A British police officer has been recorded confronting a Donald Trump supporter over a Facebook post that “upset someone.”
A viral video shared on X – formerly known as Twitter – has been viewed more than 4.1 million times showing a grandmother, named as cancer sufferer Deborah Anderson, answering the door to an officer from Thames Valley Police.
The mother-of-two told the officer on the doorstep he could come in but added: “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 officer went on to reveal he was there because “something that we believe you’ve written on Facebook has upset someone”.
“You’re here because somebody got upset?” Deborah replied. “Is it against the law? Am I being arrested?”
The Express reports the officer said she was not being arrested, adding: “My plan was, if you were admitting that it was you who wrote the comment, you could just make an apology to the person.”
When the accused said she would not be apologising, he replied: “The alternative would be that I have to call you in for an interview.”
The Free Speech Union (FSU) branded the incident, which happened in June, as “chilling” and cautioned: “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?”.
Following intervention from the FSU it has been confirmed by the police force that the case has now been dropped.
Politicians, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, are among those who have publicly criticised Thames Valley Police for the incident. FSU leader Lord Toby Young revealed earlier this year that police in the UK arrest an average of 30 people every single day for social media posts.
