I don’t necessarily think it’s a distraction. It’s a public, emotionally salient event that might wake some people up to absurd government overreach.

It’s harder to grasp some of the more abstract ways that the government infringes on liberties and wellbeing but almost everyone can intuitively see the absurdity of raiding a house to “protect” an obviously well cared for pet just to then kill it because they botched the raid.