In the book A Certain Magical Index by Kazuma Kamachi, the story takes place in a city in Japan, called Academy City, where the technology is 20 or 30 years ahead of the rest of the world. In the city, espers are developed by using the Power Circulation Program, and separated into 6 separate levels, from Level 0 to Level 5. And in Academy City, there is a distinct line between the Level 0s and Level 5s and that's not based on esper powers alone.
For example, Level 0s and Level 1s (Person with No Powers/ Person with Low Powers) aren't really highly regarded like other higher level students, even though Level 0s make up more than 60% of the students in the city. Level 0s progress aren't very accounted for, as a Level 0s level going up is very rare, so most Level 0s end up quitting school(Where powers are worked on), and become delinquents roaming around the back alleys. Level 4 and 5s, (Person with Great Powers/Person with Super Powers)usually belong to fancy and prestigious schools. The Level 5s even have their own personal institutes and laboratories built just for them, eventhough there is only about 7 existing Level 5s. With this, the Level 5s have a certain uphold and power over the levels below them.
So in response to the "power" above them, A group of Level 0s form Skill-Out. This group targets high level espers, gangs up on them, and basically beat them nearly to death. Even if espers had great powers, it was useless against many numbers. In retaliation, high level esper began targeting Level 0s but in a different way. They began targeting people that had nothing to do with Skill-Out, in one instance a group of Level 0 elementary schoolers. People began getting hurt uselessly, because of the power high level espers held agaist the lower levels.
So overall, the higher levels of Academy City held a lot of "power" against the lower level espers. The creation of Skill-Out was a response of the Level 0s and the "power" that kept getting held against them. If the higher levels had restrained the "power" of fear and superiority they held over the lower levels, lots of conflicts wouldn't have happened.
