14 DAY TRIAL // On Friday, 34 year-old Jdimytai Damour, an employee at a Wal-Mart store in Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y., was trampled by a large crowd, numbering over 2,000 people, who busted through the glass door and stampeded inside the store, in search of holiday bargains.
"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning’. They kept shopping," said Kimberly Cribbs, a Queens resident who witnessed the whole incident.
She called the crowd "savages," an impression that was supported by Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, from the Nassau Police Department, who said that the scene was "utter chaos" and that the people standing in line were "out of control." Still, the police officer finds it hard to believe that people can actually end up taking another human being's life, just to please others. How do you justify killing a man to make someone in your family happy?
He went on to say that "I’ve heard other people call this an accident, but it is not. Certainly it was a foreseeable act." In other words, a murder. Security footage shows the crowd pushing and kicking the windows of the door, while a few employees were trying to hold them closed, to little end. The mob broke through and kicked the workers out of its way. Damour was not that lucky, and he was killed by hundreds of feet.
Other people were knocked down and stepped on as well, with several of them ending up in the hospital. In an issued statement, Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., said that "The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families at this tragic time."
There is no excuse for taking human life, and to do so in order to get a discount of a petty little object is unconceivable. The Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, when everyone sits in line at supermarkets since the evening before, has once and for all earned its name. The 28th of December, 2008 will also be marked as the first day a man was killed by people looking to buy. That's consumerism 101 – everything is allowed.