For one thing, I don't think your experience is universal. It is never something that I have seen anywhere I lived, and I have lived in a number of small towns. I do not doubt that there are pockets, or periods of corruption, but there are a fair number of checks too. A Chief of Police is answerable to a mayor, or a city manager, and those people accountable to the voters. There are other rich and/or powerful people. What if son of Chief drives through the yard of a judge, for example? Or the school superintendent? Or the local state legislator? Or the owner of the newspaper? Or the mill?

The thing about this case is that Zimmerman Senior was a judge in Virginia, and this happened in Florida. Zimmerman Senior might have some juice in Virginia, but I highly doubt if he has any in Florida. He's way out of his turf, and he's retired - a has been, not a current power. Unlesss he retired very, very wealthy, he probably does not have all that much pull. If he is wealthy, then the pull comes from his wealth, not his status as a retired magistrate.

I could see a suspicion if he was a judge in Florida, or if this crime happened in Virginia where Zimmerman senior would have had many years to make connections to locally powerful people, but I cannot reasonably see any of that transferring to Florida.

We're exceptional.

nails on a chalkboard or rubbing a ballooon would have been less so.

But no, I said that it could happen, and I am sure that it does in places, but thinking that a retired judge from VA has all kinds of clout in Florida does not seem reasonable to me.

But I already attempted to explain it in detail. Never did I say it was impossible. I said, I highly doubt it, and gave some logical reasons why.

This is normal procedure.

If Sanford was a really small town, read 2000 or bellow...mebbe...Sanford is not in that category.

Oh and his assault on an officer was downgraded to misdemeanor.

It reeks of influence peddling.

which tends to happen a lot, AFAIK.

I have no clue where and when DAs go.

Unless something major is up. Somebody arrested for a shooting, normally is not major.

and nearly go away with it.

It's only the public uproar that results in justice.

Imagine what happens when they succeed in a cover-up.

they're successful so we never know.

It's really is in every city and town. And it's left up to us to make a difference.

Murder and arson
Kicking a man in the crotch so hard he is sterile and unable to walk
Selling crack and smoking crack
Stealing a van from a church and crashing it.
2 different cases of hazardous driving leading to a death
Feeding a fellow med student radioactive materials.
Perjury
Hijacking a boat and taking it into international waters (technically piracy)
Computer hacking (more than I can count)
Assaulting a police officer
Dealing XTC

my own dad was the son of a chief of police (in a tiny rural town). My grandparents were registered DEMOCRATS, and my dad was a BOY SCOUT who took it seriously, and joined the USAF and became an officer and a true gentleman.

Everyone who ever knew him loved him. He never drank any other than in moderation, never got in a car accident, had no arrest records, and the worst trouble he ever got into as a kid was when he lit a fire in a garbage can at Halloween and everybody rolled their eyes.