Had the main heroes' dad already been arrested by then? If so, that leaves open the possibility that the mayor was "giving up" the ones that would already be arrested or fled. He could even be playing for time, hoping to warn some of them to skedaddle, or at least point the finger to the folks farthest out of town-- the ones best able to get away before the paras got organized to hunt them down.
Or, yeah, he could just be pointing the finger at whoever his enemies in small-town politics were.
I never liked him before, either, but I can see a more sympathetic point of view now. I did recognize that he is the legal authority in town, and for him to run off would be a dereliction of duty, too.
I was just looking at some stuff on the WW2 French Army yesterday, and wondering how I would have reacted, had I been in a blue uniform in 1940-- stay, rebel, quit?
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My Twilight claim to fame: I ran "Allegheny Uprising" at Allegheny College, spring of 1988.
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