Black Friday (in memoriam Jdimytai Damour)
Sad news from consumer culture:
On Black Friday, the day of the beginning of the holiday shopping season following Thanksgiving, Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year-old temporary employee of Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, New York, was trampled to death by a mob of 200 customers as they rushed into the store in search of good deals:
Jdimytai Damour [...] was crushed underfoot as thousands of shoppers, chanting “push in the doors,” did just that — ripping the doors right off their hinges, these desperate-for-a-deal maniacs stampeded into the store, massacring Damour under their heavy, relentless feet, which I guess were so caught up in marching to the capitalistic tune of consumerism that they just couldn’t register the life they were squeezing out of the man beneath them.
There are no reports of any shopper attempting to help Damour. On the contrary, Damour’s co-workers, as well as paramedics and police officers at the scene, all tell of hostile shoppers who impeded assistance to Damour and who became angry when the announcement came over the PA that the store would be closing because of Damour’s death.
and,
“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since Friday morning!’” [witness Kimberly Cribbs] said. “They kept shopping.”
Items on sale at the Wal-Mart store included a $798 Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28 and Men’s Wrangler Tough Jeans for $8.
NYDailyNews.com: Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede
I don’t really have any bright thoughts here, just thought I’d forward the news. I guess those Wrangler’s is a pretty sweet deal.
