It sort of reminds me of reading of the history of the rise of nazism. Motivated brown shirts went around making sure that the average citizen did not violate anti-jewish laws about commerce etc and they also grabbed people off the street and did horrible things like "measure their noses" to see if a jewish person was trying to hide under the radar etc.
This is how bigotry can become a frenzy.
Fortunately we have a more liberal/progressive society than 1930s Germany and we have the checks and balances that the flow of global information provides.
