Those photos are surprising: I thought Valley Stream was a white area.
Some are saying not to blame those who may have trampled on the guy, because they were pushed forward by the rest of the crown and couldn’t see/avoid him, without getting hurt themselves.
Well, they were part of the problem, part of the crowd/mob mentality, so I do blame them.
And while I’m sorry the woman who was pregnant was hurt, she had no business risking her baby’s life by being in a madhouse like that.
I just got off the phone with an old friend in my hometown. He told me that he went to do some Christmas shopping at Kohl’s around 11 o’clock and it was a complete madhouse. He didn’t even bother going in. He said he just drove to local park, chilled out for awhile and went home. He’s on disability so he can actually wait until the middle of the week and go shopping during the non-crowd hours.
I told him that I plan on doing most of my xmas shopping online anyway. But he was shocked when I told him about the Wal-Mart incident. As he put it “There isn’t anything I want to buy badly enough to get me to wait outside of a store in a crowd at 5 AM…there certainly isn’t anything worth a person’s life in Wal-Mart.”.
I don’t understand the mentality of these people at all. Sure, there might be some good prices…my friend mentioned something about flat screen decent sized TV’s being sold fr about $388.00 or something…I’d love to get one myself. But I don’t need it…I certainly don’t need it enough to wade through the crowds at Wal-Mart or elsewhere. Especially since despite it being a Christmas sale you know almost everyne there is going to be a selfish prick.
“(…) about whom you cared?”
Some of us cope with the reality of such pointless tragedy by publically excoriating the societal values that* encourage such incidents. Others, such as myself, feel helpless to change such larger problems with any amount of vituperation, and so take refuge in black humor and feeble non sequitur.
In this thread, for no discernible reason, I have adopted the role of a strange necromancer who consigns people to oblivion for minor perceived violations of English usage. Yes, it’s horribly insensitive and inappropriate; but the sad truth is that nothing else I could say will change the fact that this exact same story of mindless greed and trampled innocents will play out again next Christmas.
Your anger at such injustice is commendable. There is a dead Tamagotchi and a pair of inexpensive sweat pants waiting for you in Erebus.
*’–that encourage?’ ‘–which encourage?’ I don’t even know. I have no fucking special mastery of English. The entire premise is a shallow fraud.
What the fuck is the matter with this country? Avarice, greed, disregard for human safety and life, rampant consumerism. . .and for what: some piece of poorly made shit to be given to some undeserving and ungrateful asshole in “the spirit of Christmas”? I’ll bet nearly all of those people creating that mob scene consider themselves righteous Christians, while at the same time violating at least three commandments with their behavior. Wal-Mart needs to have their asses sued off for this.
It’s this sort of mindless, aggressive behavior that keeps me from going into any store between Thanksgiving and New Years that doesn’t sell groceries. No movies in mall theaters, no mall-based restaurants, none of it. Americans have become obsessed with themselves and the gratification of same. And stores like Wal-Mart prey on this mentality. First 50 people in the store get an additional 5% off!!!
Something as simple as a store manager (or a security person) going outside prior to opening and speaking directly to people, looking them in the eye, and calming them down would probably have prevented a household now deprived of a father/brother/son/provider. Merry fucking Christmas, you motherfuckers. Karma is a real bitch.
This morning I actually took part in a bit of the Black Friday thing. A local small market was offering some huge discounts on beef, and they opened at 8 AM. I drove by about 10 minutes later, and saw that the line was down the block, and turning around the corner, and decided that I didn’t need to spend two hours in that line for any kind of bargain.
I swung back by after I took care of some normal shopping I needed to, and running a few other errands, and the line was just in front of the store, and I thought that it was short enough that I’d check it out, and see how things were going. When I was walking up, I’d asked one of the people leaving how bad the line was - and he said he’d been there for two hours, so he got in line about the time that I’d driven by.
The time in the line was generally pleasant, we talked and joked and made room for people as they passed in and out. (Though we were pushy enough to tell people who walked up to the meat counter, bypassing the line, that they were not welcome to just reach in and take a loin.) When we got to the head of the line, the store had advertised exactly one item that was going to be in strictly limited supply, and they still had some of those left. And a half hour later, I was back on the road, thinking how nice it had all been.
Then I get home and see this story. 
I think I am inclined to agree with Baker - there are things that can become inevitable when a crowd starts moving in a limited space, and there’s no reason to blame individuals for that; but the choice to join a crowd, and this crowd was one that was selected by choice, not imposed by a disaster or anything, seems a strong sign of poor judgment.
I grew up there and worked at this mall as a teenager. It’s right on the border of Nassau and Queens. A few miles out from there into Nassau is very white, and a few miles the other way into Queens is very black. Valley Stream itself is a bit mixed, but Green Acres was mostly black faces for most of my 30+ year memory. Whites tend to drive to Roosevelt Field mall a little further into Long Island.
Now we know why it’s called Black Friday?
Its not a race thing. Its a poor thing. Three River Stadium wasn’t a white thing, btw. It was a ‘festival seating’ concert thing.
I have to reread the posts because I know I missed the one where people were railing against Walmart for encouraging a ‘Blitz Line’(photo # 9) . Anyone who has seen a football game knows what a ‘Blitz’ is (a defensive line action with more than the usual number of linemen at the line of scrimage in an attempt to sack the quarterback or force a turnover), making the temporary low prices less a sale event and more of a sporting event.
I’m sad this man died. I hope that sale events have better crowd control in future as a result of it. No one should have to die on the job.
hijack Anyone know if Walmart covers its employees with any sort of life insurance? I know they have a longstanding history of keeping employees parttime to cheat them out of health insurance benefits. It’d be insult to injury if the guy’s family had to chase Walmart just to get the money to bury him.
I think most of the extreme right-wing boards are already doing so.
It was only a matter of time before something like this happened-every fucking YEAR you hear about people getting hurt-that someone finally died doesn’t surprise me in the least. Humanity-we’re scum. It just sickens me-how can we be so greedy? And of course, Wal-Mart will turn around and do the same thing next year.
ETA: Someone beat me to the Toys R Us thing.
I have heard of a controversy re’ WalMart covering employees with life insurance, but with the company as the beneficiary. But this guy was a TEMP, not an employee. If he was covered, it would be through his temp. agency. (unlikely)
I think his family, if any, has a good shot at winning a lawsuit against WM, or at least getting a settlement. This was VERY poorly organized and executed.
Just confirms my feeling that anyone who goes out shopping on “Black Friday” is insane.
I think all this frenzy to attach this incident to consumerism or the Black Friday phenomenon is a bit misguided. This is more of an example of how people are basically selfish assholes, people have always been selfish assholes, and the selfishness of the assholes is more likely to be extreme or fatal when you get large amounts of selfish assholes together. So what? You outlaw crowds?
Plus, the reports I read indicated that the problem started with the people in the back. They pushed the people in front of them, and so on and so on, until the doors gave out. Then there was no way to go but forward or risk injury themselves.
What a waste of life. Is it now not evident to everybody that capitalism is a sickness and not compatible with sanity? Is it safe to assume that this event has knocked everyone out of their self-delusion? Poor guy… :mad:
I disagree. I think people are just as likely to behave this way in a Socialist society, simply that the motivators would be different.
The problem here is nothing more than human nature.
I didn’t see a white face in any of those pictures…except for the cops, of course. I just thought it was strange and wondered if there was any demographical statistics to back up a given race’s propensity for mob activity.
Oh god. What the hell is wrong with people? I keep asking and there is no answer. I think we are on the decline as a species. Perhaps we’ll just start savaging one another until no one is left. I can’t understand the mentality of someone bringing a gun into a store etc. Do they think Geoffrey the Giraffe may threaten them in some way?
Love the posts blaming the pregnant woman for putting herself in harm’s way. She probably didn’t realize how dangerous the crowd was until it was too late to get out of it.
I mean, seriously. “Why didn’t the pregnant woman stay home for 9.5 months to keep the baby safe?” Duh.
brickiebee, I don’t believe anyone’s suggesting that pregnant women should stay home for 9.5 months.
I do believe that it’s sensible to stay out of voluntary situations that are developing into mob scenes. And if one fails to demonstrate that sense, they should be called on it. (Not charged, but commenting on them as having taken very high risks for no good purpose seems quite fair.) Whether one is pregnant or not.
Another thing I don’t get is that people cannot seem to comprehend that there is enough crap to buy (ESPECIALLY this year!) to go around for everyone in America with money to spend, and not just today. Retailers will be pulling out all the stops in an effort to sell as much crap as they can, and those sales and specials are going to be going on from now until well after Christmas. How much money can you really save by joining the teeming masses today rather than waiting for a calmer day in a week or two?
People don’t seem to have patience for anything anymore. I perceive that we generally speaking have become a nation of whiners, complainers, voyeurs, narcissists and apathetic selfish douchebags.
Can this lack of ability to wait for something that you want be traced at least in part to our drive thru fast-food, instant grat video gaming/TV viewing, etc, etc?