A British man’s experience with his totalitarian government is giving Americans yet another reason to count their blessings. Jon Richelieu-Booth, owner and director of Phoenix Evolution Consulting, said he was arrested after returning home from a trip to Florida, where he had held firearms.

“They were shooting, and they offered me the opportunity to — as a Brit who’d never handled guns — to handle a gun,” he told Fox News Digital. Richelieu-Booth shared photos of his awesome experience on LinkedIn after he returned to the U.K.

Several days later, police reportedly showed up at this door and warned him there had been a complaint about his post.

The story takes a dramatic turn when 10 days later, police reportedly showed up again, this time, to arrest him.

But Richelieu-Booth’s dilemma was far from over. Seven weeks after that, he was arrested again for allegedly breaching bail.

Richelieu-Booth said those complaints stemmed from a dispute with a former business partner.

“I’d contracted to this gentleman’s business to deliver works for the government, and those works were still unpaid two years later,” he said.

🚨BRITISH POLICE ARREST MAN FOR POSTING PICTURE OF HIMSELF SHOOTING GUN WHILE ON HOLIDAY IN AMERICA

The Police are OUT OF CONTROL

“I was told to be careful what I say online and I need to understand how it makes people feel”

Jon Booth was ARRESTED and held in a cell OVERNIGHT… pic.twitter.com/drzI3IEz0T

— Basil the Great (@BasilTheGreat) November 29, 2025

“The arrest was based on two separate social media posts,” he said. “One was the photo of myself with the shotgun, which you can tell I’m terrified of. It’s the first time I’d held it, and you can see from how I’m holding it. And the second one was my LinkedIn banner at the top of the page.”

“I used the photo my business partner took on his premises as a header photo on LinkedIn with the intention he would look at that and go, ‘Why’s this guy posting that? I’d better call him and find out rather than dodging me,’ as it had done for months,” he said.

Richelieu-Booth claims the photo was legally taken in a public area during a “final demand notice” delivery.

“There was never any geolocation or evidence I’d been to that address, yet I was still arrested on it,” he added.

Richelieu-Booth was hit with a third charge for yet another post made in August, before all charges were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Richelieu-Booth said the entire experience has been devastating.

“I deactivated my LinkedIn, which meant I lost my trial of LinkedIn Premium, which I was using to find clients,” he said.

“I lost the ability to run a Teams show called Coffee the Hashtag Guy that I run to support other contractors. I lost the ability to go out networking. I was very afraid and ashamed. I hid from everybody. I felt ostracized by my neighbors, my community. I just hid for pretty much the whole period from the world, and I contemplated killing myself.”

“Free speech in the UK? That doesn’t exist,” he said. “It really doesn’t. People are getting locked up for tweets, for memes. It’s embarrassing. It’s George Orwell, it’s ‘1984.’ That wasn’t an instruction manual.”

Richelieu-Booth says he’s contemplating suing West Yorkshire Police and moving to the U.S.

“I lost my parents in 2023 in a car crash,” he said. “In one awful day, my entire family was gone. My adoptive American family has been very welcoming, and it’s made me think more seriously about America…. You’ve got the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, it’s the land of opportunity, and I don’t feel safe in the UK anymore.”

“If I moved to America and if that’s God’s plan for me, I would welcome that,” he added.

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