Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:46 am

I've heard of the mob mentality.. but

[url="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/29walmart.html?em"]Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death[/url]

The throng of Wal-Mart shoppers had been building all night, filling sidewalks and stretching across a vast parking lot at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y. At 3:30 a.m., the Nassau County police had to be called in for crowd control, and an officer with a bullhorn pleaded for order.

Tension grew as the 5 a.m. opening neared. Someone taped up a crude poster: “Blitz Line Starts Here.”

By 4:55, with no police officers in sight, the crowd of more than 2,000 had become a rabble, and could be held back no longer. Fists banged and shoulders pressed on the sliding-glass double doors, which bowed in with the weight of the assault. Six to 10 workers inside tried to push back, but it was hopeless.

Suddenly, witnesses and the police said, the doors shattered, and the shrieking mob surged through in a blind rush for holiday bargains. One worker, Jdimytai Damour, 34, was thrown back onto the black linoleum tiles and trampled in the stampede that streamed over and around him. Others who had stood alongside Mr. Damour trying to hold the doors were also hurled back and run over, witnesses said.

You can read the rest by clicking on the title

Claudius · Post by **Claudius** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 12:04 pm

Sounds like the worst of the 'christmas spirit'.

Curry · Post by **Curry** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 1:18 pm

pffft americans

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 2:49 pm

Seriously guys, I think we're avoiding the real issue here. Is this funny?

Claudius · Post by **Claudius** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:31 pm

Well I don't think its funny but sometimes when I hear about horrible tragedies I think I have a protective reflex to laugh. I think it is a reflex to dull out the empathy feeling the pain of the tragedy.

Tate · Post by **Tate** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:02 pm

I think that if I saw this on a satirical news show, somewhere I knew it was a joke, it would be funny.

Sort of emphasizes the sinister undertone to the name "Black Friday", doesn't it?

Siberys · Post by **Siberys** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:18 pm

Unfortunately this isn't the first black friday that's featured injury and death.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:35 pm

I seem to recall reading this isn't the first time this has happened at a Wal-Mart on Black Friday. You would think in any case that the central office might understand the need to establish queuing lines and gradual entry at such a time, especially since they're dealing with hundreds of obsessive idiots packed into a small entrance meant to hold twenty or less, but...

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 8:36 am

Tricky wrote:Seriously guys, I think we're avoiding the real issue here. Is this funny?

My first thought as well, frankly. At first glance it doesn't appear to be: it involves death, and the circumstances aren't particularly peculiar. If one digs further, one might perhaps find a slight tinge of humor in the irony of a brutal, senseless death in the name of Christmas, but personally I feel that would be stretching it - scraping the bottle of the humor barrel, so to speak. It's just one of those moments where jokes would be considered crass and tasteless, as opposed to fresh and edgy.

My final verdict is not funny. Feel free to disagree

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:13 am

I would agree. But Jon Swift, writing here, makes excellent humorous capital by using the situation to springboard into one of his faux-wingnut blog posts. As his pseudonym suggests, Swift enjoys adopting a tone of serious far-right nuttery while including plenty of links that completely undercut his arguments. His conclusions are often a delight, too.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:32 am

fable wrote:I would agree. But Jon Swift, writing here, makes excellent humorous capital by using the situation to springboard into one of his faux-wingnut blog posts. As his pseudonym suggests, Swift enjoys adopting a tone of serious far-right nuttery while including plenty of links that completely undercut his arguments. His conclusions are often a delight, too.

OK now that link is funny

My favourite part:

Of course, my heart goes out to the family of this man who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but while it is unfortunate that someone got hurt, capitalism is not a dinner party. There will always be some collateral damage in a free market. Socialists who hate capitalism are now trying to scapegoat these patriotic Americans who celebrated an American tradition by rising before dawn on the day after Thanksgiving to express their love of this country by partaking of the bounties of the free enterprise system.

But yes, as for the incident itself, I don't find it amusing at all. It disgusts me... and while I wish I had been surprised when I first read about it, I was not. To me, this incident is actually emblematic of what this continent has become... (because Canada, though we don't have Black Friday, ain't a whole lot different), a population of mindless shoppers bent on securing a "good deal," and woe betide anyone who stands in their way, literally.

penguin_king · Post by **penguin_king** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:02 pm

i think if this had to come from anywhere in the world it would have been america, i dont mean any offense in this, im just amazed by how much the consumer spirit has taken over america.

i lose faith in the human race when i read that a person was killed because people wanted to buy christmas presents. doesnt really fit with the "christmas spirit" does it?

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:30 pm

Just in the US? There's a blog of a Swedish-American who spends a lot of time in the former, complaining that "I couldn’t help but notice something was amiss. Christmas decorations were already out. Little towels with Christmasy themes. Tea trays with Christmas elves painted on them. Christmas had come to Sweden in October. And I was confused."

I've also noticed extensive Christmas street decorations on Budapest webcams everywhere in the fair city. And from a blog about Singapore, we learn now that it is "already displaying the Christmas spirit. Orchard Road was a tropical winter wonderland with Christmas scenes and lights ablaze; waiters in some of the restaurants wore Santa caps; Christmas sales signs were everywhere. The aggressive spirit of capitalism in the face of global depression."

Granted, the US is known for its materialistic culture and aggressive capitalism, but these are qualities shared the world over. It would seem that others are doing the same nightmarish stuff. And if the US economy continues to travel down the sewer pipes (I maintained it was already in the toilet back in 2004), we may find some financially livelier nation grabbing the attention for thought-free holiday spending, in the future.

Only for the moment are we the leaders in crass commercialism. I suppose we should savor it, like the person who feels sooo much better after vomiting out their insides following a seemingly endless binge. (Nice image, I know.) But my wife and I have never bought into the commercial religion, so I guess we'll take a pass on all the big department store stops, as we drive our 1994 car to and from the supermarket.

Claudius · Post by **Claudius** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 3:28 pm

I think the tendancy is to reject something that you don't like and see it as outside yourself. I think one idea in psychology and certainly some of the books I have read teaching mind training is that we reject the parts of others that we hate in ourselves. Which is somewhat childish because we know many people are trapped in ignorance and are finger pointing probably is not too useful to them. At least not in every case.

So I think from a very base perspective we might laugh to protect ourselves from the horror of the world. At least that is how I feel. I feel inspired to take feel empathy and compassion with both the victims and the perpretrators, because I have been trapped in a net of anger, desire, and confusion myself so I can say I am no different.