Don’t Shoot Me I’m Just The Piano Player
By Wilbur
A recent trial in Florida drew my attention but I waited before writing this article. Several reasons for that. One, it’s in Florida, and two, it involved a middle aged white man and some black kids. Seems it went like this: White guy goes to a gas station and sends girl friend in for chips or what ever. Black kids roll up to the same store and they have their music going. Of course it’s rap, and of course it’s loud. Well, the white guy tells them to turn the music down. Now, right off the bat this is rude. I know, I know, the kids were rude, too, but they’re KIDS. Now the kids began to shout and leap about. I’ve seen high school kids do this once before. All the street stuff, the cussing, the threats, and on and on, BUT, no one tried to pull the guy out of his car. According to him he became in fear for his life! He pulls out a pistol and pumps nine rounds into the van. Now, he SAID he saw “about four inches” of what appeared to be a shotgun barrel. He killed a boy sitting out of sight in the van.
Kids do stuff like this. They shout, threaten, show off for the girls, you name it. This was NOT the knockout game. This was a bunch of boys pulling into the same gas station the other man was. Whenever I pull up to a light, or parking lot and experience this I look at the person playing the music and just grin. I won’t have to put up with his music long and will most likely never see him again. That having been said kids will often put on a display of bravado. If they’re standing ten feet away and don’t try to open your door just ignore it and drive away. By the way, no shotgun was found that night. I have had a young man become offended when I routinely locked my door. He took it to mean I did so because he was black. This was not true. My Mercedes locks doors automatically. Of course there were all the treats and “eyeballs” and everything that goes with it. Uh, he had a young lady in his car so I know what was fueling his indignation. He DID approach my window and when he did he got a glimpse of my 9mm on the seat beside me. He stopped, looked at me, and I said, “You were just leaving.” Whereupon he found better things to do.
The white man precipitated this entire thing with his statement to turn the music down. Then he compounded it with his racism. I hate to use that word, but let me ask you, would he have been as indignant if it had been white boys with two or three white high school girls dancing beside the van to Justin Bieber? Now the real issue. Now, I’m just a simple ol’ boy from Austin but something in my dim memory tells me you simply don’t pump nine rounds blindly into a van for loud music. Also, if he were threatened by the boy shouting at him why didn’t he just shoot HIM? I took several days to write this article. I was going to include a part telling young blacks that they should condition their behavior so as not to shock or scare the white folk but that nasty old constitution kept getting in the way. They had a right to play their music, albeit a bit loud, just as much as the white guy had a right to have his girl friend buy corn chips that night. They went back to the motel room, snacked and watched TV. Now, I’m an old bastard people, I really am. Someone really tries to hurt me and I have the conscience of a rather mature cucumber . But, something about riddling a van full of kids with bullets just doesn’t lead me to pile up in bed with some hottie and eat chips and dip. He did it because those kids weren’t human to him. Their lives didn’t matter.
This is not George and Trayvon. That was entirely different. This is prejudice at the Nth degree. I’ve had altercations with blacks, yes, but more black kids have held the door for me than cursed me. Looks like our boy is going to get about sixty some odd years for his wild west show, and that’s good. Maybe he’ll learn a little bit about how to get along with people who are different from him while he’s there.
And the GUN didn’t do it, the MAN did. I hope the family of the boy killed finds peace. It tore me up when the dead boy’s mother expressed her sympathy for the killer having to spend so much time in jail. The one thing I came out of it was the next time I hear rap music blaring out of a car full of black kids. . . I’m gonna smile, and listen, and wave. Not because I’m afraid, but because they have as much right to their music as I do, and I KNOW they GOT to hate Country!
Wilbur Witt
Austin Texas
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