Moonk:
If they can pull security tapes from condos at PSU to arrest 20 ppl from a crowd of 10,000 for pulling down a lightpost, they sure asa hell can figure out who instigated the stampede and willfully destroyed property and trampled the poo schmuck.

The inherent difference here was intent. Chances are nobody was REALLY trying to instigate a stampede in this case, while in the PSU case 20 specific people actually grabbed the lightpost and pulled or pushed it on PURPOSE.

hershmire: thomhee: This is the fault of the "white trash horde" trying to save $2 on a blender. I wish they could identify everyone in the crowd and arrest them, if for anything, stupidity.

A security photo from the incident:


While I agree the people involved should be prosecuted, this is not a "white trash" thing. It's not a race thing. It's a human greed thing. Stop casting about ridiculous generalities.

Based on that picture, it IS a race thing.

How many wal-marts are there? How many huge crowds lined up?

How many of them trampled a human being to death?

Just saying. Stereotypes have a basis in reality.

Drakkenmaw: Y'know, I was in a line at Best Buy at one point to buy a Wii. There were maybe 50 in stock, and probably close to 500 people showed up. So y'know what they did? They went down the line, gave the first 50 people vouchers for the desired item, and told the rest "I'm sorry, but we're now out. You can't buy one today." The crowd then dispersed, and in orderly fashion the people in the front of the line paid for and acquired their merchandise.

If you have limited numbers of any item of high demand, this system would make sense. A "open the gates and whoever grabs it gets it" method is basically due to human nature predetermined to wind up resulting in violence somehow. Especially since similar things have happened in prior years with trampling and rioting on sale days in this season, so the company was aware of the probable risk. If they failed to take action to minimize that known risk, while aware of probable consequences, they are liable.

THIS.

psychicdeath99: hienekenftw: fark_me_running: hienekenftw: Stupid? They have a right to sue. People trampled him and completely ignored him to get their stupid cheap goods. They STEPPED OVER HIS DEAD BODY so they could buy their merchandise. I think the family has reason enough to sue.

RTFA. they're suing walmart, not the wastes of oxygen that trampled him. i hope the family get counter sued for legal fees when they lose

I did read the article. Wal-Mart encouraged this crowd and its stampede and sent one man to control a 2000+ person crowd. If Wal-Mart wanted a huge crowd of morons, then it was their responsibility to try to get the crowd to enter in an orderly fashion.

Where in the article does it say that he was the only person sent to control the crowd? He's just the one who was killed. Also, where did it say that there was no effort made to get the crowd to enter in an orderly fashion?

So go to Wal*Mart and look.

/say "Hi" to the 60yr old Door Greeter for me. :)

Britney Spear's Speculum: Has anyone see the documentary about how wal-mart is bad for communities? What bothered me more is the amount of tax-payer dollars that go to subsidize wal-mart employees across america ($1.5 billion) in welfare and government services. It's not the workers, it's the company.

Yup. Wal*Mart needs to DIAF.

/first time I ever used that.

blackmanheaven: Sorry if it's already been mentioned, but I think this affair raises interesting questions, like "Who watches the watcher?"

The guy was hired to essentially be the security to prevent chaos and injuries. Should somebody have been hired to protect him? No. That notion is absurd. So, how can anyone be blamed other than the people who trampled him?

Yes, Walmart promoted a frenzy to get people into the store to buy, buy, buy... This is also why they hired this guy. To maintain order in the chaos. Yes, Walmart has the money so they should do the "decent" thing and reach out to the family, provide for their well-being after the loss of their bread-winner. And if they are sued, then the verdict should approximate the potential value of the earnings the man would probably have earned in his lifetime.

Not complicated and not millions of dollars.

So you think Chicago, New York, LA or any other big city should have 1 police officer?

That would end well.

Similar situation here. They hired a guy, yes, to "control" several thousand people. Good luck with that, because it's never gonna happen.

/unless you had a gun or something
//with more than 10 shots

I work at a Wal-Mart in CT, where we didn't have this problem. However, our store manager did work at a store where, as an assistant manager, he was there to open the doors at 5 a.m. He told us following this New York incident that he refused to open the doors until the mob backed up 10 feet. Blitz started at 5:18 a.m., Home Office received numerous complaints, but, obviously, he did the right thing to prevent an incident.

CowboyNinjaD

I'd rather see someone go to jail for this. Drag the CEO out of a board meeting and charge him with negligent homicide.

You sir or ma'am, are a friggin' genius.

Some dude (my cut and paste lost track and I am lazy)
In all seriousness, though, if it is found that Wal-Mart made no security arrangements, then fine, they are partially responsible.

Any department store that allows a crowd to gether at the front during Black Friday should be shut down by the police. In other words, people with actual smarts KNOW the stupid public will mob up for deals. If attempts aren't made to stop this, arrests should be made.

It would appear, though, that store managers expected people to act like, oh, I don't know, civilized human beings, and not trample over store employees.

See above. Allowing the crowd to gather and doing nothing is criminal behavior and should have forty-year prison sentences.

Is it too much to expect for shoppers to stop where they are and back off until the situation is resolved? Or is that 20 percent off a big screen TV worth killing someone for?

Yes, yes it is. Nobody would dare stop if the hundreds of white trash shiatheads behind them were pushing forward.

Pistoffradish

I understand the suit against Wal-Mart. But I'm a little confused about why they're going after the realty company that owns the property and the security company that patrols it.

Wal-Mart had actual security? Then fark it, sue 'em also. Security people are supposed to notice mobs and door bustin'. If the security folks didn't even try to call 911, they should be arrested.

Kahabut: hershmire: thomhee: This is the fault of the "white trash horde" trying to save $2 on a blender. I wish they could identify everyone in the crowd and arrest them, if for anything, stupidity.

A security photo from the incident:


While I agree the people involved should be prosecuted, this is not a "white trash" thing. It's not a race thing. It's a human greed thing. Stop casting about ridiculous generalities.

Based on that picture, it IS a race thing.

How many wal-marts are there? How many huge crowds lined up?

How many of them trampled a human being to death?

Just saying. Stereotypes have a basis in reality.

Amen. You can't embrace one stereotype (black guys have big johnsons) while crying foul about the others. You either shun all stereotypes or stfu.

and yes, if Wal Mart noticed this kind of crowd before the doors opened, and how could they not notice, they should be responsible. They did nothing to organize the crowd, hand out tickets, or otherwise take precaution. Just don't open the doors until they get in order, that simple.

Ah, how red-blooded American of them. Just like Wal*Mart is all-American.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Why not sue Walmart? They created a unsafe work environment for this guy. Retailers need to be held accountable for their actions, they can't get off scott free because they didn't kill him. This is the same as alcohol distributors targeting teenagers.

If the store actually had enough stock of their specials and the sales weren't limited to the first 2 hours, black friday frenzy wouldn't be riot like.

Personally, I think the assholes who did the shoving and trampling should be sued into oblivion & locked up for many, many years. And yes, Wal-Mart should have hired adequate police for crowd control.

The bottom line is, you can blame Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart didn't aim a grenade launcher at those idiots and force them to run over that guy and kill him. The pricks murdered the guy just to save a few dollars on some Christmas bling. There's no better example of how fundamentally horrible people are than this kind of thing.

The stores just need to stop having holiday sales of any kind during the Christmas season. If consumers can't behave in a halfway civil manner, fark 'em.

I'm late to the game, but how is this the fault of Wal-Mart? Every store I shop in has a Black Friday special. . .some were even open for what I called "Grey Thursday". How is this particular store supposed to guess that their customers would behave like animals? Yes, breaking down doors is the behavior of an animal. My dog does it. . .well, did it, he's better trained and more civilized than that crowd.

I have no problem with Wal-Mart in general. There are a lot of physically challenged workers, older workers, and young college-aged looking workers. They also appear to hire a lot of "minorities". They offer their merchandise at a price point that allows a family to stretch their budget. Everything isn't a great deal, but that's the case with every retailer. Their shoppers are fat, but so what?

My question is: wouldn't the damages come from Worker's Comp because he was died (was killed by a crowd) at work? I know California has a death benefit. . .not sure about every other state.

I hope this lawsuit gets thrown out, and if it doesn't, I guess it will kill special holiday shopping deals. Because a crowd behaved like animals and a family thought bringing a lawsuit would be the correct way to demonstrate their grief.

What!? You expect Wal-Mart to step up and do the right thing?
What planet you living on.

Setsuna: I don't want to defend the people who were trampling this poor person, but a stampede isn't something voluntary. They didn't run over him on purpose, if you have 3000 people behind you pushing, you can't stop.

No, you turn around and DECK your way through every last one of the people behind you.

Did it three years ago back in Memphis. People stopped really quickly when a man screaming "Quit trampling my broken toe!" starts swinging his cane around, and with the added benefit of kenjutsu training, it was quite effective. People quit their rush and walked very nicely past me while I waited for medical attention.

MrsHashBrown: I'm late to the game, but how is this the fault of Wal-Mart? Every store I shop in has a Black Friday special. . .some were even open for what I called "Grey Thursday". How is this particular store supposed to guess that their customers would behave like animals? Yes, breaking down doors is the behavior of an animal. My dog does it. . .well, did it, he's better trained and more civilized than that crowd.

I have no problem with Wal-Mart in general. There are a lot of physically challenged workers, older workers, and young college-aged looking workers. They also appear to hire a lot of "minorities". They offer their merchandise at a price point that allows a family to stretch their budget. Everything isn't a great deal, but that's the case with every retailer. Their shoppers are fat, but so what?

My question is: wouldn't the damages come from Worker's Comp because he was died (was killed by a crowd) at work? I know California has a death benefit. . .not sure about every other state.

I hope this lawsuit gets thrown out, and if it doesn't, I guess it will kill special holiday shopping deals. Because a crowd behaved like animals and a family thought bringing a lawsuit would be the correct way to demonstrate their grief.

The stores create the frenzy.