Well, that didn't play nearly as exciting as the first time. I guess John's intervention was enough to keep the church scene from becoming the major confrontation it was originally.
After re-reading the story, it's very clear that Det. Stein knows a lot of what's going on in Sunnyhell, as well as Sgt. Horn. I assume that, at least informally and off-the-books, Sunnydale PD has some way of teaching officers how to respond to vampires, demons, etc., other than "run away screaming." Might I suggest that McClane gets at least part of that lecture from one of his fellow cops before he sits down with the Scoobies? I think it would add to the fun if his head is full of conjectures and misconceptions about Buffy and Giles, rather than the usual "ohmygawd vampires are real" shock.
Just my two dollars' worth.
Review By [ScorpioP] • Date [26 Feb 13] • Rating [9 out of 10]
I don't think that incompetence was the sole criteria the mayor was going for with the Sunnydale police etc. Note the scene where Snyder & cop are talking with Snyder saying "This is a hell mouth...." -- a lot of the top SD PD probably knew it was a hell mouth and were going with the mayor's line about "keeping things under control", "don't start a panic" and things like that. I'd guess only the deputy mayor & the mayor's vamp/demon gang knew the whole truth. There were a lot of incompetents, though. Looking forward to the "Ted" events. My take is, the mayor didn't mind having the slayer around -she kept the hellmouth from boiling over, and as long as she didn't know about him, she did some good in his view. Once his Ascension was coming up, and she found out, that was a different story. But note the "Balthazar' incident (demon in a vat). Mayor took his amulet decades before; he didn't want any world-ending events. Anyway--- huh, outside scope of the story, but picture Angel in a year starting up his detective business, and maybe having McLane as a member?
Review By [AllenPitt] • Date [26 Feb 13] • Not Rated
SDPD had to be incompetent for the Mayor to implement his plans. So no surprise that idiots and such would be in demand. You see how things were really planned once Mr Trick showed up. All the Mayor cared about was making it to his ascension. But he really screwed up by not having anyone on the inside early on like with the whole Acathla thing; the end of world is not something that was conducive to his agenda. I think that is when he started to upgrade his assistants to make sure in the future that nothing like that would happen to prevent his ascension.
So what you had up to Graduation was a deliberately engineered incompetent police force.
Which of course was assisted in this by the Sunnydale effect. Those two factors fed on each other.
This also showed in the campaign to try and either run Buffy off or put her in jail, etc. Once again showing that the Mayor was not really that smart after all since it almost went to hell not just in the Acathla thing but the Harvest would not have been good for the Mayor either.
Review By [burmafrdnow] • Date [26 Feb 13] • Not Rated
Ah, good chapter. More about the internal politics of the SDPD is revealed, and foreshadowing further relations between McLane and the Scoobies. I hope the other police officers shape up to become secondary characters as well.
Comments from author:
I intend to make the SPD a large part of the story; explore the conditions that may have caused the SPD to fail the citizens of Sunnydale in the original TV series. John McClane may turn out to be a catalyst for change but that's further along the overall arc.
Review By [Starfox] • Date [26 Feb 13] • Rating [10 out of 10]
Heh heh. Nice update. It looks like not all of Sunnydale PD is so incompetent as we're led to believe, but are constrained by a variety of pressures from doing more.
Review By [OtteryLexa] • Date [26 Feb 13] • Not Rated
FireDragon
