MOM NEVER LIVED IN FLORIDA.

As we get older - at least this guy - we tend to resent intrusion in our lives.

When we were still productive - at least enough to have people willing to cut us a check every two weeks - noise, interruption, deadlines, and sometimes simply our need to ignore people playing with our heads - were all part of our work day - and dystopia was just around the corner.

We put up with it basically because we were convinced we had to, and for more practical reasons like the financial obligations that compelled us to do so.

That's why reading the following still has me shaking my head.

Back in 2012 a 47 year old guy who decided he had enough with unruly teenage kids, with their rap music blaring from their SUV, fired 10 shots at their vehicle and killed one of them.

I immediately recalled a memory of a friend of mine and myself  fighting back at kids "sound intrusion" while we were vacationing on the Jersey shore in the late 80's or early 90's..

As a rebuttal to the kids crusing back and forth - and blaring their music -we tuned our car radio to one of the oldies stations - rolled down the windows - and blasted it for any unsuspecting person in the vicinity of our extended ride up and down Ocean Avenue with our wives. We too wanted to share Our music.

We laughed a lot that day, acting goofy, as we demonstrated our vacation silliness far away from our workday distractions. We did so, as I recall without any alcohol or drugs in our system. We were enjoying the euphoria of being on vacation!

If our music that day wasn't so loud we probably could have heard some poor "youngish" shnook spinning around in his driver seat while demanding of his wife: "Candace, find out where the hell  that ungodly noise is coming from?"

Others apparently reacted in similar fashion.

However, one passing motorist  - probably of our generation - possibly realized what we were doing and, (presumably) sharing our petty displeasure with the kids and their music - signified his agreement by giving us  two thumbs up.

This was definitely unlike the more demonstrative digital response our loud music seemed to have evoked from other folks that day.

Well this 47 year old guy I was reading about wasn't us - and he apparently had a short fuse - not uncommon for a lot of drivers we've witnessed down here in Florida.

His car and the SUV with 4 kids inside were stopped outside a Jacksonville gas station when he demanded that the teenagers turn down their radio.

After exchanging words, the guy opened fire on the kids - killing one of them - age 17 - before the adult and his passenger then fled the scene.

There were no "thumbs up" that day - or were there?

The guy was arrested - tried - and found guilty of three counts of  "second-degree" murder for apparently (by one written account) "missing three of the kids."

This commentator also suggested "some members of the jury must believe the kid wasn't dead - and - at least one juror  believed the adult's 'lame' defense".

The real puzzle to me and, I'm assuming most reasonable folks, was that the jury were deadlocked on the question as to whether the guy was guilty of murdering the teenager.

Paraphrasing this writer's observation: "The jury also found the guy guilty of shooting into an occupied vehicle. But, it was not able to convict him of being
responsible in any way of killing the 17 year old kid."

As one might suspect with a verdict like this - and inferred above  - there were other circumstances alleged, of course.

The guy testified to shooting only after seeing someone in the SUV point the barrel of a shotgun at him. But, when he drove away with his girlfiend, who was inside a convenience store when this all went down, he made no mention of any shotgun.

When his "excuse" DID come out was when the police arrested him at his home the following day.

You see in Florida such an allegation enables one - such as this guy - to cling to Florida's controversial "stand your ground" defense" that permists one who has a reasonable fear that his life is being threatened, to respond with deadly force."

I should add no shotgun was ever found despite his attorney's allegation that the teens must have deep-sixed it during the short time they fled the gas station. That would be  before they returned for help once the realized their passenger had been hit - a very short distance.

According to the lead detective who investigated the case and presumably was subpoenaed as a rebuttal witness, the kids travelled  a distance of about 400 yards - and no evidence of the existance of the phantom shotgun was ever introduced.

Now, I'm going to guess, assuming I did not omit any relevant facts, that you who have now read this account are probably convinced like myself that this was a total miscarriage of justice.

Oh, did I tell you that the shooter was black and the kids were white?

Of course not.

That would be a lie - an act that, at least in my childhood - often resulted in my Mom placing a bar of Lava or Fels-Naptha soap in my mouth as a reminder of my transgression.

God only knows what she would have put in there if I had chosen to shoot at some teenage kids for having the audacity to play their music "too loud!"

Then again, we never lived in Florida.