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Yesterday evening, James Watts, a 31-year-old police officer with West Mercia Police was sentenced to 20 weeks in jail after sharing memes “mocking” George Floyd – the drug addicted criminal who’d previously held a gun to a pregnant woman – who was accidentally killed by a police officer mid 2020.

In the hearing, Mr Watts pled guilty to 10 counts of sending a “grossly offensive menacing message by public communication network” in violation of the Communications Act 2003 section 127 (1) (a & b).

This act of thought policing leading to someone being imprisoned for sending a meme in a private group chat among friends should be of major concern to everyone. This should add to the abundance of evidence proving that we no longer have freedom in the UK; we instead live under tyranny. The right to free speech, free press, to express ourselves, etc. has been stripped from us by our very own government.

According to Sky News, Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram told Mr Watts “at the time of these offences, you were a police officer – a person to whom the public looks up to to uphold the law – but you did the opposite… you undermined the confidence the public has in the police… your behaviour brings the criminal justice system as a whole into disrepute.” No Mr Ikram, you bring the whole criminal justice system into disrepute by wasting taxpayer’s money by jailing a man for sharing memes amongst his friends.

The Deputy chief magistrate further told Mr Watts that he did not agree “this was stupidity or foolishness” and that the post went “far beyond that”.

A co-defendant is due to stand trial at Westminster magistrate court for committing the same offence. Joann Links, 41, a constable from West Mercia police who was also alleged to have been involved.