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Nassau County police offered more insights on what caused a restless Black Friday crowd of shoppers to trample Wal-Mart worker Jdimyati Damour to death. Newsday had an explanation from Nassau Police Lt. Kevin Smith: Apparently people waiting and standing outside the store came into conflict with people waiting in their cars who wanted to cut the line once the store opened, "A whole lot of people started getting out of their cars and made a beeline for that door... It's definitely a contributing factor - the mentality of 'They're not going to cut in front of me.'" As for the lawsuit that Damour's family filed against the store, Wal-Mart said, "We consider Mr. Damour"--he was a holiday hire-- "part of the Wal-Mart family, and are saddened by his death. We have been in communication with members of his family to do what we can to help them through this difficult time. Our associates know that when incidents like this occur, we take care of our own."
"Mob Mentality" of Wal-Mart Shoppers Contributed to Black Friday Death
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"Mob Mentality" of Wal-Mart Shoppers Contributed to Black Friday Death"- ya don't say.
wtf? this story just gets sadder and sadder. more proof that line cutters are just pathetic, inconsiderate assholes if they did indeed contribute to this tragedy.
anyone who stepped on, over, or around, this unfortunate soul without stopping, is a murderer
"Our associates know that when incidents like this occur, we take care of our own."
Is Wal-Mart admitting that similar incidents have occurred before? How is this company still in operation? Oh right, murderers need cheap toasters.
I refuse to believe that people should be responsible for their own actions. blame the corporation
i'm thinking it would be an overreaction to subpoena credit card records for that morning and the security tapes in order, at the least, to depose every single identifiable person and possibly file a lawsuit against every single identifiable person, but that's what this family needs to do. get a decent lawyer, and let's try to remind people how to behave in civilized manner.
i am so goddamn sick of this shit.
Shopping for sales at 5am with a bunch of people who would get up before 5am to go shopping for sales at 5am is not a good mix.
And why the fuck did Walmart think they needed a "greeter" to stand in front of these morons? They needed large men with tasers instead.
hwo can these filthy animals live with themselves knowing they trampled a man to death? i fucking hate people.
"Mob Mentality". "Our associates know that when incidents like this occur, we take care of our own."
Since when did the Mafia buy out WalMart? What next? Are they going to say, "He was a friend of ours." rather than saying "He was a friend of mine."?
I know this Wal-Mart isn't in lower Manhattan or Park Slope / Williamsburg so Gothamist may not know much about it, but I'm wondering if any of you folks have actually shopped there?
I mean REALLY shopped there, not just drove by it?
Let's just say this isn't surprising. The class of folks that shop at this store is... Well... Let's just say there's a lot of trash that shops there. Seriously. I've seen fights, 40's in the parking lot, gang colors... It's hell. Anyone who's ever shopped there knows better than to shop there, so this kind of thing shouldn't surprise ANYONE.
well vince, that clearly excuses the situation.
Seriously? People in cars think they have front-of-the-line entitlement? I've only done Black Friday ONCE and it's about being ON LINE, not about joining the line once you had a cup 'o joe in your car at 5am and the doors open. The Wal-Mart customers KNEW that the store would be opening at around 5am. They should've been lined up beforehand. No questions asked.
And yet I still find that anyone who stepped on, over, or around this guy is at fault.
While the crowd does indeed have a certain responsibility, have any of you ever been in an uncontrollable mob that is surging forward? It is impossible to stop because if you do, you will just get knocked down too. This is a big reason why everyone is blaming Wal-Mart rather than the crowd itself: because the store didn't make any attempts at crowd control.
Is this a government-paid-for scientific study? Otherwise it's just not believable. Mob Mentality? Hog wash!
What's next? Cigarettes are lethal?
Given what I heard about the shoppers' profile at this WalMart it appears a WalMart employee should have been positioned about thirty feet inside the store armed with a mini-gun. Spears woud not have worked.
would not woud
>>Seriously? People in cars think they have front-of-the-line entitlement?
Obviously, you've never been a pedestrian in Manhattan.
These folks are animals, to be sure, and they get to spend the rest of their lives knowing that because they were douches and tried to jump the line they somehow caused a man to die. But Jen, don't you think this story is getting a tad too much attention herein? It's enough already. We don't need to read about this one more than once a day. Maybe save them up for the daily Wal-Mart Mob Death digest. I think you do a pretty good job, really, and I definitely enjoy the Gothamist. But it's enough with this one already.
@ rtb2 #18, These folks are animals, to be sure, and they get to spend the rest of their lives knowing that because they were douches and tried to jump the line they somehow caused a man to die.
Guess what? They don't care!
"While the crowd does indeed have a certain responsibility, have any of you ever been in an uncontrollable mob that is surging forward? It is impossible to stop because if you do, you will just get knocked down too."
I have been in such a crowd just last week, pushing towards stairs on which we needed to go down, in fact. You know what? I yelled at people. I took a fucking stand and the situation improved some - it wasn't perfect, but it got better.
walmart could have totally just avoided this by having the sales available on their website avoiding the tension that grows from waiting on line for hours just to buy a 9 dollar dvd player.
^Not a bad idea. Put the hot deal online and let floor shoppers parse through the usual crap.