As Americans have been inundated with one bad financial news item after another, you would think that this Black Friday would at least provoke some reflective thought regarding the greed that has contributed to the crisis we are in now. People buying things that they cannot afford. People who would rather sacrifice a holiday to stay all night in line for a freaking DVD player or some other item they want NOW! Can these savages lay off the materialism at least for one fucking holiday?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/28 /black-friday-stampede-kil_n_146967.html

Update [2008-11-29 11:23:26 by Pravin]: Ok here is another link where they wanted to close the store down temporarily, but the mob did not react well. Also the cops are now getting down to looking at tapes. Why they did not do an immediate investigation is beyond me. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/29/police-seeking-walmart-sh_n_147069.html

Police were reviewing video from surveillance cameras in an attempt to identify who trampled to death a Wal-Mart worker after a crowd of post-Thanksgiving shoppers burst through the doors at a suburban store and knocked him down. Criminal charges were possible, but identifying individual shoppers in Friday's video may prove difficult, said Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, a Nassau County police spokesman. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said. Police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the Wal-Mart doors before its 5 a.m. opening at a mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the employee, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion. "This crowd was out of control," Fleming said. He described the scene as "utter chaos," and said the store didn't have enough security. Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help Damour were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store. Damour, 34, of Queens, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 6 a.m., police said. Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages.""When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling `I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."

Time after time, BOTH parties have done very little to solve the real problem corrupting this country. The lack of accountability for irresponsibility caused by greed by people of all classes and income levels. Greed is not the problem, but the lack of accountability for any of the problems caused by it. We have a government ready to bail out institutions which encourage this kind of behavior without any significant strings attached.

Take this Walmart incident. I am going to assume that there were at least as many Democrats standing in line as Republicans. at the very least. No fatcat CEOs. Yet, they showed callous disregard for human life when they impatiently forced the doors open and trampled some poor immigrant worker to death in their greed.

People shopping at the Walmarts are merely taking their cues from greedy execs who have millions and still want more. In this case, I would go after EVERYONE. Walmart should have known better. They purposely encourage this kind of crazed behavior to hype Black Friday as a sales day among dumbass common folk. Like zombies on a rampage, these morons fall for the corporations mantra and line up to buy goods most do not have a great chance of finding at the bargain rate.

Then you have the case of personal responsibility. Walmart tried to, but did not actually close the store down because customers objected. So we actually rewarded those who killed the guy by letting them buy goods? I did not read one reference to a single arrest. I am not talking about arresting people who were pushed by others and made moves solely for self preservation. There are many easy culprits one can identify from store tapes if the cops bothered to shut down the store and detained everyone. How about the front line of the mob? Arrest those bastards. Even if the charges do not stick, you can make their lives miserable. And identify every person from the tapes who engaged in pushing someone else in front of them. Based on how culpable they were in leading to the guy's death, I would charge them with various degrees. Freaking animals need to be taught a lesson. And what kind of parent lets their kid stand in a mob that is getting impatient by the minute right before the opening?

What were the Walmart people doing not calling the cops earlier on when people were getting out of control even before the opening. The spokesman claims they did, but obviously they didn't do nearly enough. A lady at another nearby Walmart suffered injuries. I hate those frivolous damages lawsuits, but Walmart better pay up a huge amount to the family of the victim for this crap. What they did was highly irresponsible subjecting a temp worker to such a dangerous mob. What kind of people continue to shop after they killed a guy?  

And we wonder why we are in such a financial mess. You got CEOs in war profiteering companies wanting more and more money while they contribute to propaganda asking other Americans to sacrifice for the war effort and in the process, some even overlook things like faulty armor. You got CEOs of auto companies who make millions while workers are suffering.