Like @therealbereth said, a small group of individuals, with their own motivations, could easily trail a specific member. Oppose them as a group in a debate, start community flagging their posts for anything they could justify in the middle of a debate...which could then escalate/goad that member into deeper infractions.
Either way, the group would be aware that a contentious thread with a bunch of community flags is likely going to get shut down and locked by the moderators. Most people in that thread shrug their shoulders and move on, but if you're the targeted individual...you look and feel like you and your opinion are getting silenced.
On a lesser note, there's a secondary thing that occurs in the bigger friendlier "share" type threads. It's really only noticeable when it's happening to you as an individual and seems trivial on the surface...but if/when it's done it DOES have a subtle effect. But the withholding of 
's has been noticed by a couple of people ... Everyone in the thread has 3 or more 's, except for a few individuals. It sounds crazy that a group would go through a thread and all like the same 20 of 21 posts and that would have an effect...but I bring it up because I am not the only one to notice it
That sounds like the sane answer doesn't it...until enough people come forward and say they were in discords with people discussing doing it.
You don't as an individual know who's flagging you...which can feed paranoia...then once the mods move in and shut down the threads, do you think they chart if it was a group of 4-6 people taking turns flagging one persons posts
It sounds silly...until you're in the middle of it.
