I wouldn't quite go that far. In the final analysis, there are a lot of junkers on the road, and pounding on the unsafe vehicles is one way to get them off the road.
Remember how I mentioned my familiarity with the DOT inspectors? Kansas City used to have a lot of federal money to support their DOT inspection trucks, and they loved to hang out in my area. So much so that every morning we sent a car out to patrol the streets leaving our shop. About 5 years ago, the KC Police DOT units had apparently gotten so unpopular with all their BS traffic stops that the Mo. Highway patrol called them in for "special training".
Just one red light away from my shop, the crisp-looking Highway Patrol officers were making the KCPD goons do DOT stops the right way. They were teaching them to watch for acceptable reasons to stop a vehicle, how to handle minor infractions, and pretty much embarassed them in the same spot for a whole week.
Given how much the local DOT goons had been tormenting the public for the previous 10 years, I think that the location they selected wasn't an accident. I even stopped (in my personal car) and flagged down the HP officer. He didn't exactly explain why they were "training" the KCPD units, but he smiled very pleasantly when I told him how much they needed to be regulated against all the profiteering.
Curiously, our DOT inspections since then have been infrequent and not quite so profit-oriented.