Black Friday, corporation's dream, and a retail worker's nightmare came and went yesterday with chilling results. According to the New York Times, an employee was trampled to death, and several others were injured when Walmart's doors were broken open by sales-mad consumers trying to get inside.
I am appalled by this news. Just...appalled. I used to work in retail and food service industries, and I know how crazy "Black Friday" can get. I've seen customers get into fist fights, I've seen stores get trashed, people at their worst. But I have never heard of someone getting trampled to death over TV's and dolls at 50% off. This is...unacceptable.
From the article:
“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’ ” Ms. Cribbs told The Associated Press. “They kept shopping.”
An 8 month pregnant woman was also trampled, and sent to the hospital along with a few others who were treated for minor injuries.
They trampled a man to death. They killed a person, and didn't even acknowledge his existence, as he lay there on the ground, dying, so they could get to the sales items first. They stepped over, and on him, so they could buy their TV.
And then they complained when he had the audacity to die, and they had to clear the store.
Pardon my language when I say this, but what the fuck is the matter with these people?!
Listen, let's put this into perspective for a moment. I run with a rough crowd. I go to shows where moshpits are thriving and people regularly get smashed in the face, receive broken bones, and sustain injuries. Just two weeks ago, I had my jaw bashed in at a show.
But never, ever, not in a single pit I've ever been in has anyone ever been left to die on the floor. When someone goes down (and they all do) they are immediately picked up to protect them so they don't get trampled. And if the crowd doesn't pick a person up, the bands have been known to stop playing, and order that they pick the person up, and even further, some bands will refuse to play if the crowd doesn't comply with basic pit etiquette.
Now, how is it that a bunch of degenerate skins, punks, and drunken assholes have enough decency to ensure the safety of others, but so-called "decent citizens" trample each other for a $50 discount?
Hello!?!?!?!
In other news, two men shot each other to death in Toys R Us, over a physical fight initiated by their respective female partners over a toy, and, 15 miles away from the above mentioned Walmart, another women was trampled.
What on God's green earth?
From the article:
As for those who had run over the victim, criminal charges were possible, the lieutenant said. “I’ve heard other people call this an accident, but it is not,” he said. “Certainly it was a foreseeable act.”
But even with videos from the store’s surveillance cameras and the accounts of witnesses, Lieutenant Fleming and other officials acknowledged that it would be difficult to identify those responsible, let alone to prove culpability.
Had I been on the scene, I would have locked the doors, detained every single person in the store and had them all charged with negligent homicide. The courts could sort it out later, after positive ID's were made from the surveillance tapes. Every single person in there who had stepped on or over this dying man to get to their precious sale, or who had complained and booed because the store had to shut down because of the incident deserves to be charged with a crime.
This kind of behavior is disgusting. It is appalling, abhorrent. This is greed, and gluttony.
It's consumer insanity.
