Wiltshire is a pleasant county in the south-west of England, but as for some members of its police force, well…

@wiltshirepolice tweeted this on July 24:

You can’t hide from us if your spewing abuse from behind a computer screen. Our boys & gals in blue will find you . . . #999WhatsYourEmergency



Yes, “your,” the grammatical equivalent, so to speak, of 2 + 2 = 5.

The tweet provoked a largely entertaining response, which didn’t, however, entirely entertain the boys & gals in blue. A more official-looking tweet (my emphasis added) went up the next day:


Please see our statement below in response to the social media activity following #999WhatsYourEmergency We will not tolerate any form of abuse or discriminatory remarks made on any of our social media platforms. We are reviewing the posts and will consider any potential criminal offences which might have been committed. We will also ban anyone who is posting offensive or abusive material. Hate crime will not be tolerated in any form in our communities online.

This tweet too provoked a lively response (some, shockingly, of the “come and get me, Copper” variety from the land of the First Amendment), but both tweets are a reminder of what Blair, Brown, Cameron, and May have done to the idea of free speech in their country.

And there’s something else too about those tweets, their tone, authoritarian, arrogant, and bullying, the tone of a state that no longer knows where its limits should lie.


In unrelated news (from January 2016):

The Salisbury Journal:

Burglars in Wiltshire are less likely to be caught than anywhere else in the country, according to the latest figures. Wiltshire Police solved just one in 12 burglaries in 2014, fewer than any other force in England and Wales.