>To paraphrase someone I know, "once they run out of criminals, they'll just start catching people they don't like".
>Once they have this ability, it will be much harder to make them give it up.
There's an argument to be made that this is already happening and, in fact, has been happening for decades.
I'm of course referring to the "War on Drugs."
There's quite a bit of analysis in the literature to show that restrictions on mind-altering substances was explicitly introduced to disadvantage particular populations.
What's more, despite popular perception[0], the "crime" rate is at its lowest levels in more than 50 years[1], yet we continue to fund[2] law "enforcement" at levels even higher than when we were at the peak of the "crime" rate during that time.
So. Since crime rates have plummeted, yet we're spending more than ever, it's likely your paraphrase is already the case right now.
More's the pity.
[0] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/amer...
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/17/facts-about...
[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-04/america-s...