re: #147 Targetpractice

I’m not so sure the primary goal was protecting Zimmerman so much as it was protecting the city from the financial consequences of trying him in court. The cops get on the scene and find a dead kid and a guy swearing that he was fighting to protect himself and that he should in “self-defense.” The moment that got up the chain to the chief and the state attorney, it probably started ringing alarm bells. And the word came down to do everything possible to stonewall, hamper, and otherwise destroy the investigation in order to avoid charging Zimmerman.

I don’t really agree with that. They ran risks far too great to justify such a goal. If they had turned up serious evidence that burst Zimmerman’s story, then they would not have been at serious risk. Penalties of the kind the law allows for the filing of charges that should not have been filed do not apply if the case goes to trial, at least not unless the defendant is acquitted and often not even then (since laws allow for someone having been tried and acquitted with the prosecutor acting in good faith).