28 | November | 2008

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the start of the Christmas shopping season for America’s retailers. It is also the day when these retailers typically mark steep drops in their prices in order to entice customers to buy, and to buy a lot.

So is it any surprise people line up around stores, hours or days before the date, in anticipation of the early morning door opening? Their dream buys and dream prices await them.

But something went very wrong on Black Friday at the Valley Stream Long Island Wal-Mart, across from the Green Acres Mall. The New York Post , New York’s Newsday, and the New York Daily News, reports the doors opened at this Wal-Mart and the crowd stampeded a young man, a temporary worker there to perform maintenance, to death. The crowd barreled into the store, apparently taking the door off its hinges, trampling him and over him, disregarding the young man as he gasped for air and safety. There was a pregnant woman who also suffered injuries, reportedly a miscarriage later minor according to a later report, but the crowd continued to stream by the young man as resuscitation efforts were underway. He died one hour later. A heart attack according to the hospital. Four people including the pregnant woman were hospitalized with minor injuries. Video at the New York Post. Photos at Newsday.

Crowds can easily spiral into chaos. Rushing into the store with no regards for anything other than their own priorities. And that is exactly what the unruly and despot crowd did at that store. The prices that awaited them made it more important to storm the store, than behave with dignity, stop and render aid and care to an employee, another human being.

One witness said the shoppers acted like “savages.” Michelle Malkin called it “insane.” McNorman called them “Idiots.” And for what? A couple of bucks off material possessions? Indeed, a sad and yet disturbing commentary on the values and character of those responsible.

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