A Time for Change

Mob of Christmas Shopers at Wal-Mart Shortly Before Incident

Black Friday resulted in death at a Long Island Wal-Mart early this morning when a frenzied mob of Christmas shoppers pushed the doors off their hinges to get inside to bargain shop, crushing a temproray Wal-Mart employee to death who was near the door.  The New York Times reports:

A half-dozen Wal-Mart employees lined up in the entryway trying to hold back the crowd by pushing against the locked sliding doors, but they were overwhelmed by the force of the crowd…

As the doors snapped open and people streamed in, several people fell on top of one another. The 34-year-old employee who died was at the bottom of the pile, the police said.

Earlier in the evening the police had come to assist with crowd control, but were called away to deal with other similar situations at other area stores.  The crowd had been gathering since 9:00 p.m. Thanksgiving evening until it grew to 2,000.  At approximately 5:00 a.m. 

…a crowd of 2,000 anxious shoppers started pushing, shoving and piling against the locked sliding glass doors of the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y… The shoppers broke the doors off their hinges and surged in, toppling a 34-year-old temporary employee who had been waiting with other workers in the store’s entryway.

People did not stop to help the employee as he lay on the ground, and they pushed against other Wal-Mart workers who were trying to aid the man. The crowd kept running into the store even after the police arrived, jostling and pushing officers who were trying to perform CPR, the police said.

“They were like a stampede,” said Nassau Det. Lt. Michael Fleming. “Hundreds of people walked past him, over him or around him.”

The employee, who was not identified, was taken from the Wal-Mart to nearby Franklin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m., the police said.  The police said that three other shoppers were injured and a 28-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant was taken to the hospital for observation.

Other reports have stated that even after the Wal-Mart workers asked the shoppers to leave the store, they did not leave and continued shopping.

Wal-Mart stated, “The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority,” Wal-Mart said in a statement.

The Police said that the store “could have done more” to prevent the incident.

“I’ve heard other people call this an accident, but it’s not,” he said. “This certainly was foreseeable.”

My question is, why not just open the doors when you could clearly see the crowd getting antsy.  What’s the harm of selling early?  On the other hand, how could those people not stop to help?  What a horrible senseless tragedy.  What is the price of a bargain? A human life.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::