in her house.
The officer told her he was there because she was accused of “upsetting” someone with an alleged “threatening” post she made on Facebook. In the video, the officer tells the woman that she can either apologise to the offended party or he will have to arrange for her to be interviewed.
The incident, filmed in June and, prompted the Free Speech Union (FSU) to intervene on behalf of the woman.
The FSU branded the ordeal as “chilling” and said: “What was Deborah’s supposed crime? The policeman didn’t tell her. Was it her passionate support of President Trump and the MAGA movement on her Facebook and X pages?
“To make it worse, Deborah is in the midst of cancer treatment, including chemotherapy. She ought to be have been convalescing. Instead, she was harassed for her tweets.
“Thames Valley Police are responsible for guarding President Trump this week. What would he make of the fact that those same officers are visiting the homes of his supporters – including US citizens – and threatening them with arrest?'”
Both the US President and his Vice President, JD Vance, have criticised UK lawmakers over Britain’s declining free speech tradition—an assertion Sir Keir Starmer has publicly rejected.
In the video, Ms Anderson says to the male officer as he enters her property: “You can come in, but you’d better have a damn good reason for being here.
“I’m a member of the Free Speech Union and I’m an American citizen… I’ll have Elon Musk on you so quickly your feet won’t touch (the floor).”
The unidentified male officer told the mother-of-two that what she had written had “upset someone”.
“You’re here because somebody got upset?” Ms Anderson responded in utter shock. “Is it against the law? Am I being arrested?”, she asked.
The officer said she was not being arrested and explained: “My plan was, if you were admitting that it was you who wrote the comment, you could just make an apology to the person.”
He went on: “The alternative would be that I have to call you in for an interview.”
Toby Young, founder of the FSU, said in a statement: “I hope the fact that this happened to a US citizen means President Trump will raise Britain’s free speech problem with Sir Keir Starmer later today.
“The Prime Minister is in denial about it and it needs someone of Trump’s stature to shake him out of his complacency. We need a complete overhaul of our free speech laws if we’re to avoid becoming the North Korea of the North Sea.”
A spokeswoman for Thames Valley Police told the Daily Mail: “In June, we received a report from a person who felt threatened by comments directed at them online.
“Following engagement with both parties, no arrests were made and no further action was taken.
“While people are entitled to express their views, it is the police’s duty to respond to allegations of threatening language and references to violence.”