From the perspective of a former cycle courier with almost a decade of experience: If everybody followed the letter of the law, traffic in cities would come to a grinding halt in short order. You just go ahead and follow the rules. You'll find people cutting in front of you (and then slamming on their brakes) in short order, and myriad horns blaring at you as you wait for pedestrians to leave the crosswalk (or, depending on your jurisdiction, leave your half of the roadway if a two-way street).
If -everyone- was following the letter of the law, none of what you just described above would be happening. The problem is as soon as a few people choose not to, the entire system falls apart. This may have been your overarching point, but your first sentence seems to contradict that.
Not all cops are corrupt, and not all governments want to slam a boot down onto your face forever.
Absolutely true, but in the US at least, corruption exists in any police force of appreciable size such that I would not generally trust any police force in this country. Many police OFFICERS are great people. One of my best friends is a cop, he's a great guy. I still would not trust his department as a whole. FWIW, the largest infractions I've ever committed is downloading a few songs and speeding on occasion. I'm not a criminal in any real sense of the word.
Is your job running? You'd better go catch it!