A retired special constable has warned “nobody is really safe” after he was arrested for a tweet in support of Israel. Julian Foulkes, from Gillingham in Kent, received a knock at the door from six uniformed police officers in November 2023, after posting about antisemitism in the wake of the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
Police body camera footage shows officers rifling through his property including his bookshelf which they said contained “very Brexity things”. Officers paid further close attention to his wife’s shopping list and most personal belongings as they seized electronic devices and handcuffed Mr Foulkes. He told the Telegraph: “Free speech is clearly under attack, nobody is really safe… the public needs to see what’s happening and be shocked.”
Following the search, the former special constable was arrested on suspicion of malicious communications before being transported to a waiting police van, where he was held in police custody for eight hours.
He was later issued with a caution, something which he felt compelled to accept due to fears that he would be unable to visit his daughter in Australia if he failed to do so.
The incident is the latest in a series of bizarre police investigations over legitimate views held by members of the public.
In March, officers from Hertfordshire Constabulary arrested a couple who had complained about their daughter’s school on WhatsApp before concluding that no further action was necessary.
The investigation was sparked by a tweet Mr Foulkes made in light of a rise in antisemitic violence following the October 7 attacks in Israel.
Mr Foulkes said he was concerned to see reports of an anti-Semitic mob storming an airport in Dagestan, Russia, hunting for Jewish arrivals.
The following day, he saw a comment on X from a user who had participated in a Free Palestine march, which had been branded a “hate march” by then Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
The user said: “Dear @SuellaBraverman – as someone who was on one of the ‘hate marches’, if you call me an antisemite I will sue you,” to which Mr Foulkes responded: “One step away from storming Heathrow looking for Jewish arrivals…”
He acknowledges that if he had added words such as “What next? You are…” to the beginning of the tweet, confusion could have been avoided, but even still, only a modicum of investigation would have established the context behind his post.
This weekend, a spokesperson for Kent Police told The Telegraph that the force had “concluded that the caution against Mr Foulkes was not appropriate in the circumstances and should not have been issued”.
They added: “Kent Police expunged the caution from the man’s record and was pleased to facilitate this correction”, adding that a further review of the matter would now be carried out “to identify any learning opportunities”.
The incident has sparked a furious backlash, with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp blasting the arrest as “totally unacceptable.
He said: The Police should spend their time catching actual criminals, not policing offence on Twitter.”
Mr Foulkes added: “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.
“I never saw anything like this when I was in the force. But this woke mind virus infecting everything has definitely infected the police.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “This incident occurred under the previous Government.
“The Home Secretary has made clear that she believes all police forces should be focused on the central priorities of the Government’s Safer Streets Mission, including rebuilding neighbourhood policing, reducing anti-social behaviour, and making progress towards the unprecedented ambition to halve knife crime and violence against women and girls within a decade.”