From what I can surmise, the violence and cruelty is the motivation. The law merely serves as a justification when convenient. I'm not sure if they're trying to justify it to themselves or still have vestiges of needing to justify it to others.

It's too bad they can't all just go to some arena, fight each other, and leave the productive members of society out of their mess. I'm sure the elites pushing this crap could even find champions willing to represent them so they still wouldn't have to put their own skin in the game.