Bloodsport Friday: Capitalism at its Worst

Great job America! Retailers become generous (or “generous”) for Black Friday and this is what happens? You’ve just played out Lord of the Flies for the whole world to see. And for what? Cheaper TVs to see grown men bang each other at even better detail? Computers to download porn?

First off, over at a Toys R Us in Palm Desert, bad blood between two groups of shoppers led to a gunfight that left 2 dead. Now it isn’t clear if these events are tied to Black Friday (in fact Toys R Us came out with a statement implying such to cover their ass), but the timing of the shooting isn’t just a mere coincidence, no? (source and image: latimes.com)

Next, an employee of the Wal-Mart Valley Stream outlet died during the 5am Black Friday store-opening stampede. The ugly mob smashed through windows, injuring four other people (including a woman 8 months pregnant) and “sending others scurrying atop vending machines to avoid the horde.” The poor fellow’s fellow employees had to fight their way through to rescue their doomed colleague from the crush. Worse, the crowd even stepped over some cops arriving on the scene trying to give the temp worker some CPR. Oh well, at least you can expect the Damours—family of said victim—to win a healthy settlement from Wal-Mart, especially after the grief caused by people screaming “I’ve been on line since Friday Morning” while the area was being cleared. (source and image: nydailynews.com)

Based on these new accounts, maybe stores should start providing personnel with guns. After all, guns are intimidating enough to keep the discount-starved wolves in line. It really was a Black Friday, folks.