While I appreciate your defense of FF&S (and, indirectly, me), please don't personally insult others here. I don't want this thread devolving into a collection of flame wars. My skin has thickened significantly since I started this project.
I will freely admit that, if I had to do things over again, I would have advised JohnCBB against going
quite so far in that "search in front of the school" scene. It's easily the one that people have the most "oh, come on" reactions to. And, in today's world, where everybody has a video camera in their pocket, that makes a modicum of sense. That's one of the reasons the story is set when it is. (There are a few clues in the story as to its exact year, but it's "pre-iPhone.")
And, as I've said several times before, I spent a good chunk of my childhood in the pre-MLK American South, which colored my view of what some cops - and some people - will do if/when they can get away with it. Oh, 99.9% of the cops you'll run into are awesome individuals who are devoted to doing the right thing, but there is still that 0.1%. (The biggest bully in my high school class ended up becoming a cop. I have zero evidence of any misdeeds by him, but he always struck me as the kind that could turn into "a Bill.")
