This was one of the favorite tactics of southern segregationists governments. It’s why freedom riders buses were bombed and so many organizers were disappeared and murdered. It’s ‘good’ (effective) if the state’s goal is to let civilians do the dirty work of eliminating dissident
there are a lot of ways for the state to suppress dissident speech. one particularly bad one is by having armed agents of the state stand by and do nothing while partisan-aligned thugs or paramilitary groups beat you because of your speech, and then have the DA decline to prosecute the assaulters.
This!! It's part of why anti-abortion "bounty hunter" laws are such a good ( ~ good ~ ) deal for the state of Texas. Voluntary civilian enforcement of state oppression (or the threat thereof) saves fascist states time, money, and resources and creates an enthusiastic class of state stooges.
It’s a force multiplier. The Gestapo used the same concept. People that will rat on each other are much easier to control. And you have to do less work to control them.
ISTM this also supports the argument that the law and law enforcement are always and everywhere fundamentally political institutions. Law enforcement resources are finite as is court capacity. Choices about who gets charged for what crime are inherently political choices.
The same is true of higher courts and civil suits. Courts of appeal (including SCOTUS) have incredibly constrained resources. Regardless of outcome (which is obviously very subject to judicial political bias), which cases get heard at all is and must be an inherently political decision.
Currently the state and local 'governments' in some places are trying their best to eliminate the voices if not actual people by making it so difficult to legally obtain gender transition medications.
Goes back to Reconstruction, & SCOTUS’s preventing the federal government from doing anything about it was a significant contribution to the rise & longevity of Jim Crow
It's also likely what the Jan 6 rioters were expecting, and indeed what they INITIALLY got (in that they were able to walk away that day without interference). Justice took a little time to catch up.
