The Mob Needs Coal and Compassion Shoved Into Their Stockings

I still cannot get past what happened last week when a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by a mob driven mad by Black Friday deals. I wish it was easy enough to blame Jdimytai Damour's death on a stint of insanity, but unfortunately it is just another example of people not giving a shit.

While we rage at the Mumbai massacre and terrorists and the hell they are putting this world through, a guy gets killed so people can be first in line at the $2 DVD bin. The senseless of it all.

In the preceding clip, and this story from the New York Times (more detailed than msn's piece I linked to before) a witness, Kimberly Cribbs of Queens, said many of the shoppers acted like "savages" and were upset because they had to leave the store after the man's death.

“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’ ” Ms. Cribbs told The Associated Press. “They kept shopping."

Wow, and I thought Christmas was supposed to be about compassion and love. I guess I'm just a naive idealist.

The only good to come out of this is that the pregnant woman didn't lose her baby and ended up being okay.

In the aftermath I have several thoughts on the matter:

1. When I originally heard this story I assumed it was an elderly greeter who was killed. No, apparently Damour was something like 6'5" 270 lbs. For me, that makes the story even more unbelievable.

2. Defending Wal-Mart makes me feel so dirty, and by no means do I applaud their treatment of employees, but it is too easy for our blame everybody else society to pin everything on the retail giant's lack of security and not on the mob's zombie-like hunger for deals. Granted, Black Friday is known for stampeding crowds and Wal-Mart could have provided more barricades, fences, and security, but Damour would still be alive if these shoppers had acted like human beings and not rabid wolves. I've got it! In the future tazer them all and wheelbarrow them in.

3. Similarly, the only punishment in this whole thing will be to Wal-Mart's purse as it will be forced to relinquish millions in a civil suit. Not one person from that mob will serve a second in jail or provide a minute of community service, even if their faces are visible on tape. The defense is too easy. "I was pushed." "I had no choice but to follow the wave." Sadly, Damour's family and friends will only receive corporate PR apologies and never anything sincere from the persons who actually did the deed. Yes, I just puked in a bucket too.

4. What will shopping the rest of the Christmas season be like? Do I need to don riot gear and a Kevlar vest as I peruse through close-out, bottom-line weekend discounts? Maybe I should do all of my shopping online this year to avoid any injury.