This is disgusting. I normally defend capitalism when it is under attack from people who say that the world has become overly materialistic, but I can't do it for this. I cannot defend the murder of an innocent employee who was just trying to make some money to feed his family. Because that's what this is: murder. These people knew they were killing a man, knew that he was dead, and they kept shopping. I hope their Christmas is overshadowed by the pall of death that they have wrought upon the family of this man. I hope their Christmas dinner rots in their mouths. This is unforgivable.

Beowulf DW:
In my opinion, this is a disgusting display of just how far over the line consumerism has gone in this country. This inbred urge to, "Buy! Buy! Buy!" is also one of the main reasons we drove ourselves into an economic recession, isn't it?

My heart and prayers go out to the family, friends, and soul of that poor worker.

...Man...The fact that that is a really fucked up way to die certainly doesn't help matters...

i agree with ya completely

Indigo_Dingo:
When I saw this, I silently prayed it was a joke article.

If only, been on the news pages of the BBC and all.
Any news on how the Police are treating this? Anything less than manslaughter and I'll be severely deisappointed.

In the meantime, thoughts and prayers for Mr Damour's family.

-_-......

Christ, we need to stop this black Friday crap.

I just wonder what the hell did they want to get from the shop that was worth waiting hours in a line, vandalizing the entrance and disregarding safety of others and self. An IPod? Killing in the name of a religion or a political ideology is crazy, but killing for inanimate objects you don't need anyway is just beyond fucking words.

xitel:
This is disgusting. I normally defend capitalism when it is under attack from people who say that the world has become overly materialistic, but I can't do it for this. I cannot defend the murder of an innocent employee who was just trying to make some money to feed his family. Because that's what this is: murder. These people knew they were killing a man, knew that he was dead, and they kept shopping. I hope their Christmas is overshadowed by the pall of death that they have wrought upon the family of this man. I hope their Christmas dinner rots in their mouths. This is unforgivable.

/completely 100% agree with you

God, this makes me sick to my stomach. How greedy people in our society have become.....
Also....

'I've been on line since yesterday morning,'

As if anyone gives a crap, especially since someone died because of your greed.

HSIAMetalKing:
.... Fucking New York, man... the place is a cesspool.

Not all of it, Thank god.

It's time like this I'm glad that I own GTA IV......so I can kill the fucking idiots that inhabit New York.

Stubee:
I dont get it, if they are wiling to smash doors down and kill people, why not just steal the damn merchandise?

And how big are the discounts? we dont have Black friday in the UK

Beaten to it. Apparently murder isn't quite as bad as theft now? It's really just too disgusting to comment on, this is one of the few times I wouldn't mind a literal interpretation of "eye for an eye". May the spirit of that poor employee haunt every product purchased by those jackasses.

"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, 'I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" said one shopper who was shocked by the savage display.

Do I have to say anything?!

Nathan Meunier:

"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, 'I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" said one shopper who was shocked by the savage display.

Seriously? A)the savings can't be worth that. B)How do you not care that someone's dead?

galletea:
Faith in humanity....failing.
And what's worse is that I wasn't even surprised, I just sighed. I could go on about the should've and would'ves but all I can do is hope someone learns from it.

I know, same with me. When a friend of mine told me "Hey, some guy at a wall-mart got crushed on Black Friday" my first thought (besides the usual "oh, that's horrible" stuff)was "Didn't that happen last year? Or the year before? Or when the iPhone came out?"

EDIT:

rayman 101:
It's time like this I'm glad that I own GTA IV......so I can kill the fucking idiots that inhabit New York.

The scary part is, taking Nico out of the equation, Liberty City is better than this.

they broke the door down and trampled people so they could BUY STUFF??? MORONS! JERKS! IDIOTS! Intelligence isn't expensive--go get some.

Indigo_Dingo:
When I saw this, I silently prayed it was a joke article.

Ditto. I've never heard of such an incident down under though, thank god.

hmm.... how much is a nuke?

My sympathy goes out to the family and the deceased.

With the economy in the toilet, I'm not surprised that there were some mobs, but it's definately to far if someone gets killed because of a TV that's 70% off or something.

If I had any respect in humanity, I'd lose alot of it I'd tell you that.

Sadly, and this was purely coincidental at the time, but when my friend told me about this I vomited. Literally. Not metaphorically or anything like that, I totally spewed. But had I not been sick at the time, I probably would have anyway. Our government needs to have regulations on this kind of shit.

Jesus...I'm really not sure what to say to this. This truly is disgusting. My hearts go out to the friends and family of the man who was killed. Seriously, a bargain is worth more than a human life?

I lost my faith in humanity a long time ago but this still shocked me.

I hope that nobody will ever make this Black Friday stuff again.

I think there is some of the responsibility for this tragedy being over looked here:

Five minutes before the store was to open, the horde of unruly customers shattered the door, trampled through the half-dozen Wal-Mart employees who had desperately been trying to reinforce the doomed entryway, and proceeded to shop, according to police and eyewitnesses.

The employer and managers responsible for sending those under paid, no benefits workers to 'reinforce' should be criminally charged and fired. Walmart should also be investigated to see if this is standard practice to send employees into harm's way.

Common sense should tell you that if you have a pressing mob outside your front doors, you get people away from the doors and tell the crowd to get orderly or disperse ... or there will be no shopping period, we'll just turn out the lights and walk out the back door till the cops take care of the mob. This isn't just a story about the mob of shoppers being greedy and irresponsible, its about the business being that way too.

And not only that, but apparently there were police present? Why weren't they doing their jobs and calling in the riot police, ambulance, and demanding people get orderly or disperse?

There are all kinds of hands with blood on them with things like this. I hope some people who are running businesses read this: don't even try to do business in situations like this.

If the people running Wal-Mart have any sense of decency, they'll do something like not perpetuate the shopping frenzy for the rest of this year's holiday season and maybe next year as well by having no special deals and no holiday hours. But I know they'll never do anything like this, they just care about raking in that dough.

galletea:
Faith in humanity....failing.
And what's worse is that I wasn't even surprised, I just sighed. I could go on about the should've and would'ves but all I can do is hope someone learns from it.

No one will. I mean this should be one of those moments where a society stands back and re-evaluates itself, but no one will and crap like this will likely happen again.

They should have only allowed a small amount of people in at a time to avoid this very thing. I hope the employee's family sues Walmart for this.

Edit: Missed the part about how they broke in early. My basic sentiments remain; Walmart should have done more to protect it's employees.

I also hope those worthless, pathetic sheep got what they were shopping for.

Thanks heavens I take residence in Texas where there are usually no more than 50 people at any one given store (even Wal-Mart) waiting on black friday...
I suspect that it's because most southerners think it's idiotic to be outdoors at those silly, wee hours.

Yeah, we had a slavery issue a number of years ago, but at least nobody got trampled for a Cuisinart.

I heard about this. I saw it in the news. This happened about a town away from where I worked. This is sad. Words cannot describe the hate I have toward all of those bastards.

Tiamat666:
This is why I hate crowds. It's easy for a crowd of people to stop being individual, thinking human beings and start becoming a crazy, wild animal.

Ever read Among the Thugs by Bill Buford? Talks about mob mentality and all that. Excellent reading.

Baby Tea:
[quote="Brokkr" post="7.78661.985640"]I heard that the police are going to look over the footage from the security cameras and charge a lot of the people who were responsible for this.

I really hope they do. It's disgusting what has happened. Guy was just trying to make a buck for the holidays, likely to buy his own gifts for his family and friends, and this happens. And that people didn't want to leave and really didn't care that there was a man killed...I don't even have the words to say how heartless you'd have to be.quote]

Really? You hope that specific people are punished for the actions of a MOB. It's wrong that he died, but bringing a few people to the sacrificial alter to atone for the crimes of many is in no way justice.

Stubee:
I dont get it, if they are wiling to smash doors down and kill people, why not just steal the damn merchandise?

And how big are the discounts? we dont have Black friday in the UK

Indeed - we've had the odd incident of injury, but its rare. Further, I believe the one case I heard of was of a store chain that had gone bankrupt and was shutting down (and people were ...eager... to claim their orders (furniture, I think it was).

swift tongued:

Baby Tea:

Brokkr:
I heard that the police are going to look over the footage from the security cameras and charge a lot of the people who were responsible for this.

I really hope they do. It's disgusting what has happened. Guy was just trying to make a buck for the holidays, likely to buy his own gifts for his family and friends, and this happens. And that people didn't want to leave and really didn't care that there was a man killed...I don't even have the words to say how heartless you'd have to be.

How do you distinguify one person in a mob? Sure a single person may have done the stepping, but it's the whole mob's fault for breaking the window and rough hosing the employees to begin with. Punishing specific people for something that's everyone's fault is not justice.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of that poor man. I hope the police get them justice.

QFT

CanadianWolverine:
I think there is some of the responsibility for this tragedy being over looked here:

Five minutes before the store was to open, the horde of unruly customers shattered the door, trampled through the half-dozen Wal-Mart employees who had desperately been trying to reinforce the doomed entryway, and proceeded to shop, according to police and eyewitnesses.

The employer and managers responsible for sending those under paid, no benefits workers to 'reinforce' should be criminally charged and fired. Walmart should also be investigated to see if this is standard practice to send employees into harm's way.

Common sense should tell you that if you have a pressing mob outside your front doors, you get people away from the doors and tell the crowd to get orderly or disperse ... or there will be no shopping period, we'll just turn out the lights and walk out the back door till the cops take care of the mob. This isn't just a story about the mob of shoppers being greedy and irresponsible, its about the business being that way too.

And not only that, but apparently there were police present? Why weren't they doing their jobs and calling in the riot police, ambulance, and demanding people get orderly or disperse?

There are all kinds of hands with blood on them with things like this. I hope some people who are running businesses read this: don't even try to do business in situations like this.

Wow, I didn't even think of this. You're right, businesses and inaction on the part of police are just as guilty. I think on Black Friday police should be given the order to use tear gas and beat rioters senseless, and to shoot to kill if necessary.

John Tacos:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha........ People crack me the **** up!

Umm...

orannis62:
The scary part is, taking Nico out of the equation, Liberty City is better than this.

That's because Fiction must be believable. This, an unbelievable situation is fit purly for real life. I used to work at Wal-Mart, for just over two years and worked two Black Fridays. This is not even the slightest shock to me. It's detestable, but the first thing through my head was: "Only one?"
This is the world we live in, Umbrella Corp. Wal-Mart is so uncaring about the guys life. I worked in Electronics alone on one Black Friday. They had me, a scrawny computer nerd chase after a thief once even, I would have anyways, mind you since I hate thieves, but that is their way. The things I've seen during the holidays have made me question why I should even care anymore. Trampling a woman, stealing her cart with items, purse and child. That was 5 minutes into it, too. And (At least when I was there) they screwed their employees over constantly for extremely uncompetative pay. They will only learn one thing from this, and that is to figure out a way to make it harder for them to lose money from this... Thankfully that will likly include less deaths, they are expensive legal battles.
Mob mentality is disgusting, and in their own heads, they didn't kill him. So they will for the most part, not feel remorse, and it's not a New York City thing, either (Though I say we shove NYC into the ocean anyways. Just to be safe) it's a problem with our over-crowded society at large. Remember the BS from Tickle Me Elmo?!

-Link Kadeshi

Darkrai:

John Tacos:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha........ People crack me the **** up!

Umm...

You can't tell me that you dont think people are getting even more stupid then they used to be. Sure, I feel terrible for the family of the victim, but I feel that he's in a better place, away from these roaming consumer knobs.

Thats just plain depressing, I can't imagine wanting to get into a store so bad as to break the doors and trample an employee to death, surely someone could have stopped when they, ohh I don't know... STEP ON A PERSON! Like honestley mobs are all mentally challenged.

Link Kadeshi:
*Terrible experiences*
-Link Kadeshi

See, that is why on Black Friday I go to stores not to shop, but to try to cheer up the sullen, downtrodden retail employees.