There are some things that are so heinous that you can be arrested for in your home country, despite it happening in a different nation. Crimes against children, for example, are a prime example. Go to another country to do something like that, and I don’t care where it was, you deserve the wood chipper here in the United States.
But most of those things fall into the category of things that aren’t really legal much of anywhere in the first place.
Some things aren’t in that category at all. Like, say, going shooting.
It seems a lot of tourists to the United States are eager for the opportunity to shoot some guns. They can’t back home, but it’s perfectly legal here, so they try to take advantage of that.
Plus, since it’s something they can’t do at home, I don’t see how it would be unusual for someone to post a picture of it on social media. After all, showing off to people’s friends is what social media is all about.
For one British dude, though, that pic landed him behind bars.
A British IT consultant was arrested after posting a photograph of himself holding a gun during a holiday in the United States, a case that later drew sharp criticism from Elon Musk. Jon Richelieu-Booth, 50, from West Yorkshire, said he was shocked after police visited and later detained him over the image, which he says was taken legally on private property in Florida.
Richelieu-Booth posted the photo on LinkedIn on 13 August as part of a longer message about his day and work activities. He said West Yorkshire Police later visited his home, advising him to be careful about what he posted online after concerns were raised about the image. He said officers did not ask to see proof that the photograph was taken in the US.
On 24 August, officers returned to his home at around 10 pm and arrested him. A bail document referred to allegations of possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, as well as a separate allegation of stalking linked to a photograph of a house on his social media. Richelieu-Booth was held overnight before being interviewed.
Honestly, this is beyond ridiculous.
Richelieu-Booth couldn’t work because his computer and phone were taken. He was arrested and charged over this, then was later arrested for supposedly violating bail conditions. All of that was abandoned because, well, it happened in Florida, where all of this crap is perfectly legal, for crying out loud.
And the stalking charge was because he also posted a picture of a house? Seriously? That’s all it takes?
I swear that we need to stop looking at the UK as part of the free world. They’re not. They’re a police state that just happens to be run by the Keystone Cops.
They showed up at his house because of a picture on social media, conducted what seems to be no real investigation, arrested the man, and tried to destroy his livelihood, all because he did something on vacation that isn’t just perfectly legal in the United States, but can be legal in the UK under certain conditions.
This is the system some here in the United States want us to replicate. Think about that for a moment. Do we really want to follow a nation that is so anti-gun that they arrested a guy because of a picture that wasn’t even taken there?
Hard. Freaking. Pass.
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