The Blackest Of Black Fridays
Bob Schieffer On The Tragic Death Of A Store Employee Trampled By Bargain-Hunters
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Cell-phone video shows emergency workers trying to aid a store employee who was trampled by a mob of Black Friday bargain-hunters after opening the doors of a Long Island Wal Mart. The man, identified as Jdimytai Damour, 34, of Queens, was later pronounced dead. (WCBS)
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Play CBS Video Video Black Friday Fatality The busiest shopping day of the year quickly turned tragic as a Wal-Mart store clerk was trampled to death by a mob of bargain hunters. This was the first Black Friday death.
This was not the happiest of Thanksgivings.
A nation which was shaken by an economic crisis that no one seems quite certain how to repair was horrified by the awful tragedy that unfolded in India.
No matter how terrible, tragedy always seems more cruel on a holiday.
Against that background came news on Black Friday that an angry mob pushed in the doors at a Wal Mart on Long Island and trampled a sales clerk to death.
Bargain hunting on Black Friday has gotten dangerous in recent years - pushing, shoving, the occasional fistfight and injuries were reported at other stores on Friday - but the Long Island incident marked the first-ever Black Friday shopping fatality.
It made me wonder: What were they shopping for? Christmas gifts? They didn't show much Christmas spirit.
When store officials ordered the mob out of the store because someone had died, many called it unfair, because they said they had been waiting hours to shop.
The terrorist attack in India will cause us to redouble our anti-terrorist efforts, and economic recovery plans are already in the works.
But shouldn't the death of that poor sales clerk give us some pause as well?
If we have become a people so self-centered that we are willing to step over a lifeless body to get a bargain, we have problems that go beyond terrorists, a credit crunch and bad mortgages.
Surely we can do better than that.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 37 CommentsThat said, how awful that being in such a mob scene seems necessary to so many Americans. Why do we need to buy and buy and buy anyway? We shouldn''t force loved ones to think they NEED to buy us gifts. That said, if it is true that people objected to being sent away after this man died, they deserve the biggest lump of coal ever bestowed on the recipient of a gift.
That said, how awful that being in such a mob scene seems necessary to so many Americans. Why do we need to buy and buy and buy anyway? We shouldn''t force loved ones to think they NEED to buy us gifts. That said, if it is true that people objected to being sent away after this man died, they deserve the biggest lump of coal ever bestowed on the recipient of a gift.
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Posted by Zendigity
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Just curious but do you actually have anything to support this? Please give your source.
Therefore, if you shop there you are complicit and as anti-American as those slimewads.
I could go on for days railing against wal-mart but I digress.
How you liberal ninnies conclude that Wal-Mart is responsible just makes it clear you will nexus your pitiful political argument to anything.
The stores create this frenzy so they should share in the blame as well.
There is no sale that is worth taking a person''s life no matter how good the prices may be. Prosecute these people to the max for being cruel and inconsiderate human beings!
Posted by clathrate at 09:20 PM : Nov 30, 2008
That used to be the PURPOSE of war - to thin the herd of the stupid. That''s why they exempted college students, those were the ones we wanted to keep.
Ever since our "liberated" no-draft zero-population-growth society, we have been overrun by the poor and the stupid.
I agree, it would be nice to find a way to thin the herd the way wars used to do...
Surely we can do better than that."
Sadly, Bob, we can''t. It''s true, America is a nation filled with self-centered sociopath brats. While we have men and women off fighting ruthless savages abroad, our sick culture is breeding them by the score domestically.
I think it''s way past time to call up a draft and start using some of these ne''r-do-wells as cannon fodder against Al Qaida.
I long for the days when people gave a *** about their nation and their community.
This is the ULTIMATE round of the blame game.
EVERYBODY was pushing on the door when it broke in. No one individual was responsible.
Once they got in the stor, NOBODY wanted to take the blame for what happened. MANY refused even to be slightly inconvenienced by the fact that a human life was ended.
Why do people act this way? Because THIS IS WHAT THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS TEACH THEM, day in and day out for thirteen years. IT''S ALWAYS SOMEONE ELSE''S FAULT. It''s not you baby. Go back to your finger paints (in 11th grade math class). If anything goes wrong, it''s THE TEACHER''S FAULT. It must be a BAD TEACHER.
In public school, the NUMBER ONE MOST POPULAR EXCUSE is "EVERYONE ELSE WAS DOING IT." And the principal ACCEPTS THAT EXCUSE. So that makes it a valid, and legitimate principle. No individual is responsible for the actions of the group.
And WHY do the schools teach this? BECAUSE THE PARENTS DEMAND IT. They refuse to let "their baby" EVER suffer ANY responsibility WHATSOEVER for ANYTHING.
If their baby joins a gang and gets caught selling drugs to elementary school children, the parents will say "It''s only because of the bad influence of the OTHER KIDS who led my baby astray. It''s all because the BAD TEACHER didn''t control those OTHER kids..."
The biggest problem facing humanity is humanity.
What does it tell you when the more experienced workers and managers let a TEMPORARY worker do the dangerous job of unlocking the doors at the beginning of the biggest shopping frenzy of the year?
Henceforth, a STORE MANAGER should be responsible for opening the doors on the day after Thanksgiving. Watch and see - there will be ARMED GUARDS clearing an open space outside the door before the manager will even approach the doors...
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