After the fight, the brawl was blamed on the other participants, all of whom were wearing emo clothing. Black shirts, band logos, jeans.

The local police went as far as enacting a local anti gang ordnace, identified the emo wear as gang colours, and with 2 hours notice, advised that those colours were not allowed in the city for 48 hours. The security guard who helped break things up was chatting to me about it, laughing at it like it was a common consequence.

A local taxi company was cleaning up, as they accepted each emo kid, in groups of 1 - 4 and took them home to the suburbs. 20 taxis lined up, picking up kids.

Probably my first political WOW moment. I had never seen ~120 people pay for the consequences of the actions of a few.

True to their word, was 48 hours or more until I spotted them in the city again.

Governments can make any law they wish, cops tend to enforce any law they wish. Courts and appeals take time. There is nothing preventing that same city from declaring pride flags or trans icons as gang symbols.

This wasnt even in the US.

Same shit could happen anywhere, Trump could declare them terrorists identified by their symbols and tattoos, he could enforce inspections of their social media at airport checkpoints. Considering what was legal and enforced in the US in its history there's really nothing off the table going forward for persecuting anyone.