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Walmart Worker Killed in Stampede; Police Should Arrest All Involved
Early this morning I saw a report on the local NYC news that workers were trampled at the Valley Stream Walmart store this morning. We’ve all seen these reports before. Some lunatic shoppers bust into a store on Black Friday to get some cheap merchandise with no regard for other human beings or workers who are trying to put on a happy face for all they will deal with today.
Now the Daily News is reporting that one of the workers who were trampled has died. The unidentified worker was only 34-years old. Absolutely pathetic – apparently after he fell down, people stepped on him to get into the store and he couldn’t breathe. A pregnant woman was also knocked to the floor during the lunacy.
I can’t even begin to explain how outraged I am by this lack of concern for another human being–all to get the latest bratz doll or a cheap TV.
Valley Stream is located in Nassau County and I hope that the police take the tapes of the entry and match them to the tapes at checkout to identify the people who stepped on and over this worker. These people deserve hard time.
I have no idea what the family is out to do. I commented on what you suggested, and that is to $ue the logo, the typical American response, *and* blame everybody in the stampede, despite the fact that Walmart employees are trained in crowd control.
Let me ask you something: Have you ever been caught up in a stampede? If so, did you manage to stop without falling down yourself?
Tragedy can magically shift blame (lol @ some on here suggesting the logo was irresponsible for having such low prices in a recession) but it cannot magically shift responsibility. Accidents happen, and this guy no more wanted to get trampled than the people who ran over him would have chosen to do so, and no more than Walmart as a public company would have chosen for this to happen (hence crowd control training).
I am glad that the president of New York’s largest grocery worker’s union,
United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, Bruce Both, said “This incident was avoidable,”
I hope someone from the union is/will help to see this doesn’t happen again. I, at least, think there isn’t any reason for it to happen again. AND after WALMART has to pay compensation to his family for a WRONGFUL DEATH suite I think they will do a better job next year.
Walmart had a chance to look over the situation ahead of time to deem if security measures/crowd control needed to be beefed up. THEY HAD PLENTY OF TIME! The could have called police officers to help.
You go outside, which I am sure many of the Walmart workers were aware of the numbers that had gathered, assess the situation.
You have police section them off in thirds, or what have you, dependent upon the numbers.
then you let them in, then and only then, if the first lot are complying!
That’s tragic. Any idea how often this happens at football games in Africa (the game where your foot must hit the ball, to be clear)? Nobody has ever been caught up in a stampede who wants to examine video tapes and blame the people who did the stepping, instead of falling down themselves. The whole danger of a stampede is much like that of a snowball or avalanche; it picks up unwitting participants and carries them along, while adding their mass to it’s strength.
Yes, the people who work at Walmart are supposed to ensure safety, both of themselves and their customers. Is Walmart not made up of it’s employees? Are not these employees the ones charged with keeping an eye on customers?
scarlyjones summed up the general answer; no, of course not, even if he/she slipped on ice she could have very well seen for him/herself in a parking lot, blame and extortion would be leveled at the nearest, biggest logo. The answer makes it obvious which country that opinion is from. It’s no wonder North Americans are being robbed and torn apart by your own corporations and government; the logo is to blame, at all times; never employees and local managers who are paid to keep a firm hand on the wheel and a keen eye on the customer experience.
There are eight matches found on Google when you search Walmart and “training for crowd control”
You both do know that there really is training for it, right?
Here are a couple links in case you’re missing information.
http://www.crowdcontrolexperts.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_control
http://www.lawrencemetal.com/
The moment you view the last link, you’ll probably find yourself saying, “Imagine That!”
DUH – WALMART
I don’t have to wonder if Walmart had any of their workers trained.
itsguycode,…..there is no preparation training for idiots running into a store. But there should have been. This isnt their first rodeo. They have the same size crowd of idiots doing the same thing every year for the past 17 years. And if they dont have training for that,…then they shouldnt have the damn sale.
WAKE UP EVERYONE….
NOTHING COULD BE DONE BECAUSE GOVERNMENT CAN’T DO ANYTHING BECAUSE HUMANITY IS TOO BIG AND STOO STUPID TO PREDICT! People should have common sense not to bum rush a damn store for a cheap television set. How the hell do we blame the damn county or walmart for not doing more? Where the hell is there preparation training for idiots running into a damn store over a sale???? no where.
I agree. People just do not care. I forgot about that one…….(the mace story) Lol…..wow. Back in 2003 or 4,..cant remember which,…but, the year of the big “brown out” that lasted a few days over half the US…..my Father and I went to a grocery store that was still open to buy all the water we could in gallon jugs. We found a big water display and started an “assembly line” thing where my Dad would hand me a gallon and I would turn and put it in our cart. Well,..I got the first one in,…turned and grabbed the next one from my Dad,..turned to put it in the cart,…and saw that the first one was gone. I kept grabbing water to see if it kept happening,…and I found out that this woman was waiting for me to put the water in my cart and turn back around. Once I turned around, she grabbed our water out of our cart. Nice, huh? I would be willing to bet that this b*tch is the same type of b*tch that goes ape sh*t for these stupid f**king “DOOR BUSTER” SALES!!! I can not stand people who just love to shop shop shop! Its like crack to them. Just like an alcoholic uses booze to “forget” or run from problems,…a shopaholic uses shopping for the same reason. And TRUST ME,…its the shopaholics that show up at 4 AM at a f**king walmart.
I love how they spend $800 and walk in the house with 9 huge bags in their hands and say something retarded like, “I saved $200 !!” Uh,…no you didnt, b*tch……you just spent $800. On sh*t you didnt need. Wanna know how you could have saved a whole grand??? How about actually doing the “STAY AT HOME” part of being a “stay-at-home-Mom”??? Stop going to the mall and spending you husbands money on crap that you dont need and then going out with your “chatty-Cathy” friends to lunch….then going home and complaining how YOUR “job” is 24/7. “JOB”……please.
All these annomous coments, whats to say they are not from WALMART them self.They dont take responsibility for what happened, it was a tragect mistake. They made money off of it WORLD WIDE!!! What do they care as long as there pockets are full. All they care about is the profit made, not about what happens to the consumer or the employees. This has been shown in the past, not by what I am saying but by other Black Friday sales. Remember when DVD players were coming out, and one woman maced another for the DVD player. When does it stop? The craziesniest has to end, BOYCOTT WALMART, make it stop. The more the earn, the less we matter. EVERYONE BOYCOTT WALMART- I have.
I am sooo mad,. I try not to go to walmart as much as possable. How ever after recent events and wallmarts response to it I feel that we all need to stand togethor and boycot wallmart. They dont sound sorry at all about what happened, just trying to control there image… I mean come on , americans dont even own it anymore we are giving to other countrys for our convineces… QUIT,giving to some one like this no matter how much it may save you.. There is always target or some one else. WALLMART has traded on all of us , they are makeing all the money and they dont care about any one except themself… BOYCOTT WALLMART EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Disgusting and appalling. Everyone who had a “sale” in pr0gress should be arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter
Oh, absolutely,….the police are looking at video and trying to identify those who did this. Its, obviously, unlikely that they will, however. I am MORE sickened by those PIGS who rushed the store. I think anyone who sleeps in a parking lot to get “half off” is a moron. But,…unfortunately, they are EXACTLY the type of people who WOULD mob a store doorway and push, and shove, and stomp,…and also,…EXACTLY the type of people who would hear over the PA system that the store is now a Crime Scene, and it is closing and say “No way,…I was in line all night”. Hey,….A**holes,….you just KILLED A MAN. That trumps waiting in a line. Nobody gives a sh*t about your “wait”. And what???….you think just because you refuse to leave, means the cashiers are going to ring you up??? The police should have shut that place down with everyone who got in,…still inside…….then, checked every single persons I.D. and wrote their names down before ANYONE could leave. That way,..they wouldnt have to sift through all this video tape trying to ID people.
I agree to an extent, however, there may only be so much the employees could have done. Several tried pulling the man out of the stampede and got injured themselves because there were way to many people. They shouldn’t of had to be exposed to that kind of environment in the first place. WalMart should have executed a better plan in general for all their stores and other merchants should do the same because it could of happened at any facility, and type of event, but preparation is key and possibly more could have been done on a local level by management but there was still a major lack of preparation. Aside from all the corporate bs and pointing fingers at who is at fault, i still blame the 2,000 sheep of a people who showed up and started the whole damn thing in the first place. Packing up like a bunch of sardines, people are going to be getting pushed and flailing in all kinds of directions without any intervention that would of been obviously necessary.
A company or corporation is responsible for the actions of its employees. When you level charges at an employee of Walmart,…you, by virtue of “leveling” alone,…level charges against the corporation. Any jerk who says that they wouldnt sue the corporation of Walmart in this case, is lying through their teeth. Of course you would. This family doesnt have a son, father, or husband any longer. They,..now,….have funeral expenses, AND Christmas is a month away. Suing some cashier or manager of Walmart would, more than likely, be fought by said cashier or manager and, in turn, be drawn out over a loooong and heart crushing legal battle……when all this family wants to do is bury their loved one in peace and grieve. The corporation of Walmart, however, will most definitely settle without going to court over this. This family deserves a speedy process. This family deserves justice. This guy was obviously trying to earn some money for the holiday considering he was a temperary holiday employee. Which means, he probably didnt have a job with life insurance for funeral expenses. I would like 5 minutes alone in room with these animals that trampled this poor man AND with anyone who thinks this family is out to sue a “logo” for a big payday.
It’s sad for two reasons, other than the death and the near-miscarriage. First, there is not one cause for this incident – sure the crowds were mobs, but perhaps more could have been done by Wal-Mart, Nassau County, and everyone else to prevent this tragedy. Second, one could even claim that the blame extends to you and me for encouraging this type of bargain behavior – for the last few weeks we’ve been thinking about whether people would come out and shop on Black Friday, and by George they certainly came out to shop.
They should be changed with manslaughter and felony breaking and entering.
Absolutely heartbreaking hearing about this employee and my heart goes out to his family. The consumers involved deserve harsh consequences and WalMart is held up to the responsibility of providing their employees a safe environment and they failed doing so by letting 2,000 ‘sheep’ bumrush in a store. This man could of possibly had a wife and kids and now their children will have no father for Christmas and his wife will have to learn how to sleep without her beloved husband next to her (again, assuming he has a family) all over cheap Bratz dolls and TVs like Stern wrote. Also, the consumers having no regards for his death because “they have been waiting in line all morning” sickens me.
Every one of the shoppers who stampeded in are guilty of murder and should be arrested and charged.
I hope this man had family to sue Walmart so at least they wont let this kind of thing happen again and other retailers will take notice.
And I would also like to see the local DA’s office bring Walmart up on inciting to riot charges. Their heavily slashed prices and encouragement of this consumerist culture is the reason all of those people were there in the first place. Add to that the fact that it is Black Friday – Walmart knows EXACTLY what to expect on that day and there is no excuse whatsoever for this company not to have a system in place – let people in 20 at a time with tickets that have a batch number on them that they have to turn in on checkout and attach it to the store’s copy of the receipt. That way if there were problems like this, they could be tracked down. In fact, letting people in a few at a time would probably eliminate the problems altogether.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to work for such an awful company. I’m unemployed and I don’t care if I was starving, I’d never go to work for Walmart. I hope they go down.
First off why blame it on walmarts prices ??? i mean target had good deals …….. so did meijers ….. so did ever other retail chain in this country !!! It had nothing to do with that……. What about the police officers that drove by at 11pm and seen the 500 hundred people outside this walmart……. or even when they drove by at 4am and there was 2000 people. How come someone didn’t realize well……. this an’t good. I feel sorry for this family cause of the savages. Walmart will always take care of their workers and their families. The only person to blame is the people that started the rampage………. and if justice an’t found from the video tapes……. then god will hold justice to them.
come on walmart is not responsible for all the animals that live in new york, everybody wants to put the blame on the big companies, cause they got the money to pay…why don’t the parents sue the folks who trampled, stepped on and ran over a man on the ground , that’s the real crime…
Look,….if someone slips on ice in Targets parking lot,…that someone sues Target. It doesnt matter that Walmart, Sears, Macy’s, or Kohls all ALSO had ice in their parking lots. Its every stores responsibility to oversee the safety of its customers. They are the ones that allowed two-f**king-thousand people wait overnight in their parking lot for sales on things they couldnt possibly have enough of. If you only have 100 Plasma T.V.’s,…why the F**k do you allow 500 people to line up for them??? OF COURSE someone is going to die. People are f**king animals. Ive seen this kind of sh*t happen all the way back to Teddy Ruxpin. People will actually seriously injure or kill someone else just to get 60% off. They dont give a damn about anyone but their own. Because I guarantee you,..if the sick pigs that stepped on this poor man looked under their feet and saw their wife, husband, son , daughter, Mother or Father down there, they’d understand. But they didnt,…they didnt know the person they were killing, so….they didnt care. People who lie, push, shove, yell, scream, cut people off, park anywhere and how they want,…just to get a sale price,…are ALL LOW-LIFE SCUM. How would you feel if your son or daughter went to their first day at their seasonal holiday job at Walmart, and two hours later, you see on the news that they were trampled to death?? Would you think …”Well,…its not Walmarts fault” ?? Hell no,…you would be calling for someones head.
Kudos to you scarlyjones, even though it was the consumers who trampled this guy and not WalMart, i cannot stress enough that it is a necessity for all corporations alike to provide a safe environment for all employees and its customers and they failed to do that. I received an e-mail response from WalMart saying, “The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority.” It’s not like the event was unforeseeable; we see on the news every year that some individual was injured in a stampede of bargain hungry consumers, and just like any other tragic event, it takes a tragedy to make people stop and think ‘well maybe we should take better precautions.’ I am very pro union and member of CWA Local 4340 and Bruce Both, the President of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 in short said the safety of their customers and workers was not a top priority. Gee, i wonder why WalMart wanted to shut down the stores who were backed up by the union…because they treat their employees like sh*t.