Wal-Mart Worker Trampled to Death...How utterly unnecessary.

[Fla Dem]

"At least three other people were injured.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in Bentonville, Ark., would not confirm the reports of a stampede but said a "medical emergency" had caused the company to close the store, which is in Valley Stream on Long Island."


Nassau County, NY police said the 34-year-old worker was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 6 a.m., an hour after the store opened. The cause of death was not immediately known."

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/wal-mart-worker-trampled-to-death/262342

What a tragedy, for what.....to be the 1st to grab a $60 DVD player. Consumerism gone wild. Walmart CEO should be charged with accessory to murder for hyping the Black Friday events and not having sufficient security.

[KittyWampus]

1. if this gets enough exposure and causes people to examine their behavior and Walmart to take

a modicum of responsibility, then perhaps that young person will not have died in vain.

I feel kind of strongly about this. It should be talked about over the dinner table and around water coolers.

[lib2DaBone]

3. A perfect example of greatness in America.....

I heard that a woman miscarried in the crowd as well.

Grab that Chinese junk.. get all you can. Who cares about American jobs.

[Canuckistanian]

11. So Walmart is indirectly reponsible for an abortion as well

Tell THAT to the fundies.

[Poll_Blind]

2. It's ironic that when we read news stories of people trampled during the Hajj in Saudi...

...Arabia we think "Ah, that would never go on over here!"

  They'll trample people to get close to holy shrines, we'll trample people...to get to great bargains.

PB

[Frustratedlady]

5. You said....

"They'll trample people to get close to holy shrines, we'll trample people...to get to great bargains."

One and the same, isn't it? This society has come to the point where we worship and worry about where our cell phones and flat screens are more than our families. We need to get our priorities straight.

I've made it a point to watch traffic a bit more carefully. When I see someone making wrong moves in traffic, they are almost always on a cell phone. It is getting to be epidemic and all states need to ban the use of cell phones while driving.

We had a woman, the other day, who was waiting for a train and she was talking on her cell phone. She apparently thought the train had stopped and was too close to the train. She had her foot severed and leg crushed by being pulled beneath the train. Imagine her husband on the other end of the phone.

[Poll_Blind]

10. I agree. And what a horrible but entirely believeable anecdote. n/t

PB

[tblue37]

44. Aren't great bargains the American version of holy shrines? nt

[hendo]

4. No one cared last year

when a Wal-mart customer got trampled. I highly doubt this will do anything.

And if you sue wal-mart for hyping Black Friday, you have to sue every retail store.

[Fla Dem]

19. If they're doing the hype, they should be prepared for the mobs.

Obviously they weren't. They created a situation resulting in the employees death. Negligence. If others retailers hyped the event and there were no injuries or deaths, then there is no reason to sue or arrest. In this case there was injuries and death.

Maybe if someone was charged for the death....neligent homicide, or sued...then maybe it would change. If there is no punishment, behavior doesn't change.

[hendo]

26. Is it really thier responsibility

to protect people from the worst in themselves? The mobs who trampled the guy should be charged, but it will be hard to find out who the people were who trampled him.

Yes, they should have known there would be crazy crowds if only because there are crazy crowds every black friday, but the mob is the entity that killed him, not wal-mart.

[Karenina]

31. These openings have been hyped for years.

There have been prior deaths. It is Wal-Marts responsibility to provide a safe environment for its shoppers.

[hendo]

32. it is increasingly hard

to protect people from themselves.

[Fla Dem]

37. This wasn't protecting the mob members from themselves.

This was protecting employees, who had to be there, from the mob Wal Mart created and encourages by their advertising. If they spent even a fraction on security, that they spent on advertising, this may not have happened.

[hendo]

41. it was stupid consumers

I hope that $15 dvd player was worth it to everyone who murdered the poor employee. His blood is on thier hands.

[Fla Dem]

35. Wal Mart has a responsibility to protect their employees.

They put their employees into harms way without providing adequate protection. As stated in this thread, this happened last year as well. So it was not an unforseen possibility. Wal Mart was too cheap to provide adequate security for their employees. And it was their responsibility to control the mob. They created it.

[fascisthunter]

42. as well as customers, for it is their property

[hendo]

51. it is hard to protect people from themselves.

nt

[fascisthunter]

53. The Store Created the Environment for those Crowds

But you keep blaming the people and keep absolving the business that owns and manages that PRIVATE property. If it's too hard, they should be shut down because they can't handle managing their environment.

[hendo]

50. you can't protect everyone from everything

It sucks, but pointing the blame at Wal-mart for a bunch of idiotic shoppers isn't going to get you anywhere. Other than being pissed off at Wal-mart that is.

[NashVegas]

54. "I'd Walk Over You To See the Who"

A friend of mine in college had that t-shirt. In case you're not aware of the reference, it's to a late 1970s incident where 11 people were crushed in the rush to "festival" seating at a Who concert.

This wasn't the first time someone got crushed at a Wal-Mart or other retail event on Black Friday. With 2k people out there, the store and its management are responsible for crowd control, just as concert promoters are.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Yes, we are...

A nation of more than a few savages. I would not have been surprised to read that the crowd then fought over the choicest cuts of the corpse.

[notadmblnd]

7. Long Island. Isn't that a fairly well to do area of the country?

[iamahaingttta]

8. Long Island is the asshole of the New York...

metropolitan area.
People on Long Island tend to be just as vapid as anywhere else in the country.
There are affluent parts, but that doesn't mean much.

[NikolaC]

13. I Used To Live on Long Island

A lot of the people (not all) that I came across there were vapid, right wing and racist. That was from 1990-1996 though, I am not sure how much it has changed since then. Hopefully it has and this horrible crime at the WalMart does not reflect what most of the people are like there now.

[annabanana]

18. (sigh)

There are some progressive pockets.. But over-all, it is a regressive sliver of NYS.. Peter King still hangs in here.

It has a lo-o-o-ng history of being the last to "get it". It was a Tory holdout until the very end of the Revolution.

[girl_interrupted]

55. Since Nov 2005 Both LI County Executives have been Democrats

Long Island was a former GOP bastion, for at least 30 years +, all that has changed, since Nov 2005. Tom Suozzi in Nassau Country & Steve Levy in Suffolk. There are some very affluent people on Long Island, some middle class & some poor. The area around Green Acres Mall is anything but affluent. That Mall has had quite a bit of violent crime in the pass few years, stabbings, shootings, etc.

The trampling death, is beyond tragic. The actions of that mob is postively sickening. They literally tore off the doors, for what? Frigging TV's?

Walmart was wrong in its actions, but so was that mob. I dont know how you could trample not only this poor store clerk but a very visible pregnant woman, not to mention so many others. Yes, they waited out in the cold, but thats what happens when you go shopping on Black Friday. Thats not news, bargain hunters love it. I have never seen anything like what occurred at that Mall, ever.

People have got to take responsiblity for their actions. There was no need for what happened there. And no excuse. With this clerk lying on the ground, in full view, receiving emergency medical care, they continued to shop. Knowing that a man had died, these "shoppers" were bitching when police came in and closed the store. Guess it interrupted their "shopping". How cold can you get? Talk about Mans inhumanity to Man.

My sympathy goes to the family of Jdimytai Damour. Police are now considering bringing charges against those involved & I hope they do.

[Book Lover]

24. LI is too big and diverse to make that sort of generalization

Valley Stream, where this happened, has its pockets of rich and poor, like everywhere else.

[THUNDER HANDS]

45. the majority of shoppers were poor black people

don't generalize just from the area.

[meow2u3]

47. Most of them came from my childhood neighborhood

Springfield Gardens--where I grew up, Laurelton, Rosedale, and South Jamaica. Not exactly high society.

Green Acres Mall is about a mile from SG.

[Odin2005]

9. Ugh. Consumerism has turned society insane.

These idiots that camp out overnight to be the first ones in line scare me.

[leftofthedial]

12. when a mob tramples someone to death,

who gets charged with what crime?

[NikolaC]

14. I Guess Maybe

they will have to look at the security cameras for the answer to that one.

[shadowknows69]

21. They fucking all should. This madness in people has to be stopped

[leftofthedial]

30. all the shoppers?

What about the store, who build the pent-up crowd into a frenzy by letting them camp out to be first in line, holding them behind closed doors and then releasing the apparent "flood" of eager shoppers (most of whom just have to piss like racehorses after camping out in the cold on the sidewalk all night). The stores advertise ridiculous "bargains" on this year's hyped chinese crap and let all the mindless consumers know they have to be FIRST! in line to get the best deal.

Then there's the media, feeding the frenzy by covering "Black Friday" like it was the Super Bowl, which is to say WAY more then they cover things like illegal invasions and occupations, the privatization of the US Treasury, the crimes of the executive branch, etc.

They might as well try the whole fucking sick idiot consumer culture.

[fascisthunter]

43. The Company That Owns the Store where the Trampling Occurred

It's their property, and they knew there would be a mob today. They should have prepared for it. They didn't.... someone is dead because of it.

[WI_DEM]

15. the retailers build all of this up and then the sheeple respond--it's disgusting. Getting up at 4am

to be among the first in line to get a $10 off coupon and partake in "early bird specials." Just ridiculous.

[HamdenRice]

16. I little inside insight about this Walmart trample story and this part of Long Island

I heard this story early this morning and also formed an image of greedy yuppie consumers stampeding a suburban mall.

Then in the middle of the day, I heard on the radio that it was the Walmart in Valley Stream, Long Island, and realized that I've been there. In fact, I've only been in a Walmart once, and it was in that one (I live in neighboring Queens).

That was one of the grimmest store I've ever been in. I wrote a diary entry about it and noted that it reminded me of something like Store Number 23 in Stalingrad, circa 1973. The shelves were not well stocked, and it was dark and dingy.

Long Island is demographically strange and diverse. We often think of it as where white flight went when it left NYC in the 70s, and as being full of yuppies. But L.I. also has an exploding poor immigrant population, many clustered in the centers of small "towns" like Hempstead, and while Valley Stream isn't the worst, I recall that it seemed that everyone at that Walmart that day seemed to be working poor, and Mexican.

So it seems to me that this stampede could well have been by relatively poor people clamoring to get Christmas stuff for the lowest possible price for their relatively large immigrant families.

I would see this as a sign of desperate times, rather than of consumerism.

On edit: The reason I've put "towns" in quotes above, is that I've never understood the L.I. concept of a "town." To me, it seems like unending urban sprawl, so it's hard to see where one town ends and another begins.

[exboyfil]

33. Pictures of the crowd

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/galleries/walmart_stampede_captured_in_pictures/walmart_stampede_captured_in_pictures.html

If they are poor or have large families, then it is justified? If it is yuppies, then they are just callous and insensitive? If it is the poor, then they are desparate (for a 52" television)???? We have got one set, a 2nd hand one that is 20 years old.

That being said this Black Friday stuff is crap. I really don't see how it benefits the retailer very much. I remember retailers who don't have advertised stuff, and it impacts my shopping pattern in the future.

I did participate for the second time ever in Black Friday this morning with my two kids. Soft sided dog kennels for $10 at Mennards. Great for holding the dogs at agility trials. Mennard's actually did a great job handling the crowds. They were walking around with the other door busters and handing them out to folks in the line. Mennard's had everything they advertised in which I was interested. Can't say the same for Wal-Mart, Staples, or Best Buy.

I would never participate in a crowd like what was shown in these pictures. It is truly astonding.

[HamdenRice]

34. Murder by stampede is always justified

"If they are poor or have large families, then it is justified?"

This is so typical of DU. You post something about social context, and soon enough you're going to be accused of being Hitler. So yes, of course the reason I posted what I posted was because I think that murder by stampede is justified against Walmart employees.

:sarcasm:

That said, the pictures you linked to show that this was not an upscale yuppie crowd, which was my point in describing the Walmart in Valley Stream.

[Lucian]

17. I share Tyler Durden's beliefs on consumerism.

If you haven't seen Fight Club, then you have no idea what I'm talking about.

[shadowknows69]

22. Totally there with you. Need to see it a second time.

What was that recipe for soap again?

[Cleita]

20. If I weren't boycotting Wal-Mart for the principle, I probably wouldn't shop

there anyway. Many of the customers there scare me. It's like every meth lab operator and user shows up there to do their shopping.

[shadowknows69]

23. Fuck Christmas anymore

What little spirit of the holidays I still try to observe, mostly for my family's sake, is dead with this poor worker. This country should be completely ashamed of itself.

[burythehatchet]

25. Fox Security is comin' to get you!

[shadowknows69]

40. Well, they'll find one pissed off pagan if they do

And I'll explain to them, while hitting them with a large stick, that they stole MY holiday and turned it into a commercial quasi-Christian farce.

[grace0418]

27. And this is why I don't leave my house on Black Friday. No sale price is worth that

kind of idiocy. That poor man.

[SoCalDem]

28. How disgusting.. a 34 yr old guy so desperate for work, that he's TEMPING

at walmart..and gets trampled to death by stampeding creatures, so eager to get a cheap TV, that they kill a man who probably only wanted to earn a few bucks for Christmas presents..

and the article didn't even give him the dignity of NAMING him...just called him a maintenance worker.. a temp..a walmart worker... might as well have called him a cog:(

[newtothegame]

29. Disgusting and agreed...

But accessory to murder in this situation when we still have drunk drivers getting off for involuntary manslaughter?

[Fla Dem]

46. It has to start somewhere..if it's involuntary manslaughter, I'll go for that. eom

[Liberal_in_LA]

36. There is no need to rush to buy that plastic sh*t sold at WM. What a tragedy

[earth mom]

38. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is worth this kind of behavior.

And I'm talking about the stores for pushing Black Friday like corner drug dealers and the people who line up like junkies. :puke:

How low will our society sink?

[aikoaiko]

39. Its a terrible accident that could happen anywhere there are a lot of anxious people

Like a rock concert, a soccer game, or even a small club with a metal band and mosh pit.

[BostonMa]

48. whatever

[Fla Dem]

49. Yes, it could have happened anywhere, but it was totally predictable

and preventable. My whole point is, every year there are news stories about the mob scenes at big box stores. People have been injured and/or killed in the past. If Wal Mart hypes these door buster sales, encourages people to form huge mobs through advertising, and then does not provide the necessary crowd control they are f@cking negligent. How much would it have cost them to have paid for a special police detail? May I suggest, less than the cost of a life.

From reports I heard and read, only the front of the crowd was told that 20 people at a time would be allowed in the store. Then once those 20 were in, the next 20 would be allowed in. Unfortunately, the people at the back of the crowd were never told. So when the doors opened there was a surge from the back. People at the front had to rush forward or risk being trampled themselves.

Couple the complete lack of security/crowd control, with advertised specials which make a point of "limited stock", "first come, first served" Wal Marts and others set the environment for just such a mob scene and subsequent tragedy.

[L0oniX]

52. Christmas kills!

[Owl]

56. Very unnecesary... don't shop at Wal-Mart!