A journalist has become the victim of a “Kafkaesque” police investigation after they allegedly riled up hatred in a social media post last year.
Allison Pearson, 64, said that two police officers turned up at her door on Remembrance Sunday to tell her that she was under investigation for a tweet she made in 2023.
The officers told her that they could not disclose what the specific post was referring to, however, she was posting regularly about the October 7 attacks on Israel around this time.
She told The Telegraph: “I was accused of a non-crime hate incident. It was to do with something I had posted on X a year ago. A YEAR ago? Yes. Stirring up racial hatred apparently.”
When she asked who accused her of such behaviour, the officer corrected her: “It’s not the accuser, they’re called the victim.”
She branded the situation as “Kafkaesque”, and said it appeared that the two officers themselves were confused.
“I was definitely shocked. Astonished. That too. Upset. How could I not be?” she said.
“It’s never nice having the police at the door if you’re a law-abiding person, because police at the door can mean only one of two things: tragedy or trouble. But to have them here on the saddest, most solemn date in the calendar with this kind of malevolent nonsense. It was surreal.”
She said they had no idea what they referring to, though said “that a year ago, I was consumed with the aftermath of the October 7 attacks by Hamas and the anti-Semitic slogans being brandished and chanted at pro-Palestine marches”.
Last night, Essex Police said officers had opened an investigation under section 17 of the Public Order Act 1986 relating to material allegedly “likely or intended to cause racial hatred”.
A police spokesman said: “We’re investigating a report passed to us by another force. The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed. An investigation is now being carried out under section 17 of the Public Order Act.
“As part of that investigation, officers attended an address on Sunday November 10 to invite a woman to attend a voluntary interview on the matter.”
Yvette Cooper wants to change the requirement for police officers to record non-criminal hate incidents.
The Home Secretary is understood to be considering a new “zero-tolerance” approach, which would see police officers encouraged to record more non-criminal hate incidents.
The move would be a reversal of changes to the laws brought in last year by the Tories, who issued new guidance that ordered the force to stop recording incidents just because someone was offended.
It follows concerns that the new guidance is stopping officers from monitoring and identifying threats to Jewish and Muslim communities that could result in violence.
Coming into effect in June 2023, officers are currently restricted to only recording incidents motivated by “intentional hostility” and “where there is a “real risk of escalation causing significant harm or a criminal offence”.