The us police in extremely repressive regions like NYC do this a lot, too. Showing off their "seizure" of rusted junk, the archaic .38 grandma keeps in her bedside table, shitty 30§ head shop katanas, and similar junk. I honestly think they do it as a flex. "There's no actual threats out there but we can and will destroy your life over toys and wall hanger junk because fuck you, we're in charge." They know it looks silly and frivolous but at the end of the day they've got an army and can do whatever they want, including "disarming" the peasants of things that were never arms to begin with.