[DecoySalamander]

This isn't necessarily contradictory. A government can choose not to prosecute certain crimes, such as property crimes targeting lower classes or crimes committed by certain social groups, while cracking down on what it perceives as a threat to its power.

I'm not saying that this is happening in the UK now, but every piece of news I hear about it is less than great, to say the least.

[dgroshev]

Where do you get those news from, precisely? Who has influence over what does and doesn't get seen?

I will just link instead of re-typing the same points: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44711336