More like the modern version of robber barons. The barons henchmen throughout Germany could exact fines or whatever on anyone they chose. The old ‘Dukes of Hazard’ tv show was very close to the mark in showing the actions of Boss Hogg and his cop myrmidons. It was a funny show but people who knew about how the local politicos engaged in screwing people were some of the writers. I know people from Georgia who said some items that seemed a joke (such as inventing new traffic regulations and placing very small signage noting the change on roads where the cops were waiting in hiding for a ‘violation’ to occur) were the complete truth and they had lived with the consequences.
The only ticket my wife got in her entire life (she’s now 64) was on a very rainy night in the Chicago area. She turned right on a road she always turned on. There were no cars on the road.
Around the corner was a cop that pulled her over and wrote her a ticket for an illegal right turn. He had put an A-Frame sign on the sidewalk under a building awning just before the corner.
You have to just see it as a game or you’ll go insane.
I used to fix ATM’s in the King and Pierce county areas in Washington state. I played the game with cops all the time. I saw other people get pulled over, but I never did. It kept the drives interesting.