Bargains Worth Killing For?

It's all been said so far, with regard to the ridiculous and pointless death of Rhode Island Wal-Mart employee Jdimytai Damour, but it still bears comment.

As you probably already know, Damour was a temporary security guard who was trampled to death during a Black Friday blitz by more than 2000 frenzied shoppers barreling through the front doors at 5 am.

I think it's obvious what to think about this. You shouldn't have to go to work for minimum wage one day and and feel that your life is at risk. It's a senseless demonstration of the power of the almighty dollar and the questionable marketing strategies of a monster company that needs to be taken down several pegs.

What bothers me the most is reports that investigators and police are viewing video footage of the event and trying to determine who among the patrons, if anyone, can be identified and prosecuted for criminal negligence in the death.

First of all, I don't think such a case is possible. I also don't think it's warranted. For starters, the nature of a crowd like this is that if you don't keep moving with the flow, you will be taken down yourself, and end up like Damour. There are several statements by shoppers fearing for their lives in this manner. "They were jumping over the barricades and breaking down the door," said Pat Alexander, 53, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. "Everyone was screaming. You just had to keep walking on your toes to keep from falling over."

There are also different types of people who expressed little or no concern for the fallen employee when asked to leave. Said Kimberly Cribbs, a Walmart employee, "When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, 'I've been on line since Friday morning!'" They kept shopping."

The point I'm trying to make here is that while the crowd as an entity displayed little or no regard for such things as safety, orderliness or basic concern for their fellow man, it's not them who should be held accountable, it's Walmart. The crowd mentality was created as a direct result of Walmart's negligence. Consider the following:

- The store opened at 5am after much pomp and circumstance, creating a hype that in the customers' minds translated as, 'this is going to be big, we'd better get there early before they run out of shit.' Walmart has seen this work many times, as far back as Cabbage Patch Dolls, and continuing with the release of every major game console in the last fifteen years, as well as previous black Fridays. They sounded a mating call, with the intent to gather as many people as possible, and the people responded.

- I feel they knew very well that they had not enough security to handle the onslaught, wrongly assuming the crowd would behave itself. But before the doors were even open, the throng was already chanting, "Push the doors in!" according to reports. To me, if I were the store manager, it would raise serious questions as to whether it would be safe to let this mob in the place. But they did anyway, and the crowd literally tore the doors off the hinges. We know the rest of the story.

- The sign outside said BLITZ LINE STARTS HERE. For your edification, Dictionary.com defines the word 'blitz' as the following:

a. an overwhelming all-out attack, esp. a swift ground attack using armored units and air support.
b. an intensive aerial bombing.

... and this is exactly how the crowd behaved. Walmart got what they asked for.

- Two hours after the tragedy, the fucking store REOPENED. This is absolutely inexcusable, and speaks volumes about the morals of this company.

I think it's clear who the real culprit in this debacle is. There are rumblings about a civil suit against Walmart, which will probably prove to be more public than any cases against individuals. But that fact of that matter is that we all know Walmart was already circling the legal wagons on this mere moments after it happened. It seems likely that they would agree to a settlement of some amount of money, meager when compared to the total holdings of the corporation, just something to keep the families from pursuing this for too long. They won't outrightly admit any blame, and it will not hurt Walmart one bit in the long run. They will be allowed to continue along their merry way, because that, again, is the almighty dollar at work.

Walmart played on the failing economy, the gullibility of their customers, and their own selfishness and greediness to cause this. I'm not saying that Walmart should be brought down completely (even though I do feel that way), because that's not realistic in terms of history. The rich and powerful have the ability to buy their way out of everything. But at the very least, there needs to be accountability in this disaster, and something more than a paltry sum of money paid out of fear of bad press. There needs to be real remorse and regret shown for this by SOMEONE responsible.

In other related news, two men shot and killed each other in a Toys R Us in California the very same day as the Walmart death. There is nothing in the story to assume it had anything to do with a particular sale; it may have just been a personal disagreement... but when you go shopping at a kids' toy store, do you really think seriously that you could get shot and killed accidentally? I shudder to think sometimes of the kind of world we live in, and the kinds of people we are forced to share it with.

All in all, it's not hard to see why internet shopping has become so popular. I kind of don't want to leave my house now.