At 4:55 a.m., just five minutes before the doors were set to open, a crowd of 2,000 anxious shoppers started pushing, shoving and piling against the locked sliding glass doors of the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y., Nassau County police said. The shoppers broke the doors off their hinges and surged in, toppling a 34-year-old temporary employee who had been waiting with other workers in the store’s entryway.
People did not stop to help the employee as he lay on the ground, and they pushed against other Wal-Mart workers who were trying to aid the man. The crowd kept running into the store even after the police arrived, jostling and pushing officers who were trying to perform CPR, the police said.
Source:NY Times
This story doesn’t have a happy ending, the man died. How sad is it? How pathetic were those people who thought more of getting that sale than another human? I hope it was on store camera and every single one of them goes to jail, or at least have their faces plastered on the news to be made to feel like the scum they are.
I originally had the words “Merry Christmas” at the end of the title of this post, but replaced it with the much loathed “Happy Holidays.” Why? Because we have entered the season where we will yet again have to hear about the “War on Christmas” and how it’s “illegal” for people to say “Merry Christmas” and have to use “Happy Holidays.” Retail stores that use “Holidays” will as usual be boycotted over it by many in this country. I’m sure the American Family ASSociation already has their boycott list up.
Perhaps people should stop worrying and fighting over what retailers or the people on the street call the season or say to each other in passing by and be a little more concerned about how people treat each other. Tis the season for good will and joy among men, but how many people show it? This poor guy and his family will have neither a “Merry Christmas” nor “Happy Holidays” cause he’s dead. He died because people cared more about getting a sale. He died for “Holiday Consumerism.” That right there is the real war on Christmas people should really concern themselves with.
I heard about it on the news.
It is quite sad.
I am glad that I am not into black friday or any other big sale days.
it won’t be the last either.
for some people, life is a SALE.
sadly, those sales can NOT bring back the dead.
How true you are! You hear of this every year. Someone being injured or killed due to the greed of some people. Obviuosly, no one learns a lesson anymore. You can bet your ass that most of those people will be back next year to pull the same shit again. I dont think jail is enough for these people. Street justice is the only justice these people deserve. I wonder how many people that did this will think about that man while they offer there gift this year. After all, they got such as DEAL ON IT! This mans family will spend the rest of there life remembering what CHRISTMAS means to them!
As for the Christmas thing. I WILL ALSWAYS SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS. The other 4% of the population that disagrees can kiss my ass!
How sad was this story? Not enough words.
AND I will ALWAYS say “Merry Christmas.”
I say whatever comes out of my mouth lol. Or whatever someone says to me first. I really don’t get my panties in a bunch if someone says Happy Holidays to me, so I just don’t get how others can get so fired up about it. I get more fired up when people are just shitty to each other.
I try to be politically correct but, this one pisses me off. Marriage and Christmas are both secular and religious. Christmas is a legal holiday and everyone gets the day off. Making Christmas solely a holiday that can be acknowledged by Christians is the same as saying marriage is a religious term so the gays can not use it.
So Merry federal Christmas, I hope you enjoy this work free, no mail day, no matter what your position regarding the Jesus thing.
One thing that I actually do find amusing about the “war on Christmas” is that a lot of people don’t realize Christmas wasn’t a federal holiday for the first 100 years in our country. In fact the idea of celebrating it outside of church was considered an “English” thing to do and originally we wanted nothing to do with the celebration after declaring our independence 🙂
I actually will enjoy a work free Christmas this year for the first time in a lonngggg time! I don’t have to stop everything mid day to watch and update soap pages like I have the past 14 years 🙂
i was once into the whole politically correct “Happy Holidays” thing, now i’m more along the lines of “ah, fuck it!” and totally bringing “Merry Christmas” back!!!
That is a sad story about that man. How insane!!!
on a lighter note, the Apple store here in Vancouver, Canada is celebrating Black Friday and having some deals, which is fun cause Apple never goes on sale! I hope you managed to get some good sales today if you were out bargain hunting.
See I guess I never thought of saying “Happy Holidays” as being politically correct. I remember hearing it for as long as I can remember, as well as seeing it on cards, banners, signs etc. It’s even used in actual Christmas songs! There are a lot of holidays people tend to celebrate at this time of year 🙂 I think it just got marked as PC when the whole PC trend started.
I’ve actually seen people get pissy at someone for saying Happy Holidays to them rather than Merry Christmas. I’m sure I’ll see it again too, only this year I plan to point out perhaps they are the ones that lost the spirit of the season if they had to get so nasty with someone over wishing them well for the holidays no matter what words they chose to do so.
Happy Holidays is the very definition of political correctness. The idea being that Jewish people, Muslims ect. do not celebrate Christmas and may be offended at the suggestion that they do. Retailers started enforcing the “don’t mention Christmas” rule to be more inclusive.
It is a good example of “you can not win for trying”
Now you have me racking my brain for “happy holidays” songs. The only one I remember is from Holiday Inn and it was a song about all the holidays. It is a great example of how ridiculous this is, when all the best x-mas songs were written by Jews (White Christmas, Holiday Inn ect.)
YEs but the point is people used the term long before the political correctness trend came about 🙂 Was it “PC” before that, or just a nice saying lol.
I think the media and media pundits blowing up “the war” with their reports have actually done more harm than good. I don’t think anyone would have really been offended by Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays before any of this happened and people started making the term happy holidays a big deal. Now with it always on TV, it’s in people’s heads, so it offends them lol.
There are lots of songs that might not say the term happy holidays, but use the word holidays in some way (Home for the Holidays?).
Another reason to hate Wal-Mart…not that I needed one.
Hey Brent,
Not that I am a big fan of Walmart, but its not their fault. It’s the disgusting, pathetic, greedy, people that pushed shoved & trampled this poor man to death! So very sad!
How very sad. I feel so sorry for this young man’s family. How could anyone go on with their shopping after trampling over a person????? I just don’t get it.
As far as Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, I say both. If someone says Merry Christmas that’s what they get back, same with Happy Holidays. It doesn’t offend me if someone says Happy Holidays. The reason for the season to me is CHRIST. But I know some have differant beliefs and I try to respect others.
I just read that 2 men are dead after a shooting at Toys R Us in Palm Desert, Calif. 2 women started to fight, one giving the other a bloody nose, then the men with them pulled out guns and shot each other to death. They think the poeple knew each other and are not blaming it so far on Black Friday. The world has gone crazy.
I wonder if people would get pissed at me if I wished them a Happy Kwanzaa.
When I saw this, it brought me to the time again when my sister and I tried a Black Friday event back in the early 90s. It was Macy’s Cracker Jack sale and we got there like before 5am. We were not the only ones to wait in line, and so we waited and waited. Finally some sales clerk decides to let us all in, but to our dismay he only opens one tiny little door. So we all had to push through and some people slung people to the floor as they got it. I managed to get in safely but my sister was one of the ones shoved to the floor. Somone helped her up, atleast they were nice enough to do that. I, however made it passed to the Cracker Jack barrels and was digging my way through to find money. 😀