A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.
The 34-year-old worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.
Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.
[…]
A 28-year-old pregnant woman was knocked to the floor during the mad rush. She was hospitalized for observation, police said. Early witness accounts that the woman suffered a miscarriage were unfounded, police said.
You won’t see me shopping on Black Friday… no way. More photos here.
Found by Mister Justin.
# 30 Ontario Emperor said, “But I’ll submit that any of us, when we find ourselves in a mob, end up acting like…savages.”
Umm, no. Last time I found myself in the middle of a mob was during an anti ETA protest that turned violent. I extracted myself from the others and went into the nearest restaurant for a glass of wine.
Maybe you speak from your own experience? Are you a savage?
1. I spent 8 years in retail, NEVER BLOCK THE DOORS..NO WAY IN HELL..
2. Iv DONE black fridays, in retail…DONT GET IN THE WAY..
3. Anyone remember the Lucile ball show, and the XMAS sales??
4. The person HAd to be NEW, to sales…
5. ISNT this abit QUICK to have a story up??
I cannot claim that I will, in all circumstances, find myself able to retreat to the nearest restaurant. I’m glad that you were able to do so.
# 34 Ontario Emperor said, “I cannot claim that I will, in all circumstances, find myself able to retreat to the nearest restaurant. ”
Irrelevant. If I couldn’t had escaped I still wouldn’t have rampaged. It’s called self control. Savages lack this and shouldn’t be around civilized people.
#32 – Paddy-RAMBO
>>Umm, no. Last time I found myself in the
>>middle of a mob was during an anti ETA
>>protest that turned violent.
Wow, Paddy-RAMBO! I’m glad to see you’re trying to improve your lot in life, concerning yourself with the Electronics Technicians Association! Can’t be a counter-boy all your life, can you? Why were you protesting against your organization, though?
Or did Radio Shack send you over to Madrid so you could learn to communicate better with your Hispanic customers?
I never leave the house on black Friday unless I have work that day. These monkeys can kill each other over $50 for all I care.
“Monkeys”, caligula? As in “macaca”?
@#25: “is it just a coincidence that only black people are on those pictures?” – living relatively near this place I’d say picture is appropriate representation of the people living and shopping there. Although, image is so non-descriptive, that the scene could be from any *-Mart store anywhere in the USA (so I do not know if it is really from earlier today at the Valley Stream Wal-mart).
As for questions “who are those people who would be so reckless?” – the area is infamous with the high crime level, typically in the news for shootings…
The main problem in these situations is you get a crowd that’s so big the people at the back who are pushing have no idea what’s going on at the front. The people in the front are generally just being carried along by the press of bodies and have no choice in the matter. If they bend down to help anyone they’d end up under-foot as well so it’s a pretty ugly situation. This is same thing on a smaller scale as the Hajj mentioned by Bobbo in #18 (report: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/12/hajj.stampede/)
Nobody was really being savage or even unruly, necessarily, just too many people without the proper level of crowd control. A similar disaster happened the year before I moved here to Madison at Camp Randall Stadium on October 30, 1993 where the students tried to rush onto the field and 73 were injured, six critically when they were crushed against a guard-rail. They changed the way the stadium was set up and the way the crowd was handled and it hasn’t happened since.
“That pregnant woman attending the Black Friday store opening should be arrested for child endangerment. Must be a crack-whore not capable of being a good mother.”
Yes, because the unborn fetus would be better cared for in a prison cell with thug guards that like to beat on people. Shut up you sick statist.
#40 – nonStatist
Don’t mind Bobo. He thinks anyone that would go Christmas shopping must be a crack whore not capable of being a good mother.
Sad. And pathetic.
You would think Wal-Mart would add some security.
#31 igor,
Nope, it carries a double meaning, depending on your POV. Traditionally, it’s called that as the point of time when stores, if they hold to budget and were exclusively paying off expenses at the start, start making a profit, similar to “debt free day” for most people.
To retail workers though, it holds it title as the day when the store goes to hell and you hope it ends, like a tornado.
#30: This member of “they” has never trampled anyone to get into a store, nor have I ever set a bomb off anywyere. I’m not a violent man, therefore I am not one of “them”.
Apparently at Toys R Us they did.
@ people making “everyone” in the pic is African American references:
Even if this is true and a “black thing”, the ancestors of white people in the South were the ones that brought the ancestors of today’s African Americans over here against their will.
And LBJ compounded the problem by destroying the black family with the “welfare for life”, effectively removing fathers from the family picture and encouraging black women (and teenage girls) to have more children than they could manage for dollars.
So is black culture solely the fault of black people?
No.
I think noticing the problem in black culture is totally fair, but you have to acknowledge the components in their history beyond their ability to control.
x
This says how desperate people are today. As my grandmother said.
“Money is the root of all evil” I certainly believe it. We would much rather bail out wall street then bail out our own citizens. We would rather bail out miss managed big companies then bail out thousands of small businesses. It is no wonder many American’s feel big corporations have already taken over government.
Wal mart and others should simply price products competitively and maintain normal store hours and quit these Black Friday prices of products that they have very few of. It turns desperate people into savages who think only of themselves. Tell me, do they even know what Christmas is all about??
Dvorak Censored, huh hopper?
# 49 HMeyers said, “I think noticing the problem in black culture is totally fair, but you have to acknowledge the components in their history beyond their ability to control.”
Their history is irrelevant. What happens to a living individual is relevant. What happened to people they haven’t met means nothing.
Until people are held responsible for their own actions or inaction’s the problem will persist.
#19, Skippy,
Our version is called Boxing Day and it’s an ‘every man for himself’ day too.
I’ve seen both and there is a difference. Boxing Day is bigger but does keep a sense of civility. Black Friday has little civility about it and lots of selfishness.
#32, Cow-Paddy, Ignorant Shit Talking Sociopath and Retired Mall Rent-A-Cop,
Last time I found myself in the middle of a mob was during an anti ETA protest that turned violent. I extracted myself from the others and went into the nearest restaurant for a glass of wine.
That is surprising. Most of us would have guessed it was during that Depends sale. But sipping a glass of wine? I don’t know if that is elitist, drinking French wine, or faux chic , drinking domestic. Here I had you pegged as a milk and cookies kind of guy.
What is even more surprising is to see you are an “anti EPA” protest. You’re against the Embroidery Trade Association? Who hates doilies?
I surely don’t see you being against the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, the Basque Nationalist Society. Violence is so much more your thing.
“Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like “savages.”
Sounds like she got it right. Police are reviewing videos to try and ID the criminals. Hope they catch them.
Walmart is going to act they this was unforeseeable, but I’ve personally heard stories of past events where it got scary. They should have seen this coming.
This is a pet peeve of mine ever since I saw similar things at concerts in the 70s. IT IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE CROWDS. It is the fault of planners!
The tragedy I witnessed was totally predictable (and preventable) In fact, I saw it coming as the cops forced us into lines so that the full power of the line pushed the people in the front though plate class windows. What idiots point a line of 5,000 people right into windows? (Well, cops do, obviously.)
Walmart could easily issued numbers and let people in 20 at at time. At the very least they could do a zig zag line, like Disneyland does, so that the full force of the crowd doesn’t push in one direction.
#34 – Mr. Fusion
>>Violence is so much more your thing.
Naw. Even though he’s known as Paddy-RAMBO, his “violence” is restricted to crashing remote-controlled cars into each other while on break at Radio Shack.
Don’t be fooled by his boasts of “piling up liberal bodies”. He only does that on-line when hiding behind the Paddy-RAMBO moniker.
And that “wine” he said he drank after extracting himself from the crowd? It was just a couple of hits from the Mad Dog bottle he carries around in his back pocket.
>> Paddy-O said, on November 29th, 2008 at 7:02 am
>> Until people are held responsible for their own actions or inaction’s the problem will persist.
And that’s why I insist that Bush & Co. stand trial.
Considering your philosophy of personal responsibility, I’m sure you’re totally on-board with that.
#58 – Greg Allen
Yay! Paddy-RAMBO leads the call for Bush to be tried for war crimes, treason, and criminal stupidity.
Now you KNOW this popular movement is going to gain traction!
# 53
You’re right. Boxing day in Canada is a lot more civilized. In fact, it’s so civil now that it last 1 week or more. There are people that like the feeling of the early morning rush. I’ve done it. Bought 2 19″ Sony LCD’s for a song. Got there first thing in the morning on the 26th. The mall was pretty empty as most people knew the sale lasts the whole week. But, your real clear point was the lack of civility in the US. I don’t get it. You guys will sacrifice ANYTHING for corps that run themselves into the ground in the name of profits and shareholders, but for the rest of the country, its jungle mentality. You’re health care system is the perfect example. Americans LIKE not having health care. Somehow, NOT being insured means that the country is for freedom and capitalism… I’ll never understand it.
56.
Bang on. Walmart doesn’t care. Just make sure no one is stealing. They can handle the death… afterall, he’s not a REAL employee, more of an “associate”.
Walmart in Canada just annouced they are opening a lot of their stores for 24 hours per day for the Christmas shopping season. They also did this last year at my local Wal-mart.
I think I will do the same as last year and do my Christmas shopping at 3am when the store is practically deserted. I hate going into stores in December as they are wall to wall people and it takes forever to buy anything.
61,
Well, the good thing is that you have the Mormons protecting your great Christian nation (proof: Iraq) from the evils of gay marriage. Us Canadians are already two feet into hell with universal health care AND gay marriage. And you can see the obvious signs; 666 behind every Canadians ear, UPC codes on all our wrists, and the strongest banking industry in the world.