Quantity with Quality
The Teetotalling, Pistol-toting Mayor of Brighton Alabama
A story of misunderstanding and tragedy
This is my next story in a series of articles responding to Dr Mehmet Yildiz’s challenge to produce a short quality article with three take home points each day for thirty days.
I have chosen to use Wikipedia’s main page as inspiration, choosing one entry from the “Did You Know” section as topical encouragement.
On October 13, 1955 Josephus C. Vines, former mayor of Brighton, AL was acquitted of all charges on the count of first-degree murder for the death of bookkeeper Tim Scott.
It seems that Vines came home to his Orlando, FL residence to find the stranger, Scott, sitting on Vine’s doorstep “drinking from a bottle”. A verbal confrontation ensued, and Vines went into his home and retrieved a .32 caliber revolver.
Believing the gun to be unloaded, Vines waved the weapon at Scott and in doing so the gun discharged, striking Scott in the neck. Scott was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
Josephus Vines was a former politician, serving several terms as mayor of Brighton, AL in the early 1900’s running under the prohibition party. At the time of the shooting, Vines was 82.
Vines claimed that his intent was to simply bluff Scott into leaving by waving his revolver. It is unclear whether Vines’ age was a factor in the case or whether the case simply didn’t meet the preponderance of evidence to convict on first degree murder.
What We Can Learn from a Pistol-Waving Ex-Mayor:
This unfortunate story has more questions than answers for us. Clearly it is a tragedy that a person died. Sixty-some years later it seems like there were so many turn-offs on the highway that could have been taken to avoid disaster. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
An interesting sub-note from one of the newspaper clippings supporting this Wiki entry is that among the pallbearers at Scott’s funeral were the Orlando mayor, an Alabama state senator and a county sheriff. Clearly this was a notable and polarizing event for the Orlando community at the time.
Take home points:
- Small decisions can have massive consequences. It is always easy to play quarterback on Monday morning. Sometimes in the heat and passion of an event we don’t take time to consider the outcomes of small decisions. Going in to grab that gun was a small decision, with powerful impact.
- Cooler heads prevail. However you choose to do it — take a deep breath or count to a pre-set number or whatever — taking a few seconds to calm yourself before action is almost always the best course of action.
- Beware of trigger points. We don’t know for sure, but given Vines’ history, perhaps the fact that the man was drinking alcohol was a trigger for him. If it had been an RC Cola, the story may have been different. Perhaps they would have shared a moon pie instead of getting in a tussle.
What are your personal triggers? Do you stop and take a breath before responding in emotional situations?
How do you navigate tense situations, are you likely to make a cascade of decisions that heads down a dark path?
Many times, just by acknowledging that we have triggers and could be susceptible to bad decisions, we can better identify when these situations occur and react more appropriately.
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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.