Whoa whoa whoa, hang on... Self defense is a CRIME?!

Just got jumped by a pair of 'Alliance Enforcers' for no reason, scanned them and they came up clean, but I get fined if I fight back against them? What the hell kind of logic is that?

And if it's a Powerplay thing then it's odd that they'd send a 2-man wing against a person who has 0 merits and is rank 1.

Got away just fine, but still... what?