Acts17apologetics find violence convincing; Paul persecutes Christians?

In answer to the video "Psychology, Bias, and Transformation: Paul vs. Muhammad (PvM 12)"

The claim of persecution at the hands of Saul, apparently a leading persecutor Acts7:58-8:3,Gal1:13,Phil3:6,1Cor15:9 is flimsy. In those days the Sanhedrin had no authority to empower a heresy hunter as claimed in Acts9, to operate independently in Damascus, emprisonning, torturing, killing. The NT itself states that his ultra orthodox teacher Gamaliel persuaded the Sanhedrin to release the disciples and cease persecution "just in case" they were doing God's work Acts5:34-40. Saul was supposedly zealously persecuting Christians at the very time Jesus was performing miracles, attracting multitudes, overthrowing moneychangers in the Temple and generally provoking Pharisees and Sadducees yet not a word of protest is reported from him during all of Jesus' time throughout the gospels.

What is more intriguing is that following Saul conversion to Christianity, his Roman and Jewish employers do not react, and the persecution of Christians immidiately stops then, as if the entire show was run by just only one man Acts9:31. Either this religious policeman role was a storytelling embellishment or Jesus' had so little impact in his lifetime that he and his followers passed unnoticed.

After all, the NT itself states that the number of Jesus' followers did not exceed 120. That is not to mention the fact that Saul, after his name change to Paul and his conversion, his blazing missionary activities and audiences of governors and kings, equally passes unnoticed in the secular histories of his age. Not to say that Saul/Paul is an entirely fictional character as some scholars suggest, but it is clear that in their effort to reach out to the Jews, the NT writers needed a "zealous Jews who saw the light" and in fact most of the incidents surrounding Saul/Paul's life have a striking similarity with a certain aristocrat in the times of Herod, during the Jewish rebellion of 66-74 AD named SAUL, whose character and life are depicted by Josephus.