Why do you say that? I absolutely think this is intended by some of the people involved.

Any political movement that is trying to gain power by creating taboos needs high profile examples to scare people into following their agenda. Incidents like these therefore become something to brag about.

It is a basic power play. No different than having a new leader in an organization singling out someone trusted by the previous leadership to target. Which forces the rest of the organization to choose sides, and thereby cements the power of the new leader.