Well, considering there is such a thing as a "rain tax," hardly anything surprises me anymore. It's likely that someone is trying to meet a quota, and you are the victim.
Hopefully, you're rewarded in a different manner later.
Well, the thing is, the argument could be made that the fine for littering is both larger and harder to disprove, thus why that fine was issued, in order to legitimize itself.
But on the other hand I live in LA, and have seen cops give tickets for some pretty bogus things, but never that bad, I have a feeling that's not the whole story